Another Day, Another Bizarre Twist In The Pirate Bay Case

Wed, May 6th 2009 3:14pm

Filed Under:
conflict of interest, judge, pirate bay, sweden

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Pirate Bay Judge Accused Of Conflict In Another Case As Well

from the oops dept

Following the revelation that the judge in The Pirate Bay case may have had a serious conflict of interest, it looks like the Swedish press has decided to investigate some of his other decisions as well. So now they've turned up another recent case (article in Swedish, here's the Google translation), this time involving BMW, where the judge appears to have been connected to the lawyers representing BMW as well. It's not clear how close the connection was, but it does bring into question why a judge, who's in charge of interpreting laws, should be associated with any group that is advocating a specific change in the law -- because it's difficult to see how he could be impartial in any related case.

Fri, Apr 18th 2008 10:48am

Filed Under:
investigation, pirate bay, sweden

Companies:
pirate bay, warner brothers

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Warner Brothers Hires Lead Police Investigator On The Pirate Bay Lawsuit

from the conflicts-of-interest dept

Stephen Holthaus writes in to point us to a press release from The Pirate Bay about the fact that the chief police inspector who built the case against the Pirate Bay in Sweden has now been hired by Warner Brothers. Unfortunately, it seems like the folks at the Pirate Bay may be overplaying this news, implying that he was employed by Warner Brothers while conducting the investigation. Instead, the details show that he merely switched jobs last month. That's not as scandalous as the Pirate Bay folks make it out to be. While they do have a point in suggesting that some of his investigative work may have been part of the "job interview," it's not unreasonable that Warner Brothers would decide to hire someone who had the experience this investigator had. After all, the RIAA and all of the major record labels have a history of hiring former law enforcement officials (no matter how pointless their "anti-piracy" efforts are). So, while it may call into question the guy's objectivity during the trial, the guys at the Pirate Bay probably should tone down the moral outrage on this one.

Web Services

Wed, Apr 16th 2008 11:16pm

Filed Under:
blogs, censorship, pirate bay, takedowns

Companies:
pirate bay

15 Comments | Leave a Comment..

The Pirate Bay Launches Blog System For Those Worried About Censorship

from the standing-up dept

You have to hand it to the folks who run The Pirate Bay. They certainly don't hesitate to stand up for themselves and refuse to be pushed around. They've spent so much time fighting back against attempts to take them down and sue them, that they figured they might as well make use of that "core competence" in other areas. So, apparently, they're setting up a censorship-free blogging platform, which they claim will be available for those who don't want to worry about weak-willed hosting firms pulling down a blog at the first legal threat. There have been a few hosting firms who have advertised similar services, but the Pirate Bay guys have the reputation to live up to their word.

Tue, Apr 15th 2008 10:55pm

Filed Under:
blocks, compensation, denmark, pirate bay

Companies:
ifpi, pirate bay

15 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Pirate Bay Wants IFPI To Pay Up For Danish ISP Block

from the poking-ifpi-with-a-stick dept

The folks behind the Pirate Bay certainly aren't ones to shy away from a fight. In fact, they seem to enjoy it. The latest is that they're demanding compensation from the IFPI for downtime associated with the IFPI's successful efforts to force Danish ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay says it will ask for a "reasonable" sum, rather than an extraordinary amount as is typical of the entertainment industry. It also says it will use any money it gets from the IFPI to fund Danish artists who want to give away their works online. While the guys at the Pirate Bay reasonably complain that the entire lawsuit between the IFPI and Danish ISPs never involved The Pirate Bay or gave the site a chance to make its own argument (despite being entirely about the site), this request for compensation may be pushing the boundaries a bit -- especially considering that even The Pirate Bay folks have admitted that the ban eventually resulted in more traffic. Perhaps they should send some money to the IFPI to thank them for all that "free" advertising.

Politics

Fri, Mar 14th 2008 4:43pm

Filed Under:
file sharing, isps, pirate bay, privacy, sweden

Companies:
pirate bay

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Sweden Becoming Less Friendly To File Sharing

from the all-that-lobbying-pays-off dept

Despite having politicians who seem to actually understand the real issues at stake surrounding file sharing (hint: it's not a legal problem having to do with "pirates"), it appears that some in the country are getting fed up with the entertainment industry trying to portray Sweden as a "haven for pirates" thanks to the Pirate Bay (which isn't even hosted in Sweden any more). Earlier this year charges were filed against The Pirate Bay, even though it's still not clear if they actually violated any laws. And, now, some Swedish politicians are saying that ISPs should be required to cough up the information of those accused of sharing files. Oddly, this comes so soon after the EU decided that IP addresses are private info and various other countries in Europe have ruled that ISPs shouldn't hand over info, as user privacy is much more important than propping up the entertainment industry's business model.

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

Mon, Feb 18th 2008 2:46pm

Filed Under:
missing sites, pirate bay, search index

Companies:
pirate bay, yahoo

42 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Did Yahoo Delete The Pirate Bay From Search Results?

from the making-friends?--or-enemies? dept

There's a lot of buzz going around concerning reports that Yahoo has deleted The Pirate Bay from its search index, though it appears not everyone is seeing it. There hasn't been an official explanation just yet -- and it could be an accidental move or simply a hiccup, but it raises some questions about Yahoo's search index when such a site disappears. This is especially true given the controversial (deserved or not) nature of The Pirate Bay, and the efforts by the entertainment industry to shut the site down. Initially, we're willing to give Yahoo the benefit of the doubt, but a full explanation of what happened would be useful at this point.

News You Could Do Without

Mon, Feb 11th 2008 7:31am

Filed Under:
denmark, ifpi, pirate bay, significant blow, streisand effect

Companies:
ifpi, pirate bay, tele2

33 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Danish Block Of The Pirate Bay Leads To Even More Traffic

from the nice-publicity-stunt,-IFPI dept

We've noted in the past that every time the RIAA or the IFPI scores a "significant blow" against an operation they accuse of piracy, it only seems to drive more attention to those sites. That appears to be happening once again. Since the IFPI convinced a Danish court to block users from accessing the Pirate Bay, traffic from Denmark to the Pirate Bay has actually increased, thanks mainly to the news coverage of the story. So, for such a significant blow, it appears that all the IFPI has succeeded in doing is providing free advertising for the Pirate Bay.

Wed, Feb 6th 2008 10:02pm

Filed Under:
blocking, danish court, denmark, pirate bay

Companies:
pirate bay, tele2

45 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Danish ISP Doesn't Understand Why It's Supposed To Block Pirate Bay

from the fighting-it dept

Earlier this week, we noted that a Danish court had told ISP Tele2 that it needed to start blocking access to the Pirate Bay. Last year, a court had also ordered Tele2 to block access to AllofMp3.com. Tele2 complied with that first order, though apparently it was quite easy to get around the block (no surprise there). However, apparently sensing the outrage being felt concerning these blocks, Tele2 is considering fighting back against the order (with support from other ISPs). The company claims that it needs "clarification" on the ruling, though doesn't seem to provide much more detail than that at this point.

News You Could Do Without

Mon, Feb 4th 2008 10:59pm

Filed Under:
blocking, danish court, denmark, pirate bay

Companies:
pirate bay, tele2

54 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Danish Court Tells ISP To Block PirateBay

from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed... dept

Back in 2006, a Danish court demanded that ISP Tele2 start blocking access to the AllofMp3.com website. It seemed like a bizarre request, focused on just one ISP. While the ISP complied, apparently the block was quite easy to get around and the overall impact of the ban was minimal. However, that didn't stop the IFPI from talking up what an important move it was. Along those lines, the IFPI has now convinced a Danish judge to also tell Tele2 that it needs to block the Pirate Bay as well. Are they going to demand that Tele2 also blocks Google and Usenet? It's difficult to see the rationale behind this -- and even more difficult to understand why they think that this time such a block will actually be effective. Yet, of course, the IFPI will talk about what a significant move this is in their ongoing fight against ~~new business models~~ piracy.

Thu, Jan 31st 2008 10:42am

Filed Under:
copyright, lawsuit, pirate bay, sweden

Companies:
pirate bay

47 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Pirate Bay Sued, As Expected

from the significant-blow,-right? dept

As was widely expected, Swedish prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the guys who run The Pirate Bay. It's still unclear how creating a search engine that doesn't actually store or handle any unauthorized material breaks the law, but I guess we'll find out how that works during the trial. If anything, though, this will probably work just like every similar file sharing lawsuit, where the end result is merely that more people know about it and more people use it (or move on to use the "next" version that comes out). Also, as some are pointing out, the indictment only includes a very small number of files. It really took one and a half years to come up with such a small list?

Tue, Jan 29th 2008 1:27pm

Filed Under:
lawsuits, mpaa, pirate bay, riaa, sweden

85 Comments | Leave a Comment..

What Good Will A Swedish Lawsuit Against The Pirate Bay Do?

from the hydra dept

It's been expected for a while, but reports are coming out that Swedish prosecutors will finally get around to filing charges against The Pirate Bay this week. If you don't remember, Swedish authorities bowed to US pressure a year and a half ago, and seized the servers of The Pirate Bay, a bittorrent search engine. As was noted at the time, the Pirate Bay doesn't host any infringing content, but simply acts as a search engine -- one that some artists have learned to use to their own advantage. The raid, which the entertainment industry quickly announced represented a "significant blow" against piracy, actually did the reverse. The resulting publicity, garnered the site a lot more attention, which has only continued to grow. It quickly set up new servers outside of Sweden, and it's hard to see a lawsuit doing very much but increasing the amount of attention given to the site. When the actual lawsuit is announced, expect quotes from the RIAA and MPAA about what a big deal this is -- but the only really big deal is how little this lawsuit will do to help the industry. It won't help them adjust to a changing market. It won't help them to adopt necessary new business models. It will only increase the attention given to the Pirate Bay and other sites. We've seen this before with Napster. We've seen this before with Grokster. We've seen this before with Kazaa. So why does the entertainment industry keep doing this?

Culture

Mon, Jul 23rd 2007 5:15pm

Filed Under:
copyright, music, p2p, pirate bay, riaa

Companies:
labrador records, pirate bay