Judge In Pirate Bay Case Appears To Have Ties To The Copyright Lobby
from the ooops dept
Via Martin Thornkvist, we find out that Swedish Public radio has discovered that the judge in The Pirate Bay case apparently has some ties to the copyright lobby (that's a Google translation -- if you know Swedish, the original is here). Apparently, he's a member of a few organizations that work towards strengthening copyright laws, and even holds a board position in one of those organizations. The lawyers representing the entertainment industry also belonged to one of the pro-copyright organizations in which the judge is a member. Experts quoted in the article note that this is highly irregular, and the judge should have recused himself for conflict of interest. The judge, of course, claims that he doesn't believe he was biased at all, but others note that any hint of bias is a problem in such a legal case (let alone such a high profile one).
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Filed Under: conflict of interest, copyright, copyright lobby, judge, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay
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So how I am not surprised, They are all crooks anyway you look at it.
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Looks like a Duck
What did these folks think would happen - no one would notice?
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Now I wish this case was tried in the U.S.
I see an appeals decision in favor of the 4 found guilty. If the decision isn't reversed due to this news, I truly feel sorry for every person in Sweden who must contend with this "legal" system.
And for this case to be world wide, I can only hope (appeal win) that lawyers around the world start to re-examine their position on copyright when it comes to the entertainment industry's pursuit of it, especially when going after innocent people.
More importantly, I wish the damn laws would change to rid any possibility of these types of lawsuits.
Everyone understands the importance of protecting one's own works, but this is getting out of hand.
And it doesn't cease to amaze me how artists aren't the ones fighting these battles. Probably because they know better if they're on a quest to become "popular".
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Prosecution has to have known
The prosecution knew. They couldn't have missed it. They had more money and knew more about the judge than the defendants and they should have made this information available to them.
The judge is on the boards of some of these organizations. HE CAN'T BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN BIASED. It's impossible for him to be anything else but biased, even if he wasn't outright paid. He should be bought up on misconduct.
And can anyone explain why on earth these defendants chose a judge to render the verdict? Why didn't they go for a jury trial?
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Artists
If the person is being sued for downloading Beyonce,Jason Mraz,Madonna, and metallica. Then we should post the head lines as these artists are sueing defended X.
See how the singers like there names directly in the headlines sueing children and people who dont even have computers. I think this would create a huge outcry from the artists to stop this, Just to stop there names from being draged through the mud.
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Pirate Bay
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Re: Artists
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Plutocracy
–noun, plural -cies.
1. the rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy.
Wealthy judges & wealthy lawyers, belonging to the same Billderberg-ish clique, determining policy for the masses across national borders.
...awesome.
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Re: Prosecution has to have known
For the simple reason there are no jury trials in Sweden.
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Congrats Judge Copyright!
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Re:
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Maybe they did know and wanted a good reason for an appeal. I have to say you don't get much better of a reason.
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"And can anyone explain why on earth these defendants chose a judge to render the verdict? Why didn't they go for a jury trial?"
Because, to the best of my knowledge, a jury trial as it works in the U.S. is not possible in swedish courts. In criminal cases, the jury (even though it's not called that) is appointed not on a case-by-case basis. Instead, they are appointed by the local authorities for a period of time which is, IIRC, 4 years. In other words, an individual is not chosen to sit on jury by a kind of game-of-chance.
Their duty is to aid the judge in determining both guilt and what sentence the accused will get if found guilty. The key-word here is aid: the judge can ignore the laymen's advice if he so chooses.
Note: I am not a laywer, but that's how I was once taught it works. My understanding may be wrong, and it may have changed since then even if my understanding of it is right otherwise.
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Re: Re: Prosecution has to have known
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But, the judge didn't consider himself biased, although he fell in the exact same category.
Read this please
The legal measures to apply in this case, are still being determined.
Has far as public opinion goes, in Sweden and the rest of the news reading world, this trial has been tainted and all proceedings should be reiniciated.
There's some fear of the dangers in the delaying all this will cause, because that will give more time to the consortiums to lobby and force approval of even stricter laws. It is under consideration if it wouldn't be better to leave this trial, biased and unjust, to stand, and annull it later on higher instances, instead.
I can't stop smiling about this, since I read the news this morning, that's all I know.
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Article on torrentfreak
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-lawyer-is-biased-calls-for-a-retrial-090423/
I think it should be emphasized that there is no evidence at this point to show that the judge is corrupt in any way. The trouble is that the mere suspicion that his involvement in these associations may influence the verdict is bad. It is also not clear to what extent these associations really promote stronger copyright laws, but this seems to be the case for at least one of them.
@Rob:
If the judge is deemed to be biased then there will indeed be a new trial. I'm not very familiar with legal terms in English, but I believe the trial was a jury trial - the verdict was not decided by the judge alone. In fact one member of the initial jury was deemed biased and was replaced since he was a composer and member of Society of Swedish Composers. This makes it even more surprising that the judge didn't inform both parties of his commitments and memberships.
Btw. it has been reported by those who were there that the "nämndemän" (I suppose this somehow to the jury) almost fell asleep several times during the trial out of boredom (and I can vouch for the prosecutor being really boring having listened to the trial on radio), so I would guess that the judge (who gave a very alert and good impression) had a lot of influence over the verdict.
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Re:
Is this different than US courts? I guess it must be regarding guilty/not-guilty, but doesn't the judge have the ability to raise or lower the penalty if he so chooses?
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I believe this is completely wrong. Here's a translated excerpt of the Swedish wikipedia article on "nämndeman" (corresponding but not equal to jury member):
"The nämndemän are completely equal to the judges - all have their individual say and all take part in all the decisions made by the court. The nämndemän also have the right to register a reservation with their reasons on the verdict. This sets nämndemän apart from the jury members found in many other countries who often only have a say in the guilt question whereas the judge determines the penalty. In Sweden juries are only used in court cases related to free speech laws."
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Comment by the Swedish Judge Association chairman
"- I usually think, what if the worst sensationalistic journalist in Sweden founds out about this, can it then mean that an article is written which causes the public to be suspicious. If so, one shouldn't take part in the case."
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It should help
Reasoning;
If this was done before it would have led to the recusal of the present judge and the appointment of on who's biases are not known.
This aids the appeal.
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Doomed
-This judge is moron, and should no longer be a judge.
-This judge is corrupt, and should no longer be a judge.
Personally, I'd say both of them are true.
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Re:
Boosted numbers + Not Guilty = Epic Win.
..or maybe not.
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T-Shirts Now
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Collateral Attack
I don't know if it was or not, but, it does seems reasonable, and effective.
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Corruption in the Judicial System?
Judge Tomas Norström is a member of the Swedish Association of Copyright (SFU) with Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique who represented copyrights holders in Pirate Bay trial.
Judge Tomas Norström is a member of the board of the Swedish Association for Industrial Property (SFIR) which pushed for stronger copyrights.
Judge Tomas Norström is employed by Foundation, SE. Here a colleague is Monique Wadsted who represents the American film companies in the Pirate Bay trial.
"But I have not felt that I am biased because of those commitments." says Tomas Norström, Judge of the Pirate Bay case.
I say three strikes and you're out.
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Yesterday, the EU Counsel approved a directive that among other things state that ISP's can only cut the access to copyright infringers after being found guilty in the judicial system.
But, now, I wonder...
With judges like this, can actualy the judicial system be trusted to make such a decision?
If not, then WHO?
If there's one judge, how many more are there? Can we truly, ever be tried fairly, when Big Cartels are behind the scene pushing for our demise, with or without proof?
Is it even possible to put any case of this kind on trial, without BIAS, after all the dotrinaction that has been going on FOR YEARS now?
I do wonder now...
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Re:
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Confused about the conflict of interest
This judge focused on copyright law, wouldn't it make since for him to be involved in those organizations?
I think people are mistaking the case to be about whether or not copyright needs reworking. It wasn't, the case was about whether or not the Pirate Bay broke the laws already in place, which I think a judge who is very involved in copyright would be a good choice to preside over. He isn't associated with anyone that would benefit from the Pirate Bay being convicted.
Again, I don't see this as a conflict of interest.
I am totally for the idea of the entertainment industry finally realizing they need a new distribution model and rethinking how to monetize that, which a lot of people are focusing on, but I don't think that was what the case was about.
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You cannot interpret that as in itself enabling courts to order cut of internet access. In Sweden, as in hopefully many other European countries, there is a political consensus not to cut off access to internet.
I think the people that claim that this judge is corrupt are way overline. BUT, the mere suspicion is bad for the confidence in the legal system which is why he should have resigned from this case. You often see claims that linking is not against the law in Sweden, but if you study the precedent cases on that you find that the situation is everything but clear. So even with another judge they might very well be found guilty.
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Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
Are you sure? I am not. And even if he weren't there's a problem if the associations of which he is a member on the whole supports changing the laws in a certain direction. The chairman of the Swedish Copyright Association is a professor who has very strongly supported copyright extension for recorded music from 50 years to 95 years and he has written articles in newspapers warning the government not to listen to those who don't want a system where ISPs can be forced to hand over sensitive information linking IP addresses to ISP subscribers to rights holders (he got his way since the Swedish implementation of IPRED1 now looks like this). Now he may not be representative for the whole association, which describes itself as a kind of forum for discussion, but I still think the public view of this organization is that it's populated by more copyright hawks than doves.
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Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
This judge had a conflict of interest, not the appearance of one...plain and simple.
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Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
I think the point is that a judge who is an advocate of stronger copyright laws (and actively involved in organizations pushing for such things) is much more inclined to view a case like The Pirate Bay's through a different prism than one who is neutral to copyright laws.
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Re: Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
This case would not effect copyright law is what people have to really get a hold of. This was just determining whether or not they were guilty of laws already in place. He MAY hold opinions we don't like about copyright law, but that doesn't mean he was a bad choice, unfortunately.
If that were the case, then judges who are members of organizations supporting stricter laws about child abuse, or any other topic, would not be allowed to preside over trials that concern that topic, even though that is their focus and what they are most educated on. If an attorney didn't like their opinion on the matter, it doesn't mean they have a conflict of interest.
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Re: Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
You are absolutely right, that stinks for the Pirate Bay, but it doesn't mean he has a conflict of interest. Lawyers all the time have to deal with the luck of the draw about which judge they get on a certain case.
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Re: Re: Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
His membership in organizations that have a stake in changing copyright laws in any way or more strict or less strict enforcement/application of those laws is, therefore, a conflict.
If the judge was a member of the Pirate Party, that would be just as much of a conflict of interest.
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Re:
Just remember kids Dihydrogen monoxide kills thousands a year if you run into it stop and tell an adult.
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Re: Re: Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
I still don't agree, though I understand your point. The argument is basically that someone who pushes for stricter copyright law is also more inclined to read actions as violating copyright law, even if they don't actually violate the letter of the law.
I still think it's a clear conflict of interest. His positions show that he believes the position of the entertainment industry concerning copyright and has worked with the prosecutors for the case before in furthering copyright interests. It's hard to see how that's not a conflict of interest.
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Holy crap!
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Re: Holy crap!
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Sweden blows
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Actually, I hope I'm wrong.
"The nämndemän are completely equal to the judges - all have their individual say and all take part in all the decisions made by the court. The nämndemän also have the right to register a reservation with their reasons on the verdict."
I wouldn't say completely equal. In theory, yes, but in practice I doubt it. Besides, register a reservation is fine but very unlikely to change the verdict in hovrätten (=court of appeals).
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Re: Sweden blows
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Re: Re: Holy crap!
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Re: Re:
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verdict also leaked...
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Doesn't he know wich is the integrity level of his fellows?. Yes, he knows it, but I think that his speculation has fallen under a high recklessness about his fellows. They have now to show wich is the moral level of integrity they themselves posses. We are not morons!
A cloud of close friends -Tomas Norström, Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky, Monique Wadsted- have hung in prison to four persons. What do people have to claim against caves of robbers while these are infiltrated not only in houses of parliament but in courts too?. If this is not corruption, what is it then corruption?
As between both riversides of the Potomac, between the Pirate Bay and the Pirate Party only one stream of clear water can flow, the votes of social integrity.
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Dan glickman sucks little boys penis
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Re:
Seriously, not sarcasm.
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Music and movie industary now needs a case brought against them
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Re: Confused about the conflict of interest
Busted.
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Re: Re:
When did they do that?
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This case is not yet resolved. We The People want to know if the swedish justice and politician system is corrupted, as an advanced column to abort the awakening european conception of the truely new world. We will not be satisfied with TV's and declarations, it's enough with this trial show.
Citizens of this era are called to apply theirs highest moral values to resolve this class of cases. Every case of the old New World Order has the same pattern: misconception and corruption by paternalist cloaked campaigns.
Internet is the Agora they want to manage through corporations and lobbies strongly organized around a very close privated interests. Theese people along the old road to the oldest bussines are already managing Parliaments and Courts. Pirate Bay has been chosen as Hiroshima and Nagasaki to conquer the strategical Hill of Internet. A despaired act from morons and baloons.
Sweeden is nowadays the disguised China Terminator, a very planned exemplary case for all world; what about tomorrow?. Tomorrow we may be again in a new Battle of Gettysburg. We are the disguised whites and the disguised niggers, not the pirates.
Power to The People! Pirate Party now has much to do.
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