Slashdot Mirror
Ex-Pirate Bay Admin Launches Micropayment Service
spyrochaete writes "Peter Sunde, formerly 'brokep' of The Pirate Bay, recently launched a beta version of Flattr — a micropayment service enabling internet users to tender cash payments to any participating content publisher. Its model enables users to divvy monthly subscription fees as donations awarded to the musicians, bloggers, photographers, or other publisher of their choice.
Sunde tells the BBC, 'We want to encourage people to share money as well as content,' and asserts, 'people love things and they want to pay.'"
Under Swedish law, the verdict means absolutely nothing while they're going through the appeals process. In other words, they're still "innocent until proven guilty". Judging by the obvious bias of the judge in the initial case, I'd say they have a pretty good chance to get a better verdict the second time around.
Also, You should consider who you trust more with your money/transactions. Paypal or Pirates? I know who I prefer
They can't always appeal. The appeal process has to be requested and it's possible it's denied if the defendants can't create valid reasons for it. (...) They are in no way "innocent until proven guilty" now as the parent put it. They are guilty already, but they still have a possibility to turn that around.
Formally, you are wrong. An appeal does not turn the burden of evidence around, they start again with a presumption of innocence and the prosecution has to prove their guilt. I don't have the exact details for Sweden but at least here in Norway you can appeal the lowest court's decision on findings of fact, findings or law or procedural errors. There Supreme court will often refuse an appeal, but the appeals court (hovrätten in Sweden, lagmannsretten in Norway) will rarely refuse an appeal.
The whole concept is a bit different in Scandinavia than in the US, remember here both sides can appeal, so both the prosecution and defendant has to accept the decision. If there's real material disputes or legal principles at stake, it's almost always appealed. A ruling here can equally well find you guilty even though you were found not guilty in the first trial, make your sentence longer and damages higher rather than acquit, shorten and lower it. It more a "full" trial versus a "light" trial than a US appeal.
Formally the legal system is one big process with up to three stages (courts) and your guilt is not decided and the sentence is not binding and final until all the possibilities for appeal have expired. That works both ways, an acquittal is also not binding and final so it can be appealed without causing double jeopardy, to be double jeopardy the system must have found you not guilty not just a single court. The Supreme court's decisions are immediately final since there is no more appeals, anything else is not.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
There are so many irregularities in this case that it would make a very long list. Here are just a few off the top of my head:
After the (very surprising, if you know Swedish law) verdict, some journalists found out that the judge was biased. He had an extra job where he worked with one of the plaintiff lawyers. And he was member of a copyright-fundamentalist club promoting harsher copyright violation penalties where he regularly met several of the plaintiff lawyers. The judge kept this secret during the trial. A tribunal of three judges was set up to decide if the judge was really biased, but when their names were made public, it was revealed that all three were also biased. The tribunal was replaced with three more judges, and although it was revealed that at least one of the judges in the new panel had connections with one of the plaintiffs in the case, she was not replaced. The new tribunal decided that the judge was not biased.
Just five months before the big raid on The Pirate Bay the chief prosecutor in the case wrote a memo where he concluded that it would not be possible to convict the people behind TPB for copyright violation.
There are heavy rumors and a lot of incidental evidence that the raid against TPB and the resulting court case was done on a direct order by the government. This is illegal in Sweden because it means that the court system could be abused for political purposes. Documents that could tell if this is the case are kept secret by the Swedish government.
The policeman heading the police investigation got a new job immediately after the police investigation was concluded. His new employer was one of the plaintiffs in the case, and he negotiated his salary with his new employer in the final stages of the police investigation.
The legal advisor of The Pirate Bay was arrested during the raid and forced to give a DNA sample. (This is possible in Sweden if the charge can give at least one year of prison time and a DNA sample is relevant for the case.) One of the people later convicted to a year of jail time was also arrested and refused access to a lawyer during initial police questioning. (Possible in Sweden if the charge is is not likely to give jail time. And Swedish law admit evidence even if the police has obtained it illegally.)
Anybody who knows Swedish law and have followed this case closely (ie. read all court documents) know that this case is a joke and a distortion of Swedish law. This is a political court case intended to bend Swedish law so people can be convicted for "crimes" that are not illegal according the the letter of the law.