Slashdot Mirror
The Pirate Bay Is Being Sued Again
BuR4N writes with news that 10 US movie companies have filed a suit in Swedish civil court seeking to shut down The Pirate Bay and impose a fine on its three former operators, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde, as well as the site's bandwidth supplier. Speaking to TorrentFreak, Sunde said, "It's another day in the whole soap opera of TPB. They're suing us in Stockholm where none of us live. They're suing us over something which we don't own. I think the most funny part of the whole suit is that they just write: 'Reservella is a company run by Fredrik Neij' — out of 40 pages of paper that's all they have to say, and it's so wrong. They have no paperwork to back it up." Meanwhile, plans for The Pirate Bay to be sold to Global Gaming X seem to have stalled.
More big media companies going after money. Maybe it is just my thought but why can't American companies just bother the Americans and not everyone else. This is why people hate us!
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the EU imposes a fine on these movie companies for anti-competitive behavior.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
You'd think that they'd have learned their lesson from the last trial to just keep their mouths shut.
But like has been their style since the days they began getting legal threats, these people just can't seem to shut up for their own good.
http://thepiratebay.org/legal
There's no debtors' prison anymore, so at least they have that going for them.
The 'content' companies are either geniuses or morons in how they throw lawsuits out like last year's fashions. If some stick, win! If not, raise prices or sue another grandma. I don't know Swedish law or how the court system works, but from the summary (no, I did not RTFs) this sounds like a wild shot in the dark.
I do not believe in piracy, but I also do not believe in the 'content' companies policies, rules, or regulations. Exactly why do we still need region coding on DVDs? At least I still have my local library to rent (for free, well, except for local taxes) books.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
They keep throwing arond "They're suing us over something which we don't own" - if I make alot of money through a company I own which is involved with illegal behaviour - selling the company does NOT strip you free from all crimes.
Yeah, they're taking alot of flak from just about everyone around the world, but only because they're so smug about what they're trying to get away with. They're just getting what they deserve.
Keep saying you'll sell TPB to some company and just keep delaying it so it never actually gets sold, say "we don't own the site, its being sold to company X". Meanwhile TBP doesn't change at all and we are all happy :)
Wow. In highschool, I always thought expanding a 3-page term-paper into a 4-page term-paper was kinda rough, but could always be done by tweaking the font-size (ie. 13pt instead of 12pt) or line-spacing (ie. 2.1 instead of standard double-spacing)... but turning 8 words into a 40 page document?!? I am humbled.
Karma: NaN
Not really a smart move by the movie industry. TPB is currently trying to transform into something more cooperative. Probably something that even the movie industry could strike a deal from. Suing would only make this process more difficult, halt it or even prevent it. But that's hardly a suprise as they are arrogant and doesn't hesitate one bit to play the legal card rather then making the slightest effort to adopt to the new digital era. Thanks to the last trial, Sweden now have a Pirate Party politican in the europeean parlament. I wonder whats next.
Reservella? Seriouslly!? Did the executives just get drunk at happy hour one day and come up with the fake company to sue with then?
Red Suit: We-We need a name that says the company totally reserved the rights for the stuff.
Blue Suit: How abouuuuut...Re...ser...vella?
Red Suit: Yes. Yes, write that down and we can count this entire Bangkok trip as a business expense!
Blue Suit: Awesome, someone get an 8-year-old boy to deliver us some blow. We'll use 'em both up!
"All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- The history of the present is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over [the citizens]. The government has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
I say
-revolt. The is NO natural right to stop someone from copying your book, or song, or filmed play. The only natural right is the right to lock it into a safe and hide it from view, but you do Not have a right to stop someone from using their own pen-and-paper, or tape recorder, or computer, however they desire. It's THEIR property, not yours.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I bet TPB could make a killing selling the rights to this saga/soap opera/farce to Hollywood to make into a movie. ...and then they could index the torrent for it.
mmmm...forbidden donut
Remember TPB had a link right off the home page of correspondence? It was with lawyers from Sony BMG, and other places. Usually it was a legalize Cease and Desist type letter.
The TPB guys would usually respond with some really funny snarky shit. Like "Dear Sirs, here in Sweden we think your shit attitude needs to get bent over a stool."
In some cases, they would piss the other side off so much they would drop the formal language and start spewing, like "you little shits, we're gonna find you and shut your asses down." It was hilarious to read them simply pissing on the leather shoes of expensive lawyers and telling them to fuck off.
Well, you do that enough and you get high on powerful enemy hit lists. Don't kid yourself, power multinationals bought off that Swedish judge and make this into a kangaroo court. It's probably one of the biggest travesties of justice of all time, the slope is so fucking slippery. They may as well sue the IETF or ARIN for giving out IP addresses to enable piracy. That's how egregious the law was twisted for the interests of powerful capitalists.
Now? Now they are laying on the hurt to teach the world a lesson.
There's probably 39.5 pages of definitions and other legal language/diarrhea
Amateur. You forgot about adjusting the spacing between characters and downloading new fonts where at the approved 12pt (usually the largest we were allowed) was the same as a 15pt in a standard font like Arial.
Didn't you know? Secretly everyone wants to be American, and part of the fun/culture of being American is being sued by large corporations. Now you don't even have to come to America to experience this, America will come to you!
You have much to learn, grasshopper.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
And will it be available as a torrent?
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
"Intellectual Property" (sic) has just become the most valuable thing on the planet. So, naturally enough, the wealthier portion of humanity wants to own and control most of it.
It is also "abundant," (can be replicated infinitely, by anyone, at zero cost).
So, as we have seen before, the wealthy destroy this abundance by passing laws to create artificial scarcity. They have every incentive to do this.
The flippant public attitude that TPB is showing will not protect them from the wrath of the rich.
I will add....America has very few exports now. IP is basically it. So, it is in the interest of America's wealthy to impose strict IP laws (and hence artificial scarcity) all over the planet.
It isn't that they refuse to listen to reason....it is that they are following their obvious incentives to their logical conclusions. Expect more. Much more.
Who in the industry decided to call it "piracy"? Piracy sounds cool. In many (most?) fictional depictions the pirates are the good guys. (Modern-day piracy notwithstanding.) Why don't they push to call it "software theft" or "computer mugging" or something?
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I find it mildly amusing that this group of movie studios isn't suing TPB on US Soil, no instead these companies have to take their embarrassing freak show of Illegally obtained evidence, overzealous lawyers, and greedy "businessmen" to a country where none of the players reside just to try and "stop the evil criminals". Simply put, enough is enough, I'm not defending TPB, but at the same time I think its safe to assume 3 things - interest in piracy is going to increase even more (stick it to the evil movie companies), America will look even worse in the global view for trying to "police the world" (thank you to those who posted that already), and simply put, if they do manage to stop TPB by some freak coincidence 10 more places will spring up in their place, 'cause you can't stop the signal (yeah ... I couldn't resist the Serenity reference).
Instead of wasting time and resources these companies need to learn to stop fighting the new technology and use it to their advantage - DVD's and digital downloads without DRM (com'on how many ways does it have to be broken before these guys learn that its not working !?), CD's that don't lock up and freeze computers (oooh ooh .. how many people remember this Sony Fiasco ??), DVD's that don't remove your ability to skip previews (yes, I actually own DVD's that prevent you from Skipping the previews), the list goes on and on.
Oh well, my 2 cents on the topic.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" - Dr. Seuss
A library purchases X copies of a work to loan to their members.
Piracy involves buying one or zero copies, then replicating them.
Do you really not see the difference?
TPB is not impressing me as much as they were.
Would someone tell me why TPB doesn't put up a Unicef tip jar. I would donate. Then we would see a game changer. TPB-shutdown == kids-starving.
1st, no one ever said it's a natural right.
It's a derived right, which the majority have agreed is an overall benefit to society.
The fact that intellectual property is not a physical thing doesn't negate it's existence.
Your position is ignorant and lacks even internal consistency.
This is just another example of Big Media trying to bleed the little guy dry. This is an abuse of the judicial system where the plaintiff badgers a defendant through the legal system by forcing the defendant to commit all their funds to legal fees until they can no longer afford anything but a settlement.
This works just fine in America. I guess it's a welcome practise in Sweden as well.
I think events recently have made it absolutely clear that there will be no justice in the courts, anywhere. Specifically, the previous Pirate Bay trial where the judge was an advocate for the plaintiff's cause, and Sony v. Tenenbaum where the judge refused to allow a fair use defense to be presented to the jury. The fix is in.
You really hit the nail on the head with that sentence. Once a book, song, or movie exists, it can be mass-produced at zero cost. It's the ultimate product where the "economy of scale" has no limit. It's an infinite value... For example if Disney could convince every person on earth to buy "Fantasia" from itunes.com ..... No cost..
Except that, Fantasia, with its hand drawn cells, is not exactly the kind of movie that one is going to just whip up in their spare time. Many movies are hideously expensive to make.
This is my sig.
I sold ad space in my senior thesis in highschool.
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
Your teachers were amateurs. Word count was a much better metric and harder to circumvent. Sure you could over-abuse propositions, but then your text sounded like it was written by a first grader and you failed.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Meanwhile, plans for The Pirate Bay to be sold to Global Gaming X seem to have stalled.
I suspect that this was the reason. Imagine what making this a legitimate business and media content provider that's outside of U.S. jurisdiction (and markets) would do to the big media companies' grip on local markets.
This was a move pure and simple to stall the selling of TPB to anyone who might have more capital to move it forward.
American movie companies need to start thinking with their heads instead of their wallets.
Just my 2 cents..
Alright, listen up Slashdot. AcidPenguin934282349 doesn't care for the tone that this site is taking. He's particularly annoyed that you've all become somewhat socially aware, concerned with the US's corporate power over non-US countries, concerned about the future, concerned about the direction and shaping of the internet and the policies and laws surrounding it, and he's particularly annoyed that you aren't all completely mindless drones. Please just give him an empty science & tech news site, one from 9 years back when so many of these issues weren't approaching us head-on like a speeding train. Let's all close our ears, eyes, and mouths to the things that actually matter in the world.
Is TPB the only torrent tracker? I'm pretty sure that there are lots of torrent websites out there that either link to websites and serve as a torrent search engine or host their own torrents but I'm not sure how many trackers there are. What about mininova, isohunt, torrentz, demonoid, etc etc. A lot of torrents have TPB as a tracker even though they are downloaded from different sites. If I download a torrent from mininova, and TPB goes down, is there a chance the torrent wouldn't work because TPB is down?
Except that Fantasia only cost Mr. Disney 0.003 billion to produce. He paid-off that bill in the 1960s, so every digital copy today's Disney Company sells online would literally be zero cost. And pure profit.
It's not free at all. Have you looked at your bandwidth bill lately? If Disney puts a bunch of movies online, somebody has to lay out the capital costs for interconnects, software services, the climate control and all of that.
This is my sig.
Having 8 words to say is already awesome. Modern law and politics is about saying nothing in hundreds of pages. Average font size is 4, single spaced.. (Don't worry about the boring paragraph on page 538).
>>>You appear to no longer be a science & tech news aggregator. Stories about copyright and censorship have come to dominate Slashdot.
>>>
If you put a Bluray into your shiny-new player and it refuses to run due to copyright restrictions (aka DRM), then I'd say that's a technical problem and technical news.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall