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The Pirate Bay Seeks Interesting Route To "Pay" Fine
Drivintin is one of many who have written to tell us about how The Pirate Bay has taken an interesting approach to the 30 million SEK fine levied in their recent court case (which they said they wont pay). "The bill inspired anakata to devise a plan involving sending money to Danowsky's law firm, but not to pay the fine of course which they say will never be paid. Anakata's clever plan is called internet-avgift, internet-fee in English. Anakata encourages all Internet users to pay extremely small sums around 1 SEK (0.13 USD) to Danowsky's law firm, which represented the music companies at the Pirate Bay trial. The music companies will not benefit from this, instead it will cost them money to handle and process all the money."
I assume there's an equivalent of "contempt of court" over there, and probably that would let the firm on the receiving end sue for damages. Is this really the best time for them to be just digging themselves in deeper?
Are they working on the assumption that the Law and the Government are basically impotent?
(No, I did not RTFA. It's broken already.)
Bad justice or not, I'm contemptuous of people who think taking work product from anyone without compensation is a valid and moral way of correcting a bad business model.
A complete boycott of sales combined with no illegal copying would have a much greater significance.
Well then it's a good thing TPB guys didn't download anything. Maybe you should go after the actual copyright infringers? What's that? This may not be right but is easier? That's fine, just make sure your bribe is big enough to get your personal law enacted since that would be "good" business in your world as that's what's being done here.
I'm contemptuous of people who think penalties imposed by flawed, politically tainted trials are a valid and moral way of defending a bad business model.
From TFA; "A friend of anakata told Blog Pirate"
Well, with that kind of authoritative inside knowledge, what could possibly go wrong?
Anyone who imagines this is a way to bankrupt a company, as opposed to just giving them money, is as dumb as this idea is. And any defendant who thinks that attempting to bankrupt the opposing party's law firm is a good response to losing their case... well, dumb doesn't go halfway far enough.
It took me a while to figure it out, but it really is in their best interest long term to make it as difficult as possible for me to pay a bill. They then get to add on late charges, etc. The credit card companies all just got reamed for similar.
Car analogy: That's like using a bullhorn to tell the cops outside your house that you'll be out shortly to stick a banana in their tail pipe. When you get there, you'll find a 46" diameter tail pipe and you'll only have a one banana.
TPB may have gotten themselves in trouble, and been convicted by a biased court, but playing silly games isn't going to solve any problems. Childish acts, even if committed by thousands of kids on the inernet, will never amount to more than a flea on the war machine that is corporate greed. They have an organized team fueled by money, and you've got pent-up angst fueled by living in your mom's basement.
Who do you think will win?
Sounds like fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. My guess is the TPB guys are asking for more fines and jail time.
I'd also be interested how it is that someone sending me some kind of wire transfer would obligate me paying the costs of that transfer. I could understand if I was running some kind of online service where you gave me your credit card info and my software then turned around submitted that information for billing. I can't imagine a law firm providing that kind of billing service.
It's not a wire transfer. It's internet banking, and in North America, the majority of banks charge businesses for transactions above whatever number they've paid to be able to accept, akin to going over your minutes on a cell phone. apparently, Sweden has a similar banking system. But I do agree, it sounds like fraud on the part of the people who give the payments and ask for them back. However, based on TPB trial, TPB people would be the one held accountable for the actions of others.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
No, a judge who was potentially biased, and had a previous professional relationship with a procescutor applied law in a way not previously applied before. That is why people believe it unfair. Frankly, I'd accept it if it had been a judge without those issues who'd given the verdict.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
Agreed. In an american court this would be a slam dunk for censure as the payee is clearly acting in bad faith with no desire to obey the legally mandated terms of the settlement.
This whole trial has revolved around bad faith for me. In a wholly technical sense, they have done nothing wrong. But their intent has clearly been to defraud/infringe copyright/etc.
It's just like the whole situation with Grokster. They marketed themselves specifically as a tool to download copyrighted content, and the courts ruled that that was clearly Inducement and that they were therefore liable.
TPB says, when confronted, "We have no control over what people put on our service" and then they turn around and specifically mock the people who complain about it. That just doesn't fly with the judicial system.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Well, this will probably work just as well as that other loophole TPB found - you know, the one that made TPB legal and untouchable in Sweden...
The more I read about the PB guys, the more they appear to be a bunch of arrogant bastards who want a blank check to do whatever they want. There is certainly enough wrong with copyright law in Sweden as it stands now, but this Internet mob mentality is not the way to go about it.
To sum it up, the law firm has been DDOS:ed, the lead lawyer have received threats, as has the head of Sweden's anti-piracy board - and now this. This may be just the stunt for TPB's fans, but if you're trying to reach out to the "other side", and I have, shit like this just makes it harder.
Thanks anakata, or whatever the fuck you want to call yourself, thanks for being a childish dork and fucking everything up.
I think intentionally sending someone money and then calling your bank and saying it wasn't intentional easily qualifies as fraud. Proving that one person intentionally did something may be hard. Proving fifty thousand people doing something within a short period of time, beginning right after a very public request to do so... not so hard.
That depends on why they request that the payment be returned. If they wait until the conviction and fine are (hopefully) overturned, then the payment was indeed in error and they have every right to request a refund.
I do agree that this is a rather underhanded thing to do, but at the same time the contrarian in me thinks it's ingenious :)
Interesting, how so? Not even clever by a mile. As I see it there are several flaws present.
First of, the firm and the bank can see that the transactions are not normal and can probably work out a deal to minimise the finacial impact.
Secondly, the bank (after being contacted by the laywers) can cancel/reverse all 1 dollar/sek/... payments to the account.
In both the above cases, assuming it is possible to do, it won't really affect the lawyers, but instead office workers at the firm and bank(s). So they are hassling people that have nothing to do directly with the MPAA/RIAA/etc.
And why should the firm even accept these payments anyway, they are not even from TPB. It seems very far fetched that they would even spend the time to process any of them. Most likely they will just box them up and store them away. Who knows, maybe they can even use it to show the character of the people running/using TPB in future cases.
All in all if you want revenge, go after the right target and in a fitting manner. This just makes Gottfrid Svartholm look like a giant douche bag to me, the MPAA/RIAA/... will not be affected by this at all.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
So let me just make sure I understand this, because I was thinking along similar lines.
The guys behind TPB set up a service of dubious legality, publicly advocated using it for illegal purposes, went to court, and had a fine issued against them.
Now instead of taking their medicine, they have escalated from taking the piss out of international megacorps to taking the piss out of courts and legal firms.
Is this anything but outright denial and pride going before the fall? Does this end any way but the TPB founders becoming Bubba's bitch for a few years?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.