The Pirate Bay trial was a joint

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

and

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

of others with the torrent tracking website

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute m ...

. The criminal charges were supported by a consortium of intellectual rights holders led by the

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

(IFPI), who filed individual civil compensation claims against the owners of The Pirate Bay.

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

s filed charges on 31 January 2008 against Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Peter Sunde, who ran the site; and Carl Lundström, a Swedish businessman who through his businesses sold services to the site. The prosecutor claimed the four worked together to administer, host, and develop the site and thereby facilitated other people's breach of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

law. Some 34 cases of copyright infringements were originally listed, of which 21 were related to music files, 9 to movies, and 4 to games. One case involving music files was later dropped by the copyright holder who made the file available again on the website of

. In addition, claims for damages of 117 million kronor (US$13 million) were filed. The case was decided jointly by a professional judge and three appointed lay judges. The trial started on 16 February 2009 in the

Stockholm District Court Stockholm District Court ( sv, Stockholms tingsrätt) is a Swedish district court in Stockholm. Stockholm District Court is Sweden's largest public court and is located in Stockholm Court House on Kungsholmen in Stockholm. History The Stockh ...

, Sweden. The hearings ended on 3 March 2009 and the verdict was announced on Friday 17 April 2009: Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were all found guilty and sentenced to one year imprisonment and pay a fine of 30 million SEK (about €2.7 million or US$3.5 million). All the defendants appealed the verdict, and in November 2010 the appeal court shortened the prison sentences, but increased damages. On 1 February 2012, the

Supreme Court of Sweden The Supreme Court of Sweden ( sv, Högsta domstolen, abbreviated ''HD'') is the supreme court and the third and final instance in all civil and criminal cases in Sweden. Before a case can be decided by the Supreme Court, leave to appeal ...

refused to hear an appeal in the case, prompting the site to change its official domain name from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se.

The Pirate Bay

is a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

that

indexes Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

and tracks BitTorrent files. It bills itself as "the galaxy's largest BitTorrent tracker" and is ranked as the 73rd most popular website by

Alexa Internet Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon. Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stoc ...

. The website is funded primarily with advertisements shown next to torrent listings. Initially established in November 2003 by the Swedish

anti-copyright Criticism of copyright, or anti-copyright sentiment, is a dissenting view of the current state of copyright law or copyright as a concept. Critics often discuss philosophical, economical, or social rationales of such laws and the laws' implem ...

organization Piratbyrån ("The Piracy Bureau") it has been operating as a separate organization since October 2004.

Police raid on The Pirate Bay

Piratdemonstration vid Mynttorget - 03 - 2006-06-03 (gabbe)

On 31 May 2006 the Swedish police organized a raid on The Pirate Bay in 12 different premises, confiscating 186 servers and causing it to go offline for three days. Upon reopening, the site's number of visitors more than doubled, the increased popularity attributed to greater exposure through the media coverage. The raid, alleged by The Pirate Bay to be politically motivated and under pressure from the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distri ...

(MPAA), was reported as a success by the MPAA in the immediate aftermath but with the website being restored within days and file sharing firmly in focus in the Swedish media, with ''

TorrentFreak __NOTOC__ TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights. The website was started in November 2005 by a Dutch ...

'' calling the raid "highly unsuccessful". The police, however, conducted a preliminary investigation on the confiscated material and by interrogating associated people. In late 2007, a four thousand page report was produced by the prosecutor in preparation for a trial, containing email and

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

messages, payment documents, police interrogation records, and screenshots of The Pirate Bay site.

Trial and courtroom charges

On 31 January 2008 Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four individuals they associated with The Pirate Bay for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws". One of the artists represented by IFPI, Max Peezay, withdrew from the case, decreasing his distributor's compensation demand by 120 000 SEK. Peezay hadn't been asked about participating in the case, and he in fact supports file sharing for private use. Peezay noted however that being unfamiliar with the site, his withdrawal shouldn't be interpreted as a sign of support for their case. The trial began in February 2009. The evidence used in the trial was based on the material acquired in the 2006 raid. The Swedish national television broadcaster

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Swedish national public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national parliament). Prior to 2019 ...

considered the trial important and provided a live online feed of the entire trial, which had never been done in Sweden before. The live audio and archive sections done in cooperation with

Dagens Eko ''Dagens Eko'' ("Echo of the day") – often shortened to ''Ekot'' ("The echo") – is the news service of Swedish national radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio. It provides news bulletins of variable length which are known as ''Ekonyheter'' ("Echo ...

were part of the 24 Direkt program, which became one of their most viewed online content during the trial, second only to

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Son ...

. The trial was also broadcast live by Swedish public radio. The defendants referred to the trial as a "Spectrial", which is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words"spectacle", and set up a blog to inform users on the event. The term has also caught on with some bloggers and supporters.

First day of the trial

On 16 February 2009 defence lawyer Per E. Samuelson stressed to the court that "file sharing services can be used both legally and illegally". Samuelson argued that "it is legal to offer a service that can be used in both a legal and illegal way according to Swedish law" and that The Pirate Bay's services "can be compared to making cars that can be driven faster than the speed limit". Defense attorney Jonas Nilsson insisted that "the individual Internet users who use Pirate Bay services... must answer for the material they have in their possession or the files they plan to share with others."

Second day of the trial

On 17 February 2009 (the second day of the trial) half of the charges against The Pirate Bay were dropped. According to defense lawyer Per Samuelson, "This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the case in just one and a half days and it is clear the prosecutor took strong note of what we said yesterday". Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies, stated "It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue which is the making available of copyrighted works." The prosecutor was unable to prove that the

.torrent In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computer ...

files brought as evidence were actually using The Pirate Bay's tracker. Furthermore, prosecutor Håkan Roswall did not adequately explain the function of DHT which allows for so-called "trackerless" torrents. These shortcomings in the evidence resulted in prosecutor Håkan Roswall having to drop all charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement", leaving "assisting making available" as the remaining charge. Roswall stated that "everything related to reproduction will be removed from the claim". Sanna Wolk, a doctor in law and researcher at Stockholm University observed that "this is not surprising, at least for those who follow the matter. We knew that The Pirate Bay wasn't making any copies directly".

Third day of the trial

On the third day of The Pirate Bay trial, prosecution witnesses claimed damages on the basis that it should have obtained worldwide licenses for the content it distributed. Where content wasn't officially available, a Beatles song, for example, it should be charged at 10 times the going rate. This calculation underlines the prosecution's demand for 117 million SEK (US$12.9 million, €10.2 million) in compensation and damages.

"King Kong" defense

On day three of the trial, defense attorney Per Samuelson presented an argument later dubbed the "King Kong defense": Samuelson was referring to a real Pirate Bay user who posts via the

username A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), account ...

"King Kong", who Samuelson hypothesizes could be in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

. He used this scenario to illustrate that Lundström had no control over the actions undertaken by Pirate Bay users. His main objection was that although the prosecutor had said that the accused would be tried individually, he had not once referred to them individually, but always as "them", "they", or "Pirate Bay". Samuelson said the persons behind The Pirate Bay could not be held collectively responsible for a crime committed by other identifiable individuals, such as "King Kong". The term "King Kong defense" was quickly popularized by

blogs A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...

news feeds, and media reports on the Pirate Bay trial. Amused online commentators compared it to the Chewbacca defense from the TV series '' South Park'', citing a reference to the "jungles of Cambodia" as "the kind of extraneous detail that makes the Chewbacca defense hilarious". In its April verdict, the court found that because the defendants indeed had collective responsibility for the site and knew some torrent files on it pointed to copyrighted material, the EU directive did not apply.

Fourth day of the trial

On 19 February 2009, the fourth day of the trial, Fredrik was questioned several times. It came to the court's attention that Tobias Andersson, a future witness in the case, was in the court where he was later asked to leave the room. When it was movie industry lawyer Monique Wadsted’s turn, she introduced new evidence without warning. Noting the breach of protocol, the presiding judge asked if it was acceptable for the court to be considering evidence that was not already presented pre-trial.

Fifth day of the trial

Day five of the proceedings saw conflict as the prosecution again attempted to introduce evidence that had not been shared with both the court and the defense during pre-trial. The defense objected vehemently with defense lawyer Peter Althin equating the tactic to something out of the old Perry Mason TV show. “Suddenly, the door opens and in walks an entirely new witness.” The presiding judge stopped the case to deliberate the matter and found in favor of the defense, instructing the prosecution to immediately hand over all material they planned to use. The prosecution and the defense spent the remainder of the day delivering conflicting portrayals of the Pirate Bay. The prosecution attempted to show the Pirate Bay as an immensely profitable business that made its money helping others violate copyright law. The defense attempted to show the Pirate Bay as nothing more than a search engine, no different from Google and thus subject to the same protections.

Seventh, eighth and ninth days of the trial

On days seven to nine, the court heard

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge ...

es called by the prosecution and the defense.Trial plan
revised on 2 March 2009. They cited contradicting

academic research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

on the effects of file sharing on sales in the music and film industry globally and regionally in Sweden.

Verdict and reactions

The four operators of the site were convicted by Stockholm district court on 17 April 2009 and sentenced to one year imprisonment each and a total of 30 million

Swedish kronor The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it ...

(approximately US$3.5 million, €2.7 million) in fines and damages. The court found that the defendants were all guilty of accessory to crime against copyright law, strengthened by the commercial and organized nature of the activity. The court, however, never presented its

corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"; plural: ), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proved to have occurred before a person can be convicted of committing that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unless it ca ...

(that is, it never attempted to prove that a crime was committed, but it succeeded in proving that someone was an accessory to that crime). Prosecutor Håkan Roswall cited in his closing arguments a

opinion that a person holding the jacket of someone committing battery can be held responsible for the battery. In its verdict, the court stated that "responsibility for assistance can strike someone who has only insignificantly assisted in the principal crime", referring to a Supreme Court precedent where an accountant was sentenced for accessory to crime even though his actions were not criminal per se. The court rejected the charge of preparation to crime against copyright law. The lawyers of all four defendants appealed the verdict, with Lundström's lawyers filing their appeal immediately on the day the verdict was given. The entertainment industry lawyers appealed as well, on reintroducing the dismissed charge and on the method of calculating damages, which in their opinion does not fully cover the lost income. File sharing researcher Daniel Johansson called the ruling the most important file sharing related verdict in Europe so far, comparing it to the

Napster Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Sh ...

verdict in the US. The sentence is the longest ever awarded under Swedish copyright law, and the prison time and damage compensation high by Swedish standards. While most legal experts expected the court to find the defendants guilty, they were surprised at the harsh verdict.

Sociology of law The sociology of law (legal sociology, or law and society) is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies. Some see sociology of law as belonging "necessarily" to the field of sociology ...

professor Håkan Hyden criticised the exceptionally harsh sentence on both the prison time and large amount of compensation awarded, and some legal analysts expect the punishments to be radically lowered in higher courts. The international public following the trial received the verdict with varying opinions. Some high-profile copyright holders publicly defended the verdict, with former Beatles member

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

commenting to the BBC that "if you get on a bus, you've got to pay. And I think it's fair, you should pay for your ticket." Mark Mulligan from

Forrester Research Forrester is a research and advisory company that offers a variety of services including research, consulting, and events. Forrester has nine North America locations: Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York, New York; San Francisco, California; M ...

considered the verdict very important for music industry PR, and copyright holder organisations indeed praised it as a landmark verdict. Likewise, The European Association of Internet Service Providers welcomed the verdict, commending judicial resolution to copyright infringement issues over internet filtering or three strikes policies. ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

'' went further by criticising that the sentence might not have been strong enough to act as a deterrent for setting up similar services in the future. Some copyright holders took a different view however:

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland. They consist of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Wilson (bass guitar, backing vocals), Jonny Quinn (d ...

vocalist Gary Lightbody commented in interview that "they shouldn't have been jailed... the punishment doesn't fit the crime." In a column in

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

, composer and professor Roger Wallis, who was involved in the trial, condemned the verdict and its effects as paralyzing Swedish IT innovation on new ways of doing business. At the end of May 2009, Swedish

Minister for Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizati ...

Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth Lena Elisabeth Adelsohn Liljeroth (born 24 November 1955) is a Swedish politician who served as Minister for Culture and Sports from 2006 to 2014. A member of the Moderate Party, she was an MP of the Swedish Riksdag from 2002 to 2014. Pers ...

made a speech to The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers, expressing her opinion that "I was among those pleased about the Pirate Bay verdict." In accordance with the

ministerstyre Ministerial rule ( sv, ministerstyre) is the informal term for when a public authority in Sweden — including the Riksdag, or a decision-making body of a municipality — tries to influence how an administrative authority ( sv, förvaltningsmyndig ...

in the Constitution of Sweden, it is unconstitutional for ministers to influence ongoing cases, and many political commentators criticised the minister's statement. Max Andersson, member of the

Committee on the Constitution The Committee on the Constitution ( sv, konstitutionsutskottet) (KU) is a parliamentary committee in the Swedish Riksdag. The committee's responsibilities include examining issues relating to the Swedish Constitution and Administrative laws, as ...

in the

Parliament of Sweden The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and s ...

, requested the committee to review the incident. The committee pointed out the independence of judicial bodies and the government, and reminded ministers to exercise caution in their statements, but saw no need for further action or comment.

Subsequent events

Over 25,000 people joined the Swedish

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties around the world. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharin ...

in the ten days following the guilty verdict,Result of Verdict, for the Pirate Party
. ''Blog Pirate''. 17 April 2009. raising its membership to over 40,000 members and making it the fourth-largest Swedish party by membership count at the time, and the party with the largest youth organisation. In Stockholm and other cities, the Pirate Party organized protests against the court's verdict. Over 1000 protesters gathered in the streets of Stockholm the following day. Protest leader Malin Littorin-Ferm said "we young people have a whole platform on the Internet, where we have all our social contacts—it is there that we live. The state is trying to control the Internet and, by extension, our private lives". Pirate Party Chairman Rickard Falkvinge claimed at the protests that "the establishment and the politicians have declared war against our whole generation," Following the conviction, the IFPI demanded that Swedish

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...

s block The Pirate Bay, but the ISPs have refused to do this. Jon Karlung, managing director of

Bahnhof Bahnhof ( German for "railway station") is a Swedish Internet service provider (ISP) founded in 1994 by Oscar Swartz in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the country's first independent ISP. Today the company is represented in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Up ...

, stated that "we will not censor sites for our customers; that is not our job. I am against anything that contradicts the principle of a free and open Internet." Several Swedish file sharing sites have closed voluntarily with The Pirate Bay verdict as a deterrent and as a result of further police investigation. On 20 April 2009,

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

mobilized "Operation Baylout", which included a DDoS attack on the IFPI International website, causing the site to go offline for a few hours. They released a statement asking supporters of file-sharing to refrain from making any industry-related media purchases during the months of April and May. Two artists originally mentioned in the indictment, Advance Patrol and Max Peezay, later went on to release their work on The Pirate Bay in spring 2009.

Gottfrid Svartholm arrest (2012)

Gottfrid Svartholm, one of the TPB founding members, was arrested on 2 September 2012, in Phnom Penh,

, while evading Swedish authorities following the 2009 verdict and conviction. A group of Anonymous hackers claimed to have attacked websites and internet systems belonging to the Cambodian government in the wake of the arrest. Although at the time of the arrest an

extradition treaty Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

was non-existent between Cambodia and Sweden, negotiations were entered into for the purpose of expelling Svartholm.

Fredrik Neij arrest (2014)

Fredrik Neij, the last of the website's founders to be detained after dodging the 2009 conviction for copyright violations, was detained and later arrested in November 2014 in Nong Khai,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. Swedish officials were brought in and Thai officials stated he would be extradited within the month.

Bias allegations

In mid 2008 after the indictment had been served, it was discovered that the main police investigator in the preliminary investigation had started working for one of the plaintiffs, Warner Brothers, before the date of the indictment. Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin questioned the neutrality and reliability of the preliminary investigation in the event that the investigator had entered the new employment during the investigation, and suspected the job might have been a reward for good work in The Pirate Bay investigation. Althin believed that the investigation might have to be redone if that was the case. The prosecutor Håkan Roswall responded that it wouldn't have posed problems for the investigation because the police were working under his directive, and the investigator's superior officer brushed off the incident as nothing remarkable. Warner Brothers commented merely that the investigator hadn't received any compensation during the time he worked for the Swedish police. According to Roswall, this type of concurrent employment would not be an individual incident, but that the decision of possible bias would be for the court to decide, and that the investigator is not a key witness in the case. The investigator could not be reached during the trial and was taken off the witness list. Only days before the trial began, one of the three appointed lay judges was discovered to be a member of a composers' association that among others works on protecting copyright. After discussing with judge Tomas Norström the problem the membership could pose to the trial, the composer recused himself from acting as a lay judge in the case and he was replaced with another. In the aftermath of the trial, presiding judge Tomas Norström, the same judge that ordered the 2006 raid on The Pirate Bay's servers, came under scrutiny after allegations of bias. Sveriges Radio P3 News organized an investigation that found on 23 April that Norström had several engagements with organisations interested in

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

issues. Peter Danowsky, Monique Wadsted and

Henrik Pontén Henrik Pontén (17 October 1965 – 15 May 2020) was a Swedish jurist active in the organization Svenska antipiratbyrån (Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau), and was often seen representing the organization in the media. Pontén was born in Kalmar Mu ...

from the prosecution side are also members of one of the organisations, the Swedish Copyright Association (SFU). Wadsted commented that all intellectual property lawyers in Stockholm are part of the association. According to Norström, the organisations are involved in discussion about copyright, while the earlier lay judges's organisation advocates further copyright protection. Norström however also sits in the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, which along with the SFU are the Swedish branches of

International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property or AIPPI, an acronym for ''Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle'' in French (formerly ''International Association for the Protection ...

(AIPPI) and Association littéraire et artistique internationale (ALAI). AIPPI's website states that "the objective of AIPPI is to improve and promote the protection of intellectual property on both an international and national basis", and ALAI's president Victor Nabhan commented that his organisation is dedicated mostly to defending copyright holders' interests. Several legal experts have commented that the judge should not have taken the case because of the potential conflict of interest or should at least have mentioned it in the beginning of the trial, and that there are grounds for a retrial. The district court itself however defended judges' membership in these types of organisations, and it is not uncommon for lay judges to even be sitting municipal

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

s. Following the discovery on 23 April, Peter Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin announced that he would request for a retrial. The Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman decided not to investigate the bias since the question had already been requested to be taken up in the

Svea Court of Appeal Svea Court of Appeal ( sv, Svea hovrätt), located in Stockholm, is one of six appellate courts in the Swedish legal system. It is located in the Wrangel Palace, on Riddarholmen islet in Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. History The Svea ...

. The court of appeal received the case on 18 May and assigned it to judge Ulrika Ihrfelt. On the question of bias, Ihrfelt stated she was a member of the Swedish Copyright Association in 2005 when working in the supreme court, but didn't consider herself biased because of this. The president of the court was requested to reassign the case, and on 20 May it was reassigned to three judges from another court of appeal department. The district court along with the prosecutor formally defended judges' memberships in these types of organisations as a way to gain knowledge on copyright issues. The court of appeal considered it a priority case, and ruled on 25 June that the judge's memberships do not constitute bias and that there would be no retrial in the district court. During the preparation for the appeal trial, bias allegations were also made on the court of appeal. In Swedish appeal proceedings for criminal cases where the sentence is greater than a fine, the court usually consists of three professional judges and two lay judges. Judge Ihrfelt, again appointed to the case, informed the parties in mid September 2009 that one of the appointed lay judges is working for the music streaming service

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, which is partly owned by record companies. The lay judge himself didn't feel biased because of his work, but prosecuting attorney Danowsky commented that anyone both judging the case and working for Spotify has a conflict of interest. Later on the same week, defense attorney Samuelsson submitted allegations to the appeal court of Ihrfelt and another professional judge being biased for their membership in the same interest groups judge Norström was investigated for. In the court's opinion, the judges' memberships did not constitute bias, whereas the lay judges's impartiality was questionable and he was dismissed. The court's decision was appealed, and in May 2010 the supreme court affirmed the appeal court's decision on the bias question.

Parties

Defendants

Neij crop.jpg, Fredrik Neij Anakata.jpg, Gottfrid Svartholm Peter sunde close up.jpg, Peter Sunde Carl lundstrom.jpg, Carl Lundström

Plaintiffs

The criminal charges against The Pirate Bay are directly supported by the following prosecution witnesses: *

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

representing: **

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyou ...

Music Entertainment Sweden AB **

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

AB ** Playground Music Scandinavia AB ** Bonnier Amigo Music Group AB ** EMI Music Sweden AB ** Warner Bros. Music Sweden AB * Antipiratbyrån representing: ** Yellow Bird Films AB **

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanu ...

** Henrik Danstrup * MAQS Law Firm Advokatbyrå KB representing: ** Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc ** MGM Pictures Inc **

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...

Industries Inc **

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

Films Co ** Mars Media Beteiligungs GmbH & Co Filmproduktions **

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...

Inc **

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher founded in 1979 by Ken Williams (game developer), Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is k ...

Inc **

Activision Publishing Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Inc

Appeal

After sentencing, the defendants decided to appeal the verdict of the first trial. The appeal started on 28 September 2010 and concluded on 15 October 2010. On 26 November 2010, the verdict was announced. In the verdict, the court found that “The Pirate Bay has facilitated illegal file sharing in a way that results in criminal liability for those who run the service.” Under the verdict, the sentences of three of the defendants would be reduced and the total fines would be increased. The fourth defendant, Gottfrid Svartholm, was not present at the time due to medical reasons. His time for appeal expired on 14 October 2011, and the original 2009 sentence became legally binding for him. The sentence from the appeal traded jail time for increased fines. After the initial trial, each defendant was to serve a year of jail time and pay fines just under one million dollars each. After the appeal, Fredrik Neij was sentenced to 10 months, Peter Sunde to eight months, and Carl Lundstrom to four months in prison. The Svea Court of Appeal decided to grant all Nordic companies their full request in compensation for copyright infringement due to The Pirate Bay, with outside companies being granted smaller gains in compensation. The total fine for the three defendants was increased from 32 million Kronor to 46 million Kronor (US$6.5 million). Each defendant was issued different sentences because of individual contribution toward facilitating illegal file sharing. Instead of issuing all defendants the same sentence, they were each judged on their contribution and sentenced accordingly. However, the fine is to be paid by the three defendants present at the sentencing. The verdict was appealed to the Supreme Court.

Events during the trial

Support campaign

On 18 February 2009 the Norwegian socialist party Red began a global campaign in support of

and filesharers worldwide that lasted until 1 May. The campaign was timed to coincide with the trial. Through the website filesharer.org individuals were encouraged to upload their photographs, as " mugshots", to "let the music and movie industry know who the file-sharers are." The site encourages participation urging people to "Upload a picture of yourself and show them what a criminal looks like!". Red politician Elin Volder Rutle is the initiator of the campaign and she states to the media that "If the guys behind Pirate Bay are criminals, then so am I, and so are most other Norwegians."

IFPI website hack

The website of the

(IFPI) was hacked and defaced with a message to Håkan Roswall, the prosecutor in the trial. The website subsequently became inaccessible, possibly owing to a

denial-of-service attack In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conn ...

. It was shortly brought back online. Peter Sunde, one of the defendants, responded to news of the attack with the comment "Our case is going quite well as most of you have noticed. In the light of that it feels very bad that people are hacking web sites which actually puts us in a worse light than we need to be in." To the perpetrators of the attack he also pleaded, "If anyone involved in the acts going on is reading this—please stop, for our sake. We don’t need that kind of support."

Flower storm

During the ninth day of the trial, after the testimony of

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Roger Wallis had been completed, he was asked according to Swedish court procedures if he wanted any compensation for appearing in court. He declined this but commented to the court that they were welcome to send flowers to his wife if they wished. This was rejected by the judge but quickly caught on amongst supporters of The Pirate Bay following the proceedings via live feeds and other Internet services. A channel was started on the EFnet network on IRC and a website followed and by the evening flowers for almost SEK 40.000 (US$5,000, €3,000) had been ordered for the couple through Internet florists such as

Interflora Interflora is a flower delivery network, associated with over 58,000 affiliated flower shops in over 140 countries. It is a subsidiary of Teleflora, a subsidiary of The Wonderful Company. History In 1920 a florist, Joe Dobson, of Leighto ...

and local florists.

Bonnier Amigo website hack

The website of independent record company

Bonnier Amigo Cosmos Music, formerly Bonnier Amigo Music Group (BAMG), is an independent record company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Bonnier Amigo Music Group was formed in 2001 when the record company and distributor Amigo Musik merged with the record company ...

was hacked on March 1. A similar message to the one on the hacked

website was published, but this time directed to prosecuting attorney Peter Danowsky representing the record labels:

References

External links

* 31 January 2008
modified
24 February 2009), International Public Prosecution Office Stockholm
Sveriges Television 24 Direkt audio archive of the Pirate Bay trial
*
Unofficial English translation
commissioned by IFPI) – 2009-04-17, Stockholm district court * - 26 November 2010, Svea Court of Appeal
New Pirate Bay 2020
Peter Sunde ( Co-Founder,

) - thepiratesbay.club,

Column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

(8 December 2020)
It’s Evolution, Stupid
Peter Sunde ( Co-Founder,

) - Wired,

(10 February 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirate Bay trial, The 2009 in case law 2009 in Sweden 2009 crimes in Sweden Crime in Sweden Intellectual property activism The Pirate Bay