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Walter Watts
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File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
« on: 2009-04-17 23:25:07 » |
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The New York Times
April 18, 2009
File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
By ERIC PFANNER
PARIS — A court in Sweden on Friday convicted four men linked to the notorious Internet file-sharing service The Pirate Bay of violating copyright law, handing the music and movie industries a high-profile victory in their campaign to curb online piracy.
The court found that the men — the three founders, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde, as well as Carl Lundstrom, who provided financing — had aided copyright infringement by operating the site, which provides links to thousands of songs, films, video games and other material, and helps users download them.
They were each sentenced to a year in prison and were also ordered to pay 30 million kronor, or about $3.6 million, in damages to leading entertainment companies.
The case has drawn a huge amount of attention among Internet users and media companies alike because of the size of The Pirate Bay — it is estimated to have more than 20 million users — and the defiant stance of its operators. The trial this winter took place amid a carnival atmosphere in Stockholm, with bands playing outside the courtroom and bloggers Twittering away.
John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, one of the groups that had supported the case against The Pirate Bay, said the decision “sent a strong message about the importance of copyright.”
“We are not triumphant,” he said. “But we are satisfied that the court has clearly said that what they were doing was wrong.”
In the near term, however, the decision may have little effect on the day-to-day operations of The Pirate Bay, as the defendants have vowed to continue running the service as they appeal the ruling.
Kennedy said music and movie industry groups planned to file additional litigation to try to get The Pirate Bay shut down. He said that while he expected the defendants in the case to “hand over the baton” to others, that might now be more difficult.
“There will be less people willing to step up to the plate,” he said.
Over the last decade, media companies have won a series of court victories around the world against file-sharing services like Napster — before it reinvented itself as a legal site — Kazaa and Grokster.
But unauthorized copying of remains a big problem for record business, in particular, with the music industry federation estimating that 95 percent of music downloads involve pirated work.
Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the decision Friday would not result in a “meaningful” decrease in piracy. Internet users are turning to new ways to share music, including streaming and messaging services, which are harder for copyright owners and enforcement officials to detect than downloads.
But he said the ruling was “good p.r.” for the music and movie industries.
“There’s a lot of value out of it, even though its value is not going to be a meaningful reduction in file sharing,” he said. “They have to be seen to be doing something, in the same way that customs fights drug trafficking — as a deterrent.”
Mr. Mulligan said the decision could encourage more music listeners to turn to a growing number of services that provide “free” digital music legally, as part of a broadband subscription or with the support of advertising, for example.
“The best way to fight free is with free,” he said.
The decision could also help alter perceptions of Sweden as a haven for piracy. A new law that took effect this month makes it easier for copyright owners to pursue illegal downloaders through the courts. Figures from Netnod, which operates Internet exchanges in Sweden, show that the volume of Internet traffic plunged as the law took effect — suggesting, analysts said, that some file-sharers may have been deterred.
The Pirate Bay could not immediately be reached for comment on the decision Friday.
On the site, a notice was posted calling the decision a “crazy verdict.”
“But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow,” it said. “That’s the only thing Hollywood ever taught us.”
The Pirate Bay is one of the largest so-called Bit Torrent trackers, which facilitate downloads of large digital files by enlisting the help of other computers.
The defendants had maintained that they were innocent because they did not actually host any of the copyrighted material on their own servers.
As the media industries battle pirates in court, they have also been lobbying for tougher legislation against unauthorized file-sharing — but with more limited success.
In France, the National Assembly last week rejected a government proposal to cut off the Internet connections of persistent copyright pirates, in a surprise vote. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the government will reintroduce the measure at the end of the month.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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letheomaniac
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Re:File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
« Reply #1 on: 2009-04-18 03:26:29 » |
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[letheomaniac] These guys are awesome! 
Source: http://www.shortnews.com
The Pirate Bay Plans to Buy Sealand and Create a Copyright Free Zone
The Pirate Bay, the largest bit torrent tracker in the world, has begun raising funds to buy the micronation of Sealand which is for sale. (SN reported) The Island has been valued at £504 million but what it will actually sell for remains unclear.
If they are successful, The Pirate Bay plan to move their servers to the island where there will be no copyright laws. Citizenship of Sealand will be given to anybody that donates towards the purchase.
The Pirate Bay is currently based in Sweden and has been the target of anti-piracy groups for some time. If they do not raise enough to buy Sealand The Pirate Bay are planning to buy another island somewhere and declare independence.
[letheomaniac] If you want to know more about Sealand check out http://www.sealandgov.org/
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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker
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letheomaniac
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Re:File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
« Reply #2 on: 2009-04-22 04:31:04 » |
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[letheomaniac] Is there some kind of 'Net war brewing here? 
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk
Author: John Leyden
Dated: 20/4/2009
Music industry sites DDoSed after Pirate Bay verdict
Hacktivism cuts both ways
Hacktivists have launched denial of service attacks against music industry association ifpi.org and lawyers involved in the prosecution of the four Pirate Bay defendants in the wake of a guilty verdict against the quartet last Friday.
The assault has rendered ifpi.org - the main website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - intermittently unavailable or sluggish for a time on Monday morning.
Discussions involving 250 hackers on irc.anonnet.org talk about retaliation on the ifpi and lawyers involved in the case and a desire to take the ifi.org website off the internet throughout Monday, at a minimum. Discussion on the attack can be found at irc channels at anonnet.org.
"They want to get the message across that the IFPI can not mess with the internet and that the internet is serious business," coldblood, an admin at anonnet.org told El Reg. "This is very much like the Scientology thing started more than a year ago now," he added.
Operation Baylout, as the attack is called, also involved the reported defacement of the Swedish website of the IFPI.
Meanwhile limited distributed denial of service attacks against some Torrent tracker sites continued in the wake of guilty verdict against the four defendants in the high-profile Pirate Bay trial last Friday.
The main victim of attacks by as yet unidentified vigilantes (or possibly simple griefers) was free-torrents.org, reports security tools firm Arbor Networks. The assault against free-torrents.org has been going on for around a month, and so is hardly a new development. Arbor's findings (below) contradict rumours that large-scale denial of service attacks against multiple Torrent trackers were underway.
All in all, except for free-torrents.org getting attacked by a Black Energy botnet run out of China (using the C&C at hack-off.ru), we can’t corroborate this spate of attacks. Free-torrents.org has been getting pounded by this botnet since mid March, 2009, in fact. But none of the other major sites appear to be receiving such packet love.
Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks, notes that the trial involved the people who ran Pirate Bay, not the site itself, which remains operational. Even if The Pirate Bay was taken down something else would surely replace it. Nonetheless The Pirate Bay is a major interchange (most of the Pirate Bay swarms also include other trackers), so disrupting TPB may have an impact on BitTorrent traffic as a whole, at least for a short period.
The four Pirate Bay Defendants - Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström - were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and heavy fines on Friday. The defendants intend to appeal.
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Hermit
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Re:File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
« Reply #3 on: 2009-04-22 06:16:39 » |
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A pointless one. As one of the Pirate Bay associates attacked by the media industry observed, this is the only round of the war the media is likely to win in this particular campaign, and the anonymous and limited membership systems currently being built are going to pose much bigger identification challenges to the media (and law enforcement etc).
Personally I think that my suggestion on Mailing List / Virus 2003 / Re:The law and what might have been is a much better solution than anything else I have seen to date. And if we hadn't been distracted by the Cheney/Bush bombs and circuses, I would have suggested thinking about voting for people who would commit to implementing such a scheme and ending the Wars on Whatever (naturally including those on "drugs" and "terror")
Kindest Regards
Hermit
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Hermit
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Re:File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says
« Reply #4 on: 2009-04-23 20:07:52 » |
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Pirate Bay defence pushes for retrial
[ Hermit : Dishonesty in the judiciary? ]
Source: PCPRO
Authors: Stuart Turton
Dated: 2009-04-30
The defence lawyers in the Pirate Bay case will demand a retrial following revelations the presiding judge belongs to a number of pro-copyright groups.
Judge Tomas Norstrom has confirmed he belongs to the Swedish Copyright Association, and that he sits on the board for the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property - which is currently campaigning for tougher copyright laws.
He was outed by a Swedish radio station, but claimed during interview that his membership does not "constitute a conflict of interest".
This is despite the fact that Henrik Ponten, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted - three people who represented the entertainment industry during the trial - are also members of the groups.
The lawyer who represented Peter Sunde, one of The Pirate Bay's co-founders, disagrees.
"This is completely new to me," Peter Althin tells Swedish newspaper The Local. "It is reasonable that we should have known about this before. It is a clear case of bias.
"I will point that out in my appeal, then the Court of Appeal will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited."
This would be good news for the defendants who earlier this week were handed down a $3.4 million fine and one year prison sentence for distributing copyrighted material.
They have already confirmed they will appeal the decision.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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