Court Tweets, Pirate Flags and Free Candy

Written by Ernesto on February 16, 2009 

As The Pirate Bay trial got underway, dozens of supporters gathered around the Court waving skull-and-crossbone flags as the parties entered the court house. Pro-piracy forces in Sweden had vowed to play along in the theater of the trial. The opening act was a spectacle; in court, on the streets and online.

As reported earlier today, during today’s court session, social media came alive as prosecutor Håkan Roswall did a tedious presentation of the history of the tracker, various companies, revenue streams, ad sales and how he will “prove” it is all connected.

It was remarkable to see how thousands of people were following and contributing to an ongoing stream of information on the Internet. Through live blogs (in Swedish and translated), Twitter, live audio from inside the court and live video from outside, the coverage was massive.

The hash tag #spectrial was the most searched term on Twitter, The Pirate Party’s servers went down and it was nearly impossible to get access to trial.thepiratebay.org, which collects the various streams of information.

One of the defendants even contributed, as Peter Sunde (aka brokep) wrote on Twitter: “Might this be the first twitter from within a court case? It must be a #spectrial.” This might indeed be one of the first tweets from a defendant in court.

As the court went in recess for lunch, the gathering outside grew, in spite of the cold February day in Stockholm. Pirate Party flags marked the street corner, a band played and candy was handed to passers-by while being told that “sharing is caring”.

Pirate Music Outside the Court

In the crowd we found Christian Engström, Vice Chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party who are currently heading towards getting seats in the European Parliament in June’s elections.

“This is a political trial,” he told TorrentFreak. “Firstly, the trial itself is political because the prosecutor wrote a memo in 2005 and said that it wasn’t possible to prosecute from the evidence. This trial only occurs because of political pressure from the United States on the then Minister of Justice.”

The trial, as Engström explains, is more than just a prosecution of The Pirate Bay. It is a question of the future of communication.

“Should the Internet be a place where everyone can communicate or should it not? That’s the question of this trial, and no court can answer that question. Even if The Pirate Bay would be freed all the way through the court system, the problem isn’t solved. The Copyright Lobby will demand more restrictions and tougher laws and the only way to protect social media culture in the long run is to work politically.”

Pirate Bay Supporters (thanks Rick)

When asked if the trial had any significance at all, Engström told TorrenFreak that he finds it incredibly fun as a spectacle.

“Hollywood knows how to stage a show, I’ve got to hand them the credit for that. And I think that’s very positive because it means that for the following weeks, there will be lots of media focus on these important issues.”

After the lunch break, the proceedings continued as well as the coverage online. On Twitter Sofia did an outstanding job translating the audio feed into English, but she was just one of many. It is truly remarkable how many people committed themselves to covering the trial. For now we still live in a society where information is open and free.

Previously: The Pirate Bay Trial – First Day in Court

Next: 50% of Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped

68 Responses

1 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:06 by www.10ch.org

It is indeed political – after all, the prosecutors are not doing a good job of coming up with evidence, as of yet, and it sure is developing into a popular event, although, the way I see it, it seems to be a one-way spectacle: the court case will be the spectacle to the crowds, but the audience will, of course, have no influence on the trial itself. We will see how the trial develops, and I do expect the judgment to be fair, since Sweden is one of the least corrupt nations on Earth.

2 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:13 by ANq

Long live TPB and keep the information highway alive.

Support sharing.

3 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:18 by ytb

long live the pirate bay!

4 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:26 by Reasoned Mind

On the face of the facts, the Pirate Bay has a good chance of winning. Technically, there are no Swedish laws governing this because the technology is well ahead of the laws. Still, if they lose, they lose.

But if they win, it’ll just mean more and stricter, narrowly focused laws, less privacy, increased surveillance. The internet loses. We all lose.

Either way, The Pirate Bay is sacrificing the freedom of the internet to make a few bucks for themselves on other peoples work via advertising. (And we all just love more advertising, don’t we.) Very classy, these high school drop outs.

5 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:30 by pete

the policeman to the right in the first pic is actually reading a Pirate Party leaflet.

6 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:30 by Anonymous

First They Came…

When they came for Torrentspy,
I did not speak out;
I was not a movie guy.

When they came for Oink.cd,
I remained silent;
I was not a music guy.

When they locked up Textbooktorrents,
I remained silent;
I was not a reading guy.

Now they come for the Piratebay…

When they will come to shutdown the internets,
Pray, that there will still be someone left to speak out.

7 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:31 by woot

TPB FTW!

If you dont understand the true meaning behind TPB and there goal.. your intelligence is low, this is not an opinion, this is fact.

Those few young men have changed the world.. they have done more in a few years than most tool bags can accomplish in a few lifetimes.

YOU MUST respect them for there courage and conviction. They represent freedom of culture, not theft. They have opened the highways of knowledge and information, they have put this power into the hands of anyone in the world.

FACT: Anyone who thinks otherwise is a simple close minded fool.

8 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:32 by dimovich

amazing.

9 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:43 by Buddha Torrents

Good point Reasoned Mind. Everyone tryies to make a buck from something eventually. However, in a Capitalistic society there is nothing wrong with that and indeed no other way. If freedom of information leads to free acquisition of goods then we can move away from a Capitalistic based economy and into sharing based system, call it Socialism or whatever.

“Of all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.” – The Dalai Lama

10 Feb 16, 2009 at 22:58 by Al

Even if TPB looses the courtcase TPB will run like before. TPB FOREVER!

11 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:04 by Reasoned Mind

Good point, Budda. But I’m a capitalist either way and so is the Dalai Lama. I was once extremely privileged to hear him speak for 13 hours. Taking care to slowly build his case, he first suggested we rid ourselves of the appreciation of worldly goods. Then he required us to relinquish our desire for worldly goods. Finally, he asked for a pledge that we would find ways to rid ourselves of unnecessary worldly goods. 13 hours of this, we were all profoundly moved. Really. I was, too. He’s not the Dalai Lama for nothing.

Then on the way out of the hall, we saw authorized sweatshirts with his image in the lobby, for sale by his followers, at $35 each. We laughed all the way to the bar.

True story.

Everyone tries to make a buck from something eventually.

12 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:12 by jamesdean

Love you Pirate Bay!!!

13 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:19 by Buddha Torrents

Like I said, its a Capitalistic society, hard to give away T-Shirts for free when It costs something to produce. In any case only suckers would actually but a Dalai Lama Sweatshirt and they deserve to be parted with there money. The majority of people who use Bittorrent could care less about freedom of information or politics they just want something for nothing, like that new Madonna album or episode of Heroes
.

14 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:22 by Reasoned Mind

I could not agree more.

15 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:37 by Anonymous

Sofia was awesome..

but..

Hanna was even more awesome..
I will never forget her qute face and that TPB t-shirt with those BLACK lips..
My heart will never heal from never seeing her again :’(
She was on a swedish Pirate party live feed or something.. so dam hot..

I remember more lovely girls..
but im sorry i got distracted :(
wont say where they are im keeping them to myself! :P mwahahah oh i already said it..

As for the case, without these girls id kill myself trying to follow it, court talk is the most boring meaningless way of delaying or confusing what you have to say ever invented by man and greed..

16 Feb 16, 2009 at 23:59 by Go Fuck a Goat

I still maintain Sofia’s glasses are horrid :P

Great coverage of the trial by our side I think though! Well done to all at the various spectrial sites

17 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:00 by www.10ch.org

“Everyone tries to make a buck from something eventually.”
The Pirate Bay does not, in any way, prohibit people from making a buck out of anything. It’s not like they have ever pushed a law through the legislature banning the selling of all copyrighted works. Even if a torrent is tracked by The Pirate Bay, the copyright holders can still put up a shop (or put things through the shops) to sell it if they want.

Really, since when was there ever a law that said, “if there is a torrent tracked by The Pirate Bay, people are prohibited from selling whatever is tracked”?

18 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:25 by CibrFightr

Unfortunately, it’s not a winning game. At least not the way most people think today. TPB may win in court, but they will lose in the view of the broad public.
Reason: From a non-juridical view, it’s pretty clear what TPB is mainly used for. So: If TPB wins in court, people will start feel sorry for the “poor” media and artists who will keep on “suffering” from services like TPB. There’s hence a pretty good chance that sooner or later, the stupid masses will agree to change the laws in order to officially forbid things like TPB. Don’t think that’s impossible to do. It’s very easy. All you need to do is add a clause like “may not obviously be used for copyright infringement” or “site owners are required to take reasonable measures to prevent a (mis-)use of their site for copyright infringement”. As soon as a law is fuzzy enough to require interpretation, all current torrent sites are in danger. As from a non-juristic point of view, things are pretty clear and no judge (an no average stupid person) will have any doubt about what torrent sites are mainly used for.
So, from a legalistic point of view we’re all doomed. The key in the future will be: Don’t care about the laws, cause copyright infringement won’t be legal anyway, no matter what you do. Be faster, be more agile, hide in the dark and use a priori illegal methods (our enemies can only use legal methods). Get your servers up, run them for a couple of hours, take them down again before anybody notices apart from the also very agile friends. And if any media lobbyist notices it, it should be too late (and too expensive) for them to even consider taking action. From a tactical point of view, we should thus try to get into a technology war, not a juristic war, as the only war WE can win in the long run is the technological war. Therefore, we need to build an Internet infrastructure/layer that is completely independent of the current Internet infrastructure. Something like a huge, decentralized, redundant, strongly encrypted and fail-resistant P2P net that can use any port it finds and actively, dynamically employs hiding/stealth techniques independently at every peer. Don’t mind about the “good old” RFC standards and technically nice behavior on the Internet. There’s no rules apart from technical feasibility. We’re at war. And the war is about whether people will control the use of the technology or whether firms and legal entities will be able to oppress the masses through their weapon of choice, the laws (which has ceased to be of any use for the public. Lobbyists have taken too much control of it already).
It’s the ultimate showdown between those in power in the real life, and those (us!) in power in the virtual life. Please join the fight, and choose your side wisely.

19 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:42 by cjommy

when there’s talking about real life and virtual life, all i saw on a picture from press conference (few topics earlier) are educated and stand up young people, the generation that the world will stay on. they are the real life and real life’s force. greedy corporate bastards are incompetent and they don’t live in real life anymore. maybe, they don’t understand it yet, but their era has passed away.

long live tpb and freedom!

20 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:50 by Overman

@ Buddah
Actually, I pay close to a $100 to my ISP for broadband service.
So I pay for the content,
my ISP owes licencing fees.
If I couldn’t use P2P apps
I wouldn’t pay for broadband.
Dial up is fine for checking
my email.

21 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:55 by Albert

If I was living in Sweden, I would have been there. But what do they for the many hours they were there? Just wave flags and stand in the cold?

22 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:57 by Reasoned Mind

CibrFightr, you sound like an adolescent angst-ridden child. Calm down. The network you are referring to is literally BROUGHT to us by the very same entities and corporations you are ransacking. Encrypted fail resistant P2P net? (laughing) You moron. They’ll just block encryption. They’ll do whatever they need to do. You can’t win a techo war with the folks that sell you the playing field. (laughing) They will ratchet this up until you are pinned to a board and awaiting an injection everytime you log on, if they have to. They don’t want to. It’s expensive and inconvenient. But they certainly won’t let you change their business model through extortion and theft on the very network they themselves provide and maintain, improve and bring to you at a cost each month. You just sound like a non-thinking freak.

Maybe you are smoking the same stuff as Dingo.

23 Feb 17, 2009 at 00:57 by Reasoned Mind

“The ultimate showdown.” lolz

24 Feb 17, 2009 at 01:22 by springwillow

I find it most interesting to see this–we are at the beginning of a unified world, and globally, these things are the birthing pains of a new society.

Just like the “Iron curtain” and the “Bamboo Curtain,” information shared is a weapon against insular tyranny. The more people know, the better our ability to become more aware of the facts which are often kept from citizens in any nation, and far more knowledgable of the propaganda they try to make us swallow instead.

Strangely, it has been the media outside of the U.S. that has kept many of us sane here in the U.S., as the mainstream media tried to keep many of us from knowing the truth even years ahead of their crap. In all cases, it has largely been the Internet which has kept all avenues of communication open.

Let the pirates–in this case, anyhow–win, and let them show that it is the ‘net which brings a freedom against monetary subjugation around the world.

25 Feb 17, 2009 at 01:57 by www.10ch.org

“the laws (which has ceased to be of any use for the public. Lobbyists have taken too much control of it already)”
Incorrect. Sweden is one of the least corrupt nations on Earth. In addition, there is no indication that the public opinion is against The Pirate Bay, or, even if it is (which is dubious by itself), in the long run, it is actually going to be more in favor of The Pirate Bay, not against, since most young people are more in favor of The Pirate Bay.

26 Feb 17, 2009 at 02:14 by peter

It is very Funny! Celebrities are talking about it on “millionaire friends . com”. Many wealthy people, pro athletes and celebrities are there. …

27 Feb 17, 2009 at 02:16 by Kain Abel

@(4) reasond mind.
ok, they try and make somthing from advertisement, but you have to remeber that they dont actually make any money, anything they do gain is used to pay the running cost, i belive a previous artical stated it was aprox. $120,000/year.
this is one of their many points in the case (according to said artical)

nt to flame you or anything, but common man, your post almost makes them out to be as bad as hollywood, either take some uppers or wake up to the fact that their is far too much evil in the world to focusd on TPB.

unrelated, capitalism can lick my dick a suck it dry, it just breeds greed and unproductive competativeism
Hopefully with a few more FAIR trials the world will take the climb into socialism – imagin, a world wher you wont have to choise between your passion and somthing that morraly/emotionaly errodes you so you can pay the bills.
in any case, i think the system we live by should work on paper BEFORE we put it into practice.
-sry for any sp’s im too lazy to word it up
peace x

28 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:08 by funlovin

“Hollywood knows how to stage a show, I’ve got to hand them the credit for that. And I think that’s very positive because it means that for the following weeks, there will be lots of media focus on these important issues.”

Wasn’t it Sunde that wanted more space for people and the media and whatnot? I think if anyone is trying to change this into a spectacle, it would be TPB.

29 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:08 by Kramerica Industries

IFPI “Look we have their Servers!”

def. “what’s on those servers?”

IFPI “… well nothing illegal.. but we DO have them.”

30 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:13 by Daniel

I almost hopped a plane home to Stockholm to attend (live in Springfield, Missouri) but had too much work to do..

GO SWEDES! GO PIRATEPARTY!

31 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:16 by LA of Indiana, USA

Well, with all the festivities that seems to be occuring outside when you win the trial you should try to make that day a national holiday… lol.. Pirates Day.

32 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:21 by piratespy

Well how come billions of people could listen to Madonna and Spears whole CD and rate them online, if they didnt have TPB… Spears should back TPB for making her songs listened in the poorest place of earth.

33 Feb 17, 2009 at 03:59 by mememe

I hope the MPAA and RIAA burn their own dicks off.

They’re giving the Mafia a bad name!

34 Feb 17, 2009 at 04:21 by Darren Tan

I love you Pirate Bay! You’re the best thing that has happened on the Internet!

35 Feb 17, 2009 at 05:16 by f5337@5d

“If you dont understand the true meaning behind TPB and there goal.. your intelligence is low, this is not an opinion, this is fact.”
============

perhaps you should learn the difference between “their” and “there” before you start insulting people’s intelligence?

also, this article was written with the same vitriolic bias of a bill o’reilly segment.

36 Feb 17, 2009 at 05:44 by Jacob

Go freedom, go pirate bay. Boo rich corporates who need all my moneys which I myself need.

37 Feb 17, 2009 at 05:53 by United Hackers Association

capitalist what? ya isn’t that system working well
and Dali Lama is what?
hes a pacifist and knows only speech value.
if anyone was socialist its him

AND if you look at true visionaries like Roddenberry and 1984 , you get the two ways we can go, and i highly doubt much longer we are all going to tout these rights being removed for nothing and are terrorists ever laughing they don’t have to do nothing now cause the state is doing it too us.

38 Feb 17, 2009 at 06:18 by man

Reasoned mind you make that sound all too easy. Its a bit more than inconvenient, and you are foolish to believe there isnt always a way around it as long as the internet isnt policed 100%, which I certainly believe is impossible without a worldwide communist government.

Its not a matter of just throwing a few switches, get real. And the final thing you dont understand.. is that the bad guys out there are ALWAYS hella better than the good guys.. thats why they always loose. IE hackers.

39 Feb 17, 2009 at 06:28 by dnA

I understand the agenda took up by TPB for the community. At the end of the day i start to think if hollywood is going to be pennyless, who is going to make high-budget superhero movies. we will have 2 stick to low-quality movies, if their revenue model collapse.

40 Feb 17, 2009 at 09:18 by Anonymous

Ha Ha! Go Piratebay!
If I ever get a money grabbing RIAA letter, I’ll tell ‘em to stick it!

41 Feb 17, 2009 at 09:22 by s2pid

Hello,

The PirateBay is and will be The PirateBay.

I think my torrent is stuck.

TC

42 Feb 17, 2009 at 09:33 by chet

isnt it so ironic to listen to these fascist bastards… like they are here to protect u and i from the likes of TPB being of course we have created something that be traded as data online… for me i dont believe it there is no truth in that the whole scam is about total control and nothing about liberty in a good way or bad…this greed is consuming

watch out for what is to come this evil will consume all of our families and their futures!!!

43 Feb 17, 2009 at 09:55 by BritSwedeGuy

Whilst the Swedish public may be supporting the very Swedish Pirate Bay, let’s not forget the Conservative (”Moderat”) government that have increasingly been Hollywood’s bitch – the Social Democrats usually told Big Media to fuck right off.

44 Feb 17, 2009 at 11:05 by by by

suddenly

DOZENS

45 Feb 17, 2009 at 11:34 by Smash_TV

Socialism is at the key of this, in that the notion of private property, intellectual or otherwise, is inheritantly wrong, and contrary to how we humans live. We do not need to own something to use it such as seating on public transport or materials used at work, for instance.

That said, I’m sure whilst a sizeable amount of pirates decry capitalism, they see no solace in anarchy, a free and justice society. The piracy movement does need to be directed, but certainly not down the parliamentary route.

46 Feb 17, 2009 at 12:01 by Dan

long live the pirate bay!

47 Feb 17, 2009 at 12:06 by mark

Not 120.000$ a year. They make 750.000$ a month! And the running cost can’t be that hight maybe 20.000$.

48 Feb 17, 2009 at 12:15 by www.whatload.com

If the piratebay goes down it will be a bad day for pirates :(.
I strongly think the trial will fail, there is no law to prohibit this.
If they loose, perhaps they could relocate somewhere? Say sealand again? hahah

49 Feb 17, 2009 at 12:17 by http://www.whatload.com

Yeah Mark, I do agree that they will be making loads of money on their adverts, far more than their server costs.

50 Feb 17, 2009 at 14:28 by NubCakes

““Of all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.” – The Dalai Lama”

What a load of horseshit, head in a cloud of dope smoke crap.

I suppose this fucking moron the Dalai Lama hasn’t noticed every single economy based on Marxism features massive levels of poverty, a closed and controlled society – especially infomation and almost every single case has failed in less than 100 years since it’s inception.

For some reason it seems very fashionable to accept the Dalai Lama views, opinions and Buddhist beliefs. To me he’s another delusional religious person who believes in a different version of life after death, trees having “spirits” (whatever that means) and reincarnation. In other words he’s just as delusional as christians, muslims and jews however for some reason people treat the man with respect that the other religions never get.

Buddhism seems very fashionable to people that have no idea what it entails: the ultimate expression of Buddhism is the annihilation of the ego – how fucked up is that?

51 Feb 17, 2009 at 14:34 by Rick Astley

Were no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do i
A full commitments what I’m thinking of
You wouldn’t get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand

* never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We’ve know each other for so long
Your hearts been aching
But you’re too shy to say it
Inside we both know whats been going on
We know the game and were gonna play it

And if you ask me how I’m feeling
Don’t tell me you’re too blind to see

(* repeat)

Give you up. give you up
Give you up, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, five you up

I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand

(* repeat 3 times)

52 Feb 17, 2009 at 15:12 by Smash_TV

“I suppose this fucking moron the Dalai Lama hasn’t noticed every single economy based on Marxism features massive levels of poverty, a closed and controlled society – especially infomation and almost every single case has failed in less than 100 years since it’s inception.”

Unlike capitalism? Schooling’s not been that kind to you under this system, if you’re finding punctuation and spelling troublesome!

There has never been an economy based on Marxism, full stop. The USSRs, Cubas and Chinas of the world have run, or ran on state capitalist lines, with no attempt of abolishing wage labour. The fact they were “communist states” is a paradox in itself; you cannot have a stateless state, which is what a communist society is.

When movements have tried to enact Marxist economies, they have been smashed, such as the Paris Commune, or Anarchist held parts of Spain. Here, in its mere infancy, it has been successful, beneficial for the workers, and in Spain, actually more productive than the capitalist model that came before.

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

53 Feb 17, 2009 at 17:59 by dfx

@reasonedmind:

you incorrect in understanding the reality of torrents and what it reflects on.

What it truly reflects on is that a US tv show that is not available elsewhere due to copyright issues, is not worth anymore value than watching it free in the US. Just because overseas the businesses that created the shows (such as heroes) have failed to monetize things by actually releasing things at the same time on every continent when the internet is widely available for this, there is no excuse at all.

If the show was watched in the US for free, why should someone be able to charge for it elsewhere? Last I checked, you don’t get to charge people for free things, such as oxygen.

That is what we call failed capitalism. When a market is sitting there waiting to open up their wallet and you refuse to take the money.

Meanwhile, piratebay does not have to be a profit-minded identity, they could certain be a non profit corporation (if sweden has provisions for that).

Meanwhile, the VHS vs Betamax case looms again, since thats all this is. A rehash of not being able to deal with the times.

54 Feb 17, 2009 at 18:15 by CibrFightr

@Reasoned Mind: They can’t block or ban encryption per se as they depend on encryption themselves. And they can’t censor *particular* encrypted stuff as – well – it is encrypted, using well-known, public algorithms.
The way to victory for us is using technologies the other side depends on. However, the majority of legal entities doesn’t depend on the legality of copyright infringement. That’s why the laws is their weapon of choice. And that’s why we should rely on our technological superiority, not on current laws.
Believe me, Swedish laws will look very different in just a couple of years. It’s what happened in other, formerly liberal countries too. In the long run, freedom will be severely restricted *by law* and the only way out is by applying underground guerrilla tactics in areas where we’re better (no, it’s not the laws). 1984 was so right.

55 Feb 17, 2009 at 18:24 by IrishBrian

Hey… I work about 150 meters from where the trial is taking place…..are there free spots inside or is it still full all the time ?

56 Feb 17, 2009 at 18:31 by Jtholen

Reasoned mind does not know about every aspect of what our networks can do. They cannot limit us from P2P as long as we have bandwidth. The #1 threat to our operations is bandwidth caps.

That said, I am downloading everything I can. And noone can ever stop me from putting that on a 500GB passport and selling it when they finally do lock things down.

All it will do is take the media I have amassed, free information to anyone driven enough to collect it- and turn it into a valuable library; because people will not be able to do it themselves anymore. I can easily see a world where limits on usage make pirating nearly impossible of very specialized and those of us who continue actually DO turn it into a black market.

57 Feb 17, 2009 at 18:33 by CibrFightr

@Reasoned Mind: and by the way: The other side also applies guerrilla tactics! Do you really believe that they believe they’ll win this trial? No. All they want is public attention for their claim (”stealing is bad and hurts artists”) and annoy TPB by sucking their time and money for the trial. Of course, it should also scare other torrent site owners and potential torrent users. That’s what they’ve always been doing. So, for them, it’s not even that much about being right from a juristic point of view, but rather from a common sense point of view (the laws will catch up, believe me).
They also tried to use technological guerrilla tactics (p2p infiltration) but they failed as they weren’t good enough.

58 Feb 17, 2009 at 20:10 by Overman

@ #50 NubCakes

“I suppose this fucking moron the Dalai Lama hasn’t noticed every single economy based on Marxism features massive levels of poverty, a closed and controlled society – especially infomation and almost every single case has failed in less than 100 years since it’s inception.”

Actually, the association between wealth and happiness is propagated by western capitalism.
People in poverty stricken Nigeria have a higher “happiness rating” than those in the wealthy US.
Its a cultural and reinforced messaging issue. Maybe you should watch less TV.

59 Feb 17, 2009 at 20:47 by Anonymous

@18

What about private torrent sites with closed membership? How are you going to find them without violating a plethora of laws in the process, making the inquiry alone a criminal act?

Sure, TPB might(emphasis on ‘might’) die, but filesharing won’t. As long as I have creative access to my own computer, I can put anything I want on it. I can program a new bittorrent or filesharing app and use usenet to spread it anonymously.

The point it, regardless of the outcome of this trial, there’s nothing that can be done to stop the avalanche that is about to occur to the media industry, and they know it.

60 Feb 17, 2009 at 21:28 by ann non

This whole trial looks suspicious to me…

First of all, the big media companies admit that piracy is generating profit for them.

Then, in a potentially crucial antipiracy trial they set out ‘experts’ that can’t differentiate between megabits and megabytes…

This looks like an attempt to formalize status quo. Hydra bites off it’s own heads that get in the way not to get itself killed altogether… Media companies don’t stand a chance against mass piracy, they don’t stand a chance against generation change. My parents may not know how to down stuff from torrents… And my kids will know how to successfully hide from prosecution, or where to find content without being tracked. That change you can’t fight. Question is, how does a big media company survive it?

IMHO this trial is done on purpose… To draw borders. To let piracy have a small victory… but not too big of a victory.

The more I think of it, this trial does not seem to be about winning the case…

long story short:

IT’S A TRAP?

but what are they trying to catch?

61 Feb 17, 2009 at 21:44 by ann non

@45, Smash_TV…

research autarchism please.

It’s a sane alternative to anarchism.

Private property is necessary, but not to the extent it is now.

Private property, patent law and copyright became the tools that created our world’s behemoths… the companies, powerful enough to overturn states, with enough money and rsources only another company can keep them at bay.

Money is power, technology is power… and private property is the tool that lets you amass them infinitely and direct them at your whim.

Now THAT’S WRONG.

62 Feb 18, 2009 at 00:15 by Anonymous

CibrFightr makes sense.

FUCK THE RIAA
FUCK THE MPAA
FUCK THE IFPI
FUCK SCIENTOLOGY TOO NOW THAT WE’RE AT IT.

THE INTERNET WILL PREVAIL!

63 Feb 18, 2009 at 01:19 by DeezNuts

“…the ultimate expression of Buddhism is the annihilation of the ego – how fucked up is that?”

Nubcakes, you know nothing about Buddhism so please refrain from such ignorant drivel.

64 Feb 18, 2009 at 09:37 by Now if only...

TPB FTW

Reasoned mind = nubcakes

Bye bye loser

65 Feb 18, 2009 at 09:45 by Smash_TV

’cause individualism currently is working like a charm!

Private property guards the existence of the state; it offers absolutely nothing to workers. The only way we can guard our interests is by collective control.

66 Feb 18, 2009 at 15:33 by neko

shouldn’t we be emailing the Swedish authorities to show our support for TPB ?

67 Feb 19, 2009 at 03:47 by asdas

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68 Feb 21, 2009 at 01:30 by You are a Pirate

I wonder if anybody would be game enough to set the Pirates of the Carribean theme over the court area where the protesters are?

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