Judge that found Pirate Bay owners guilty exposed

[jakncoke]

One of the four men convicted in The Pirate Bay trial is seeking to have his guilty verdict thrown out after learning that the judge in the trial is a member of two pro-copyright groups, including one whose membership includes entertainment industry representatives who argued in the case.
Stockholm district court judge, Tomas Norström told a Swedish newspaper that his previously-undisclosed entanglements with the copyright groups did not constitute a conflict of interest.
The groups include the Swedish Association of Copyright, a discussion forum. Henrik Pontén of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau, Monique Wadsted, a motion picture industry lawyer, and Peter Danowsky from the recording industry's IFPI are members of the organizations, and were largely responsible for pressing the case against The Pirate Bay before the judge.
Norström also sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, and the Internet Infrastructure Foundation, which oversees the dot-se country code and advises on domain name disputes. Monique Wadsted is one of his colleagues at the foundation.
The judge's links to the groups were reported by Swedish National Radio.
Peter Althin, the lawyer who represents Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, announced Thursday that he plans to demand a retrial.
"The Court of Appeal will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited," Althin said on Thursday to the site The Local.
Last Friday Norström and three lay judges found Sunde and three other men guilty of contributory copyright infringement, sentenced them to a year in prison, and ordered them to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies.
"It wasn't appropriate for him to take on this case," says Eric Bylander, senior lecturer in procedure law at Gothenburg University. "There are several circumstances which individually don't constitute partiality, but that put together can form a quite different picture. It's also a matter of what signal this sends to the citizens. Anyone who, on reasonable grounds, can be appear biased in a case should not judge that case."
But Bylander says it's a toss-up as to whether the appeals court will find the conflict serious enough to throw out the verdict. "I don't think the trial will be declared a mistrial, but it's definitely a close call," he says.


mistrial much? what do you think Linux? Do Pirate Bay guys have something to complain about here or is it just grasping at straws?

[LiNuX]

either way the things they were doing and hosting are illegal - wouldn't have made a difference whether it was this judge or another

retrial would just be a waste of time and money of the court system.

[jakncoke]

They aren't hosting though, it's just an exchange service. If Piratebay can go down I don't see how Google or any other search engine can't be sued or haven't been threatened either seeing you can type in " subject torrents" and find all kinds of them be it illegal or otherwise, just like Piratebay

[LiNuX]

they are trying to shut down the gateway to the piracy - they'll most likely use the same amount of evidence

and search engines are just a huge database of websites - I think they have in their disclaimer that they don't represent any of the websites in their engine besides the ones they own, etc. and I am sure they were smarter than pirate bay and had lawyers get clearance for their disclaimer and what not - Pirate bay on the other hand can't do that because what they do is provide a gateway to exchange pirated materials. if they go to the court to reinforce their disclaimer and what not, they'll be denied as soon as they walk in.

[Exodyus]

It's a hydra though and ultimately, worthless in the end.

It's the consistent Rebel VS Government theme that travels throughout society.
Piracy will never end because the Government cant step in to cap profit margins, thus the rising prices are greater than and will eventually be equal to the amount of piracy.

Hydra affect will then take place because of the following and constitutional rights.
Cut one head off - Three will grow in its place.

[LemonRising]

I think they've got a case.
The whole trial is a riot.
I mean
The sentence GOT LEAKED.
That's like a huge case of irony slapped in their face.


<3 the pirate bay guys.
Piracy can be good and bad.
But if I start talking about that I know people will get on my case.
Lets leave it at "you have your opinions and I have mine."
Also.. I'm not a good person.
not really.

[jakncoke]

I was thinking even if they manage to get piratebay taken down the pirates will just move on to another piratebay clone, if they really want to make an impact they need to go after the biggest pirates in the world. It's really a no win situation for them, the harder they try the harder they will will fail because pirates are elusive

[LiNuX]

I was thinking even if they manage to get piratebay taken down the pirates will just move on to another piratebay clone, if they really want to make an impact they need to go after the biggest pirates in the world. It's really a no win situation for them, the harder they try the harder they will will fail because pirates are elusive

yea its sad really - but they try to do this to set an example, makes it less likely for others to try to make a similar site because they know they could face conviction - doesn't work all the time but it gets to more people than you'd think

[Kitey]

I was thinking even if they manage to get piratebay taken down the pirates will just move on to another piratebay clone, if they really want to make an impact they need to go after the biggest pirates in the world. It's really a no win situation for them, the harder they try the harder they will will fail because pirates are elusive
And because the desire for free music and movies and the like will provide a demand for their services. Kill the demand (or at least sharply reduce it) and the pirates disappear.

My thought is that they should go after it from the other end. For example, by lifting copyright protections on its music (and bumping up the price) iTunes is at least trying to fit its service to the demands of its consumers. That's a mainstream, highly visible service telling people that they understand the habits of the people who dl their music. And we can >pft< and >snort< all we want to at teh n00bs who buy from a pay site, but there's merit in the fact that a leading dl service that can actually get people to open their wallets to buy music is trying to reach a compromise with its customers.

[jakncoke]

yea its sad really - but they try to do this to set an example, makes it less likely for others to try to make a similar site because they know they could face conviction - doesn't work all the time but it gets to more people than you'd think

I don't think even that will, I think it just become fractured. Several sites for casual users and Several sites that are underground or carbon copy's of destructoid, pirates hear to stay and will always be a big thing till they come up with something big that prevent hackers from cracking and bringing to it the net

[Exodyus]

... Everyone apparently just skipped over my post and you're now saying what I said...? Wtfmate.

[jakncoke]

haha sorry about that, didn't even notice you posted in this thread

[Exodyus]

haha sorry about that, didn't even notice you posted in this thread

I think Lemon and I posted at the same time or soon-there-after and I got over-ridden. It's cool though. ;)

Just makin' people aware I ... said that like a day ago. xD

[Kitey]

... Everyone apparently just skipped over my post and you're now saying what I said...? Wtfmate.

Thas bc I thought you were actually saying that we should like get swords and go out like hunting mythical beast or summatlikdat. So I was all like wtflol okay, and waiting for my party invite.

Srsly--the hydra can be handled with some inventive thinking. I think that's already happening: hulu, iTunes, etc. The mainstream needs means of controlling and distributing the content cheaply and safely enough (while adding enough value to make spending anything worth it) to draw in enough money to support the distribution system.

[LemonRising]

I think Lemon and I posted at the same time or soon-there-after and I got over-ridden. It's cool though. ;)

Just makin' people aware I ... said that like a day ago. xD

Apparently if we post at the same time.
The world ends.

B |



I'm interested to see how the whole thing ends up, anyways.

[Exodyus]

Thas bc I thought you were actually saying that we should like get swords and go out like hunting mythical beast or summatlikdat. So I was all like wtflol okay, and waiting for my party invite.

Srsly--the hydra can be handled with some inventive thinking. I think that's already happening: hulu, iTunes, etc. The mainstream needs means of controlling and distributing the content cheaply and safely enough (while adding enough value to make spending anything worth it) to draw in enough money to support the distribution system.

They wont though, because then people like me who aren't willing to spend 15 bucks on a lame CD wont even care to spend a buck or two for a single song that's stuck in a crappy MP4 format that's worthless without iTunes.

Mle. I dunno, but as long as the Rebellion exists, there will always be sleepers to the cause.

[jakncoke]

Thas bc I thought you were actually saying that we should like get swords and go out like hunting mythical beast or summatlikdat. So I was all like wtflol okay, and waiting for my party invite.

Srsly--the hydra can be handled with some inventive thinking. I think that's already happening: hulu, iTunes, etc. The mainstream needs means of controlling and distributing the content cheaply and safely enough (while adding enough value to make spending anything worth it) to draw in enough money to support the distribution system.
hulu and it's future clones are interesting, If Youtube is losing 300 million a year on bandwidth, how in the hell is Hulu and it's future clones going to survive? Youtube is lucky because Google is deep pocketed, but hulu..well I don't even know who owns them but with their popularity skyrocketing after the SB ad it's going to be interesting what happens

Edit: Guess it's a joint venture between Fox/Nbc Universal...but are they willing to eat bandwidth and keep it user friendly at the same time like Google has done thus far? I somewhat doubt this

[Kitey]

See, and that is the beauty and genius of the system. Lazy people like my dad (who is also ridiculously paranoid about hackers getting into his system, and who is all kinds of anxious about "the security of his *****") don't mind restricting themselves to a single provider. He buys his mp4s from iTunes and plays them only through iTunes and is a happy mouse with his bit of cheese. He knows his files are clean, they will work, they are complete, and at 99 cents a pop seem cheapcheapcheap. Plus, he is on the side of the angels and doesn't have to worry about the FBI pulling up in front of his house, binding him with duct tape and extension cords, dumping him in a burlap sack, and dragging him off to some undisclosed location for interrogation sessions. (Yes, my dad is worried about these things. And he is not out of the norm.)

Xbox can play Netflix movies. It plays games, dvds, and music. Microsmack's desire that we have only a single unit in our homes that does everything we need in terms of entertainment is rapidly coming to pass.

I have an iPhone--and before you scoff, I love that little piece of equipment as I have loved no other in this life. And yeah yeah yeah there are other phones that can do what this one does, blah blah blah. But the fact that I can move between maps, phone numbers, im's, and any other little thing that my heart desires means that I only need one wee piece of tech to make my life run smoothly. And I can play games. And I recently dl'd a voice recorder app that I can use in meetings, and the quality of the recordings is incredibly good.

But I digress a bit. tl;dr version: Controlling distribution means more than just putting files out there, as you've said, Exo. It also means making it onerous for normal people to step outside their comfort zone to save a few pennies (although yes, they do stack up). I don't mind that so much--it's corporations (already suspect in my mind) meeting the little guy somewhere in the middle.


hulu and it's future clones are interesting, If Youtube is losing 300 million a year on bandwidth, how in the hell is Hulu and it's future clones going to survive? Youtube is lucky because Google is deep pocketed, but hulu..well I don't even know who owns them but with their popularity skyrocketing after the SB ad it's going to be interesting what happens

Edit: Guess it's a joint venture between Fox/Nbc Universal...but are they willing to eat bandwidth and keep it user friendly at the same time like Google has done thus far? I somewhat doubt thishulu forces you to watch commercials at specific increments, and you have to purchase an account to skip them. And I think that episodes aren't permanently available, but I haven't checked. NBC only has online episodes available for a limited time before it pulls them.

It's a much more controlled arena, I think, so the money can move to where it needs to go much more readily. Youtube is managed very differently, but I haven't looked into that as deeply as I need to to comment on that.