Sweden to Press Charges Against Five Pirate Bay Founders

[zekrahminator]

Prosecutor Håkan Roswall announced today that he plans on pressing charges against the infamous Pirate Bay, on charges of facilitating copyright infringement. The five Pirate Bay founders scoff at the idea, and do not think that Roswall will get the conviction he strives for. After all, the pirate bay only runs a search engine, and does not store any copyrighted material on their servers. The Swedish police already tried earlier this year to blow The Pirate Bay out of the water, but were unable to find any evidence that was usable in a court of law.

Even if Roswall is somehow able to get a conviction, The Pirate Bay founders are pleased to announce that they will simply pack up and move to another country, without any down-time.

Source: Torrent Freak

[erocker]

Noooooooo! Not like I use Pirate Bay or anything... Noooooooooooo!

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

argh! ye mateys, teh bay been very fishy as of late. i guess this is teh reason.

[Nicksterr]

I doubt they will find any incriminating evidence against TPB.

[Batou1986]

i find it funny that everyone keeps going after the these sites and site owners.
IMO This is internet censorship, How can you sue someone for allowing someone to commit an illegal activity. Thats like the government filling charges against Chevrolet for making a car that you can drive recklessly and speed in

or like locking up someone because he said you can get some weed from so and so are they magically guilty of a crime because they somehow enabled you to commit a crime

[Kreij]

The outcome of this will depend on the way the Swedish laws are written. The verb "facilitate" means to "make easy, easier, or to help forward (and action or process, etc.).

If the prosecution can prove that TPB makes it easier, or helps forward the action of, copyright infingement (and by most definitions they probably do) their case would stand in the courts.

Given that TPB flaunts what they do in the face of the government and everyone else who tries to stop them, I can see why they tend to irritate beaurocratic types.

[TUngsten]

Originally Posted by Batou1986

or like locking up someone because he said you can get some weed from so and so are they magically guilty of a crime because they somehow enabled you to commit a crime

Well, that's what "facilitating" a crime is - providing the framework that allows a crime to be committed.

Seriously, though - we all know it's illegal to share copyrighted files. If some of were were game designers who spent the last 4 years developing an awesome title, you'd be pissed to see it ripped and tracked on TPB with thousands of dollars of potential revenue going out the window.

[ccox0909]

These Pirate Bay Founders don't sound that bad...As zekrahminator said there is no copywrited materials on there webpage..What is facilitated copyright infringment...Doesn't sound like a really bad thing to do.

[Darkrealms]

What happened to them leasing/buying that Island Country off the coast of England?
I thought they were going to Sealand?

[Darknova]

Worst that will happen if they are forced to shut down and pay legal fees, and as they said they'll just pack up and move somewhere else.

[FreedomEclipse]

If TPB is getting sued for ONLY running a search engine that would automatically pull google & other www. global search sites into the firing line because we can use them to 'search' for torrents. who hasnt used google as last resort to look for a torrent they couldnt find on their regular torrent sites???

which means all search engines are in direct violation of what TBP are supposedly violating unless they were to filter out certain words thus rendering it totally useless to those who want to look for this specific.

[TUngsten]

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

If TPB is getting sued for ONLY running a search engine that would automatically pull google & other www. global search sites into the firing line because we can use them to 'search' for torrents. who hasnt used google as last resort to look for a torrent they couldnt find on their regular torrent sites???

which means all search engines are in direct violation of what TBP are supposedly violating unless they were to filter out certain words thus rendering it totally useless to those who want to look for this specific.

If Google allowed you to search for and obtain something illegal, like say child pr0n, then they'd surely be held liable

[mdm-adph]

Originally Posted by TUngsten

If Google allowed you to search for and obtain something illegal, like say child pr0n, then they'd surely be held liable

Not that I search for garbage like that, but I'm pretty sure that Google doesn't filter anything out of its search queries -- even if they tried, there'd probably be a myriad of ways around it. Though, you can be quite sure that they're actively working together with law enforcement turning people in depending upon what they click on.

However, even though i'm sure someone has tried, I don't think anyone's successfully sued Google for the ability to find copyrighted stuff from their search engine -- not even in America.

[newconroer]

If a group of people host an underground blackmarket in a warehouse, are those same people not guilty of facilitating, harboring and promoting the blackmarket goods?

Piratebay and others, provide people worldwide a gateway to finding pirated content.

What I scoff at, is that places like the Bay, always fall back to the defense of 'well we're just a search engine, we don't hold any of the actual data.'


It's pathetic how easily people can avoid responsible these days, and it's even more pathetic the laws that are in place.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by TUngsten

If Google allowed you to search for and obtain something illegal, like say child pr0n, then they'd surely be held liable

but the problem at hand isnt childpr0n - TBP aint being done for doing C.P - they are being done for being a search engine

what im trying say is.....

[TBP] = torrent 'search Engine'
[Google/MSN/Other Search Engines] = can be used to obtain 'illegal' material
[RIAA] = Prosecuting [TBP] for being a 'search engine' literally a tool if you want to put it that way & since I myself & Im sure a million others have used Google or whatever search engine as a 'tool' to get to illegal goods, which would put the search engines in the same boat as TBP.

[Chewy]

arg matey, just like becoming an accessory to a crime.. its the same thing.

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

but the problem at hand isnt childpr0n - TBP aint being done for doing C.P - they are being done for being a search engine

but a search engine soley/mainly to illegal downloads.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by Chewy

arg matey, just like becoming an accessory to a crime.. its the same thing.



but a search engine soley/mainly to illegal downloads.

BANG!!!!


thats what ive been trying say but i didnt know how to say it. chewy please accept a years worth of free illegaly obtained pr0n from me for helping me out.

[TUngsten]

I don't really want to argue semantics, but I think there's a significant difference between a "search engine" and a "torrent index" where folks must upload the tracking info for a particular file.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by TUngsten

I don't really want to argue semantics, but I think there's a significant difference between a "search engine" and a "torrent index"

Oh i agree, but you cant stop people using google or any other search engine as an 'accessory to crime' thats all im saying.

google maybe designed solely to search the global web unlike a torrent only search engine but if we wanted to use google as a torrent search engine like TBP's then what would be there to stop us? sure it wont give us the exact torrent in our face but it can get us close enough till its literally on our door step

[newconroer]

Are you serious? That's what you were trying to say but couldn't think of it? Oi vey, that's what we've all been thinking but didn't bother to say because it needn't be said, haha.

Indeed Tungsten. There's no moral or even ethical excuse for what places like Piratebay do; they're just cowards hiding behind liberal laws.

[PVTCaboose1337]

Wow I think that the pirates will prevail, no matter what... you cannot stop them, so why try.

[hv43082]

Long live Pirate Bay!

[newconroer]

They cannot stop people from wanting to be involved with pirated content, but they can seriously bottleneck piracy networks.

Or rather they could... but... ya..

[WarEagleAU]

If Sweden doesnt have copyright laws, why are they trying to sue Pirate Bay?

[Lopez0101]

Originally Posted by Chewy

. . .but a search engine soley/mainly to illegal downloads.

You can find perfectly legal torrents on the Pirate Bay. Torrents of demos or content that the authors of have made freely available to the public. So it's not only doing illegal activities.