http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/04/17/pirate-bay-crew-found-guilty/
Pirate Bay crew found guilty
by Lee Mathews Apr 17th 2009
Despite the founders of The Pirate Bay saying they thought a not guilty verdict would be handed down, the Swedish judge presiding over the Pirate Bay trial felt differently. Today, Peter Sunde, Frederik Neij, Gottfried Svartholm, and Carl Lundstrom were each found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and fined $905,000 each.
The fine was handed down as a single amount ($3.62 million) to the four men as a team, a perception the defense had worked hard to prevent during the trial. News of an impending guilty verdict was already creating a stir amongst the press several hours before it was set to be announced.
While Sunde has stated repeatedly that the site will live on regardless of the verdict, one has to wonder for how long. It won't be a stretch for prosecutors to take this one guilty verdict and use it to support further lawsuits against ISPs - who surely must be complicit in the act because they are allowing users to torrent copyrighted materials on their bandwidth - and other trackers, like Mininova.
Remember that the verdict itself isn't all that meaningful yet. The defense plans on filing an appeal and moving the case to a higher court. At this still-early stage the guilty verdict may only serve to make P2P martyrs of Sunde, Neij, and Svartholm, and rally more support to their cause. Here's hoping.
TorrentFreak will be updating their post with continuing news as it breaks.
Pirate Bay crew found guilty
by Lee Mathews Apr 17th 2009
The fine was handed down as a single amount ($3.62 million) to the four men as a team, a perception the defense had worked hard to prevent during the trial. News of an impending guilty verdict was already creating a stir amongst the press several hours before it was set to be announced.
While Sunde has stated repeatedly that the site will live on regardless of the verdict, one has to wonder for how long. It won't be a stretch for prosecutors to take this one guilty verdict and use it to support further lawsuits against ISPs - who surely must be complicit in the act because they are allowing users to torrent copyrighted materials on their bandwidth - and other trackers, like Mininova.
Remember that the verdict itself isn't all that meaningful yet. The defense plans on filing an appeal and moving the case to a higher court. At this still-early stage the guilty verdict may only serve to make P2P martyrs of Sunde, Neij, and Svartholm, and rally more support to their cause. Here's hoping.
TorrentFreak will be updating their post with continuing news as it breaks.
