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Swedish Supreme Court Refuses Appeal In Pirate Bay Case
concertina226 writes with sad news for Swedish pirates. Quoting the article: "The Swedish Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from the founders of The Pirate Bay against prison sentences and fines imposed by the Swedish Court of Appeals, the court said on Wednesday. Over a year ago, the Court of Appeals sentenced Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström to 10 months, eight months, and four months of jail time, respectively. The court also said they must collectively pay a 46 million kronor (£4.3 million) fine."
The Pirate Bay has issued a response: "With this said, we hear news from our old admins that they have received a verdict in Sweden. Our 3 friends and blood brothers have been sentenced to prison. This might sound worse than it is. Since no one of them no longer lives in Sweden, they won't go to jail. They are as free today as they were yesterday."
Update: 02/01 15:15 GMT by U L :Reader think_nix helpfully copied the Pirate Bay response in a comment for those who cannot access the site.
Update: 02/01 15:15 GMT by U L :Reader think_nix helpfully copied the Pirate Bay response in a comment for those who cannot access the site.
This will basically be precedent for this type of case (in Sweden). So I guess Google, Youtube etc etc can fall under being an accessory to copyright violation?
Excuse any spelling/English errors, non-native here.
English is not my first language, so cut me some slack -: Om du kan lasa det har sa kan du Svenska
The supreme court in Sweden is supposed to hear important test cases and cases where there is presently ambiguity in law. As encouraging copyright infringement has never before been tested in court, refusing to hear this case just shows how little spine our justice system has.
*shrugs*
They could just do something similar to what the movie industry pulled a long time ago (in order to nerf Edison's patents): move someplace where their actions are not illegal. Let's be honest, whichever country ends up with that many pirates (programmers, etc.) is going to bank. And not just a little, as these people tend to be some of the more skilled in the industry (they will make it rain). Fortunately, the vast majority of countries are not joining in (just yet) on this global witch-hunt, so such measures are (for now) unnecessary. However, if and when it should happen, I project that the countries involved in said persecutions will experience a brain drain that will set them back only a century or so.
I am John Hurt.
They could just do something similar to what the movie industry pulled a long time ago (in order to nerf Edison's patents): move someplace where their actions are not illegal.
They did. They performed all their actions in Sweden where their actions were not illegal. This is also why there for a long time were no action taken against TPB, despite the site being far from unknown to the prosecutors of that country. Then after a few years the MAFIAA started pressing for US politicians to do something about this. They in turn put pressure on Swedish politicians (behind the scenes, since in Swden it's illegal for the politicians to tell the prosecutors what to do). Suddenly their servers are confiscated and they're put into a courtroom before a judge who conveniently happens to have close ties to the Swedish MAFIAA-equivalent...