Pirate Bay Founders Get Jail Time
The four men behind popular P2P/illegal download service Pirate Bay were found guilty today in a Swedish court (where they are based). The men - Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde - were each sentenced to a year in prison as well as ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.54 million). Billboard reports on the Pirate Bay news:
The court found the defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal P2P file-sharing. It ordered that damages must be paid to companies including all the major [record labels] and film studios MGM and 20th Century Fox."The trial of the operators of the Pirate Bay was about defending the rights of creators, confirming the illegality of the service and creating a fair environment for legal music services that respect the rights of the creative community," said IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy in a statement. "Today's verdict is the right outcome on all three counts. The court has also handed down a strong deterrent sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed. This is good news for everyone, in Sweden and internationally, who is making a living or a business from creative activity and who needs to know their rights will protected by law."
1 Comment
zxcvb | April 17, 2009 7:18 AM
That kinda sucks. The nature of copyright monopolies (which is what they are) seriously needs to be reevaluated. At the very least, studios have to know that these scare tactics will not work. People will find a way to file-share regardless of whether a single entity goes down -- which it hasn't in this case as Pirate Bay is still operational at the moment. Adapt or die out -- newspapers refused to change and now look at them. Copyright monopolies are next.