As everyone is now aware, defeat in the Spectrial did not lead to the closure of The Pirate Bay. Now, after being able to download hundreds of their own albums via the site, the record company plaintiffs from the case want action, and have applied to the court to issue fines to the defendants for every day they continue to infringe copyright.
The connections of Pirate Bay judge Tomas Norström to national and international pro-copyright lobby groups are even more far reaching than initially reported. Consequently, many leading figures within the Swedish judicial system are now convinced that a retrial is necessary so the defendants can have an unbiased trial.
Just minutes ago the verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four was announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.
According to Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, he has been given information which suggests that the crew have lost their case in Sweden. A “trustworthy source” reportedly leaked the verdict from the court.
It’s been two weeks since the Pirate Bay trial came to an end – at least for now. While the judge reviews the arguments presented by both sides, TorrentFreak caught up with Peter Sunde to look forward to the decision and review the tumultuous events of the past weeks.
After two weeks of live broadcasted hearings on the Internet, the ‘Spectrial’ is coming to an end. This week both parties presented their closing statements to the court. Time for us to weigh up developments so far and look forward to the verdict.
Today, The Pirate Bay trial will probably come to an end, but not before the defendants’ lawyers have their final say. All four lawyers call for their clients to be acquitted on various grounds, while offering caution to the court to ignore the politic aspects of the trial.
As we enter the final days of The Pirate Bay trial, today the prosecution has been giving the court its closing arguments. Håkan Roswall, Peter Danowsky, Henrik Pontén and Monique Wadsted all appeared, with Roswall calling on the judge to jail all four of the defendants.
When Professor and media researcher Roger Wallis left the stand yesterday, the court asked whether he wanted to be reimbursed for his appearance. “You are welcome to send some flowers to my wife,” he responded. In the hours that followed, many Pirate Bay supporters took this suggestion to hand.
Yesterday several entertainment industry insiders explained how piracy was responsible for the downfall of their industries. Today, Kristoffer Schollin from Gothenburg University explains that BitTorrent is not evil, while media professor Roger Wallis informs the court that the file-sharing is actually beneficial to the entertainment industry.
It’s Day 8 of The Pirate Bay trial and several entertainment industry CEOs take the stand. IFPI’s CEO John Kennedy said that TPB was an extremely damaging force on the global music industry and what the site offers is just too tempting for people to resist. He also admitted to not understanding how TPB or even uTorrent works.
