Record Companies Win Battle Against Piracy in Swedish Court

Topics: World Watch

This article was written by Kayvon Afshari of CBS News' foreign desk:

Piracy was dealt a blow on Friday in an unusual place. No, not off the coast of Somalia but in a Stockholm courtroom, as four Swedes who run ThePirateBay.org were found guilty of infringing copyright law by assisting in making movies, music, and television shows available for free download. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundstr?m were sentenced to one year in prison each and ordered to pay damages of $3.6 million to several entertainment companies in both a criminal and civil case.

(CBS/AP)

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which led the civil case against the four defendants, rejoiced the verdict and said it set the right precedent.

"The court has also handed down a strong deterrent sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed," said IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy. "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."

However, the dispute may not be settled yet, as it is likely to undergo an appeals process.

"I don't think that [jail time] is going to happen. I'm still quite confident that the higher up you go in the Swedish court system, the more fair judgment you will get. … No one can say that this was a fair judgment," Peter Sunde said in a press conference that was broadcast live over the Web site Bambuser.com.

The defense argued that The Pirate Bay acts like Google and other search engines, but does not host any copyrighted material on its servers. They also brought a lively atmosphere, with a rented party bus outside the courtroom and many supporters demonstrating in the streets.

Sweden appears to have emerged as a battleground in the debate surrounding online piracy. Boasting one of the highest connectivity rates, the Scandinavian country has even seen the recent rise of Pirate Party, a one-issue political party dedicated to reforming Sweden's copyright laws.

Pirate Party's vice-chairman, Christian Engstrom, said file-sharing is a great benefit to emerging artists and even offers some benefits to large record companies.

"In the music industry, what's happening is that CD sales have dropped. But now people have more money in their pocket to go to concerts which is good for artists because they make more money that way," Engstrom said.

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by quapawsix April 19, 2009 2:22 PM EDT: More corporate control. That's the New World Order for you.; Reply to this comment


by honest_pols April 19, 2009 10:14 AM EDT: N THE NAME OF GREED AND SELFISHNESS

It is wrong to permit monopolization of anything that can benefit others, for the sake of profit, power, control or otherwise.I

It is advocated that ALL that can be shared for the benefit of mankind, be shared, copied, dispensed freely, et al. to everybody it can benefit.

Granting patents and copyrights to create monopolies or exclusive rights - with only very few exceptions - is plainly wrong!

It is the profit/power/control/greed motive that causes and keeps mankind selfish and inconsiderate of others, for the sake of such selfish individuals', entities', corporations', and governments' power, control, profit, greed, etc .

Our purpose for living is for corporate profit - not to benefit the environment, to take care of our children, or to benefit mankind. We exist for corporate profit!

Our lives, good will, and real purpose has been stolen from us by the selfish, greedy, profit motive!

Rebel and boycott such businesses, such systems and such entities.; Reply to this comment


by slownewsday05 April 18, 2009 7:12 PM EDT: Somehow this needs to be available to people to do good with it , such as videotaping church services and making them available for free

What we have now is inellectual tyrrany.

Posted by dovestar

What you have now is a capitalist system which counts on people making purchases in order to produce more goods.

Theft is theft.

Get a clue.; Reply to this comment


by dovestar April 18, 2009 5:05 PM EDT: I find it very interesting that copyright infringement is referred to as piracy. Piracy involves taking something that isn't yours and appropriating it as though it were. Many people who are guilty of "piracy" may be trying to send an uplifting song to a friend. Is this the same thing as "piracy" as the Somali pirates practice it? I think not.
People who create songs, etc. are adding to the public treasury of good, unless, of course, you're talking about songs that glorify cop killing, etc.. Somehow this needs to be available to people to do good with it , such as videotaping church services and making them available for free, to nursing homes, etc., without having to pay handsome fees to some huge conglomerate which will have you thrown in prison for the privilege.
There needs to be some balance to this. What we have now is inellectual tyrrany. And that is unacceptable at any price.; Reply to this comment


by dovestar April 18, 2009 4:49 PM EDT: The whole issue here is control. What can you watch, listen to, or experience and under what circumstances. My wife and I are very active in church. However, if I should videotape our services and take a copy over to the local nursing home to show people who can't go to the service, I am in violation of certain copyright laws.
If a missionary wanted to distribute a modern translation of, let's say, the Gospel of John, in a modern translation, he would have to pay through the nose to the copyright holders in order to do that.
However, he is in no position to be able to afford the handsome fees the copyright holders demand.
Therefore, the poor fellow's out of luck.
Many of us who want to use copyrighted material don't want to steal it. But these days the laws make it impossible to even try to do good. Money has become the new god.
That's tragic.
You can't send an uplifting song to a friend who is depressed because the police will arrest you for copyright infringement.
In this country, the RIAA was suing grandmothers whose grandkids downloaded songs on their computers and the grandparents didn't even know it.
Fifteen year old kids were sued for millions.
The whole thing has gotten way out of hand.
And it's time to rein it in.
It's time to strike a balance between intilectual property rights and the people's right to use what is in the common treasury of public knowledge for to good of all of us.
It is high time to stop the greed, and recognize the need.; Reply to this comment


by legacyabq April 18, 2009 2:21 PM EDT: Posted by whitemale08 at 9:59 AM :

Agreed

Posted by tmittelstaed at 7:58 PM

Yes, very good points

The pirate bay is not engaging in illegal activity, the users who download are...

And anyway, I have discovered and re-discovered bands and movies I never would have thought about because of P2P.. They should be glad people get exposed to the products!

Anyway, the quality of movies is often quite bad. Its not like people are getting a premium experience..

What about video stores?
They buy a movie ONE TIME and then rent it out again and again for a profit!

A much bigger profit than the pirate bay makes on advertising..
\
Whats the big deal?
Plus, isnt it legal to loan a tape or CD or DVD to a friend??
Isnt this the same thing more or less?; Reply to this comment


by whitemale08 April 18, 2009 12:59 PM EDT: What's the difference between tivo and downloading on the internet?

NOTHING?

There was no 'business model' for artists before radio/television, there was no such thing as a record company before sound could be recorded on a phonograph.

Sometimes technology applies the very principles that make certain 'business models' obsolete.

Think of how operas had to be performed live for people to hear the music and people paid money for the priviledge.

Corporations should not have the right to outlaw 'behaviour' that injures anyone only sovereign peoples have that power.

If corporations cannot make money off a certain 'business model', it shouldn't have the right to force that 'business model' on the population anyway.

This is what 'global warming' is all about; to turn otherwise civilized behaviour into a profitable 'business model'.

STOP THIS CORPORATE FASCIST CRAP!

The internet promotes the artist where the corporation no longer can do so profitably. Let the artist make money performing shows.; Reply to this comment


by tmittelstaed April 17, 2009 10:58 PM EDT: Going after PirateBay is a really dumb move on the part of the record companies. The very same listings on PirateBay that users use to find illegally hosted music files, can be used by the record companies to identify machines that are hosting these files, and once the machines are identified the record companies can contact the ISP that the machine is on and have the ISP shut them down. 99% of the machines running p2p filesharing software and making these illegal copies available are nothing more than trojan-compromised systems that crackers have broken into and uploaded these files, so when the record companies identify these systems and work with the ISP to shut them down, it helps the entire Internet.
The record companies think if they shut down these popular index sites that users won't be able to find the actual compromised systems and copy the files from them. But, if the lawsuit is successful, then sites like piratebay will simply move to a model where instead of containing lists of compromised systems that have pirated files on them, they will have lists of compromised systems that themselves have lists of compromised systems that have the files.
It's a thin argument to make that piratebay is aiding and abetting the actual pirates, but are you going to then argue in the future that pirate bay is aiding and abetting systems that are aiding and abetting systems that are aiding and abetting systems that are the actual pirates? How far removed do you want to go?
With that logic you could argue that cbsnews.com is aiding and abetting pirates in this very news story - because they printed the URL (thepiratebay.org) of Pirate Bay. and someone reading this article could jump to the pirate bay website, and then jump to the actual pirates.
This lawsuit is asinine. The record companies need to get back to work identifying the real infringers - the systems hosting the illegal copies.; Reply to this comment

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