2009-07-29 06:18:42
The world's most high-profile file-sharing website the Pirate Bay faces a new
volley of legal action.
Thirteen Hollywood production companies have filed a new lawsuit to try to get
the website shut down.
In April the site's founders were found guilty of breaking copyright law and
were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $4.5m ( 3m) in damages.
However, the site has continued to operate, allowing users to share copyrighted
films, TV and music.
"We have filed a complaint against The Pirate Bay because they have not stopped
their activities after they were sentenced to prison," the studios' lawyer
Monique Wadsted told AFP.
The lawsuit has been brought by Columbia Pictures, Disney Enterprises,
Universal Studios and 10 other firms, many of which were due to receive damages
form the April settlement.
The Pirate Bay was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright organisation Piratbyran,
but for the last five years it has been run by individuals.
Millions of files are exchanged using the service every day.
No copyright content was hosted on The Pirate Bay's web servers; instead it
hosted links to TV, film and music files held on its users' computers.
Following the most recent lawsuit, the site was bought by Global Gaming Factory
(GGF) for 60m kronor ( 4.7m) who intend to turn the site into a legal, pay
service.
The new owners have outlined a "give and take" model which pays users for
sharing their resources.