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MPAA Seeks $15 Million From The Pirate Bay

Posted by Soulskill on from the pushing-their-luck dept.

praps writes "Having tasted blood with its victory over TorrentSpy, the MPAA is now stepping up its attack on The Pirate Bay. The association is claiming damages of over $15 million, based on The Pirate Bay's distribution of four films and a TV series — Harry Potter, The Pink Panther, Syriana, Walk the Line and the first season of Prison Break. The Swedish court is unlikely to be as generous as the one in California, although the four Pirate Bay founders are already facing charges of being accessories to breaking copyright law." TorrentSpy, in the meantime, has declined to pay the settlement awarded to the MPAA on Wednesday. In addition to appealing the decision, they have filed for bankruptcy.

9 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Re:TorrentSpy by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

    The **AA might be able to use this "precedent" to influence some ignorant politicians who aren't given all the facts, but there's no way in hell that type of nonsense will pass muster with a Judge.

    This might surprise you, but most Judges actually read the cases (or summaries of the cases) cited in legal briefs.

    I'm also not quite sure what you mean by "but it's not how it will be upheld," since all this trial has established is that tampering with evidence during discovery is bad... and that isn't exactly a new legal principle.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  2. Re:TorrentSpy by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

    But what they really did was destroy users access records to protect their visitors. http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9835333-7.html

    TorrentSpy operators intentionally modified or deleted directory headings naming copyrighted titles and forum posts that explained how to find specific copyrighted works; concealed IP addresses of users; and withheld the names and addresses of forum moderators, the court found. They had earlier been fined $30,000 for violations of discovery orders and were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders. Yes, they were trying to protect their visitors.
    But they were also sanitizing the forum and then they lied about various things under oath.

    Heck, read the /. comments about it when it happened
    http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/19/1444229

    /I'm not really interested in rehashing any of those arguments
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  3. Re:Entertainment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Google just upgraded their translation service to include swedish.
    http://www.google.com/translate_t

  4. Posters please remember PiratByran is SWEDISH ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now before you all go getting your panties in a bunch waffling on about Intellectual Property, multi million $ damages, legal technicalities blah, blah, blah... please remember one thing.

    PyratByran is run by Swedes. Sweden is not part of the United States. Your silly American laws do not apply in Sweden.

    I look forward to the usual barrel of laughs that will ensue.

  5. Re:Entertainment by statemachine · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dont suppose anybody could recomend a good sweedish -> english translator, for the few that are in sweedish?
    Here's Google's Swedish search and a translator site.
  6. Re:Ambiguities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Three things,

    In Sweden it has actually hit mainstream Politics, and there is a Political Party with legalising P2p on its agenda.
    The current activities of the PirateBay are fully legal in Sweden,
    The Chief prosecutor who broke into their offices and illegally siexed their gear got a well paid job with the MPAA within a month of resigning from the force.

  7. Re:Ambiguities by Markspark · · Score: 3, Informative

    almost correct, it was a police who was heavily involved in the investigation, and it wasn't illegal, they had a warrant. However they seized not only TPB servers, but several others.

    --
    i find your lack of faith in science disturbing!
  8. Re:Is the Pirate Bay rich ? by init100 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now if they are found liable anyway, it would still be the company that is held responsible. The individuals in question probably would not suffer from it at all

    That only applies to aktiebolag (direct translation: "stock company"). For other types of companies, their owners are personally liable for any debts. Compare with the general partnership.

  9. Re:Ambiguities by at0mjack · · Score: 2, Informative

    And how is this different to the USA refusing to recognise or honour European copyrights for most of its history? Charles Dickens' novels were widely published in the US without any payment whatsoever to him. It's only when the US developed a big enough internal copyright industry (who wanted their copyrights recognised in Europe) that any attention was paid to any non-Americal "intellectual property". Before that, the USA "took it all for free whilst sat on their ass", as you so delicately put it.