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Pirate Bay joy at charge change

2009-02-18 13:21:15

Half of the charges levelled at the founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing

site have been dropped.

Swedish prosecutors dropped charges relating to "assisting copyright

infringement" leaving the lesser charges of "assisting making available

Pirate Bay co-founder Frederik Neij said it showed prosecutors had

misunderstood the technology.

The music industry played down the changes as "simplifying the charges".

Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, said: "It's

a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation

claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay.

"In fact it simplifies the prosecutor's case by allowing him to focus on the

main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works."

The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and quickly established itself as the

world's most high profile file-sharing website. In February 2009, it reported

22 million simultaneous users.

At the start of the trial in Stockholm, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg,

Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and Carl Lundstorm were facing a large fine and up to

two years in prison, if convicted.

"This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and a

half days and it is clear that the prosecutor took strong note of what we said

yesterday," defence lawyer Per E Samuelson told the TorrentFreak website, which

reports on developments in the BitTorrent file-sharing community.

BitTorrent is a legal application used by many file-sharers to swap content

because of the fast and efficient way it distributes files.

No copyright content is hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead the

site hosts "torrent" links to TV, film and music files held on its users

computers.

Your reactions:

At the turn of the century lobbyists proclaimed that travelling in a

steam-driven train at the mindboggling speed of 20 mph would suffocate and kill

you. This nonsense came from rigid old fashioned entrepreneurs who couldn't

cope with the tide of time, and the change in technology that comes with it.

Nor can the media barons of large companies and if they can't they will

subsequently disappear and others will take over. The trial is at best

entertainment but of no significance what so ever! Fredrik, Malmo, Sweden

I agree that sharing copyrighted materials is a violation of law, but at the

same time the companies themselves legally enforce their own laws in the

software they release in the name "Terms of use" or " EULA " which you have to

click on it to install the program. It contains usually a very sophisticated

term that serves to protect the company in the first place. Shamoel, Sweden

I sincerely hope that the media firms fail miserably in this endeavour. They

need to recognize that websites like the Pirate Bay and people like Mr. Sunde

and his colleagues will be around for quite a while mostly in response to their

dreadful business tactics. These firms don't even have a valid accusation:

"It's a trial that regards four individuals that have conducted a big

commercial business making money out of others' file-sharing works,

trackers are a business! Most of their money goes right back into the site

itself! Any money they make has got to be a fraction of the ridiculous amount

these lawyers are asking for! And none of the "infringing material" is found on

their servers anyway! It'll set a welcome legal precedent when the firms lose

and TPB gets to continue freely, and the media bullies can leave with their

tails between their legs. Good luck TPB crew! Zenman, New York, NY

If you can get something for nothing, why buy it? This is theft, pure and

simple, and it deprives the creators of the profits they have earned and that

they need to produce more content. Daniel Guida, La Mesa, California, USA

I'm with Pirate Bay on this one as the entertainment industry has been ripping

off consumers for decades and now with the digital age it's time to stuff a few

of these companies If they ain't prepared to keep apace with technology and

offer their product at a reasonable price then they're finished. And as far as

the law goes, these two lads are in the right - they are not responsible

themselves for distributing the il(legal) content. So, stuff the industry. Les,

Elgin

Regardless of whether or not I can download content from sources on the net,

legally or illegally, I still buy CDs, DVDs, video games & books. I think most,

not all, people, like myself, use the internet to get a better idea of a

product before they purchase it. I'd rather know that an album has only the one

song on it that I like that I've already heard on the radio many, many times

before I go and buy a copy, only to be disappointed. That's just me, though,

but I know I can't be that unique or original in my thinking. Amy, Portland,

Oregon, USA