This is a very rough translation of The Pirate Bureau's press release:
PRESSRELEASE
For immediate release
31 may 2006
Police tricked by movie industry to shut down The Pirate Bureau
Today the police carried out a razzia against The Pirate Bay, the world's largest Bittorrent-tracker. The site have for several years been a gathering point for culture-interested people all over the world. Everything from homeproduced papers to obscure Japanese music to Eurovision-videos have been spread using Bittorrent-technology.
The servers themselves have never contained any illegal material. The torrent-files, links that people use to connect to each other and transfer the material, only contains text that is hardly copyrighted.
"The Antipirate Bureau have obviously mislead the police in this case" says Tobias Andersson at The Pirate Bureau. "It seems like they have convinced IT-incompetent policemen that the servers are filled with copyrighted material. This is a serious misuse of tax money."
"Meanwhile, several other sites on nearby servers have also been confiscated. This is the most serious escapade. The Antipirate Bureau have obviously convinced the police to shut down their antagonists, The Pirate Bureau, while their at it."
"The Pirate Bureau have for 3 years worked for an open debate on copyright and patent laws and questions. We are very upset that the movie industry does not date to participate in this debate, but instead wants to trick politicians and police into criminalize opponents and a huge part of the Swedish population."
"Of course this means nothing in practice for filesharers around the world. There are thousands of other sites and networks for them to get what they want. People just change place. Filesharing is like a hydra, if you cut of one head two new ones will soon grow out."
The Pirate Bureau started in the summer of 2003 to focus on and discuss copyright topics. The Pirate Bureau means that copyright in many aspects have played put their role, and instead of protecting artists blocks creativity and feed a lucky few. Since the start, about 60 000 members have registered at the site where discussions and idea sharing take place in forums. The Pirate Bureau have also given talks in the parliament, created campaigns and started the world's largest Bittorrent-tracker, ThePirateBay.org
"The Pirate Bay exists SOLELY for the unauthorized distribution on copyrighted works."
First off, this is so wrong. Until today I was sharing my own independent movie production through TPB. So the "solely" part is incorrect.
But in any case, it is still not illegal to link to copyrighted material in Sweden. There are several precedental legal cases from the past years that establishes this. And this is the main point.
The Pirate Bureau have set up a temporary news blog to inform the public about this whole incident: http://piratbyran.blogspot.com/
Shutting down The Pirate Bay can be compared to shutting down Google, by Swedish laws. Both sites supply a search engine with which you can find legal and illegal material on the internet. TPB will prevail.
Slashdot Mirror
Uhm, I've already translated the text (for real). Look a few posts down.
PRESSRELEASE
For immediate release
31 may 2006
Police tricked by movie industry to shut down The Pirate Bureau
Today the police carried out a razzia against The Pirate Bay, the world's largest Bittorrent-tracker. The site have for several years been a gathering point for culture-interested people all over the world. Everything from homeproduced papers to obscure Japanese music to Eurovision-videos have been spread using Bittorrent-technology.
The servers themselves have never contained any illegal material. The torrent-files, links that people use to connect to each other and transfer the material, only contains text that is hardly copyrighted.
"The Antipirate Bureau have obviously mislead the police in this case" says Tobias Andersson at The Pirate Bureau. "It seems like they have convinced IT-incompetent policemen that the servers are filled with copyrighted material. This is a serious misuse of tax money."
"Meanwhile, several other sites on nearby servers have also been confiscated. This is the most serious escapade. The Antipirate Bureau have obviously convinced the police to shut down their antagonists, The Pirate Bureau, while their at it."
"The Pirate Bureau have for 3 years worked for an open debate on copyright and patent laws and questions. We are very upset that the movie industry does not date to participate in this debate, but instead wants to trick politicians and police into criminalize opponents and a huge part of the Swedish population."
"Of course this means nothing in practice for filesharers around the world. There are thousands of other sites and networks for them to get what they want. People just change place. Filesharing is like a hydra, if you cut of one head two new ones will soon grow out."
The Pirate Bureau started in the summer of 2003 to focus on and discuss copyright topics. The Pirate Bureau means that copyright in many aspects have played put their role, and instead of protecting artists blocks creativity and feed a lucky few. Since the start, about 60 000 members have registered at the site where discussions and idea sharing take place in forums. The Pirate Bureau have also given talks in the parliament, created campaigns and started the world's largest Bittorrent-tracker, ThePirateBay.org
"The Pirate Bay exists SOLELY for the unauthorized distribution on copyrighted works."
First off, this is so wrong. Until today I was sharing my own independent movie production through TPB. So the "solely" part is incorrect.
But in any case, it is still not illegal to link to copyrighted material in Sweden. There are several precedental legal cases from the past years that establishes this. And this is the main point.
The Pirate Bureau have set up a temporary news blog to inform the public about this whole incident: http://piratbyran.blogspot.com/
Shutting down The Pirate Bay can be compared to shutting down Google, by Swedish laws. Both sites supply a search engine with which you can find legal and illegal material on the internet. TPB will prevail.