Has The Pirate Bay Lost Its Appeal... Or Should We Not Trust The NY Times?

from the fact-checking? dept

Someone just alerted me to a NY Times story claiming that the guys behind The Pirate Bay have lost their appeal of the verdict that found them guilty. That would be big news (and it may very well happen). However, I can't find anything else to support it. The NY Times credits the Hollywood Reporter, whose only recent article I can find on the subject merely claims that the TPB guys failed to get the case thrown out. But digging deeper, the only information I can find is that the District Court, which made the original ruling has told the Appeals Court that there was no bias. That's not surprising -- of course the District Court is going to say it wasn't biased and that its judge wasn't biased. But I haven't seen anything that says the Appeals Court has ruled one way or the other on the issue. It looks like the reporters at The Hollywood Reporter and the NY Times may have gotten confused about the difference between the District Court and the Appeals Court -- and assumed that because the District Court claimed the judge wasn't biased, the Appeals Court had ruled that way. Now, it may well come to pass that the Appeals Court does rule that way, but I haven't seen any reports of that yet, and given how news has spread about this case, you would think such reports would have been out there.

But, you know, it's the professional reporters at the NY Times who fact check stuff. We bloggers just make up innuendo and rumor. Surely, they couldn't have gotten the story wrong, right?
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Filed Under: fact checking
Companies: ny times, the pirate bay


Reader Comments

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  1. identicon
    CleverName, 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:32pm

    or, maybe they just made it all up
    not like that has ever happened before

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:32pm

    Someone has to have the story first, and yes, it would be big news if the one appeal used is thrown out.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    dieselm, 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:35pm

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:39pm

    Re:

    Yes, I already linked to that piece in the story. But I believe they got it wrong. They seem to be saying that the court ruled that way, but no one else is saying that. All of the stories have said only that the District Court said there was no bias... not the Appeals Court.

    I think it's a case of the supposedly "professional" reporters at the NYT and THR getting the story wrong.

    Perhaps there's new info on the story, but I'm not seeing ANYTHING out of any Swedish sources.

    It feels like a big game of "telephone" where THR misread the story from Monday in Sweden and then the NYT misread the THR story.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Poster, 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:55pm

    This is why I wait for TorrentFreak to report this sort of thing. They've had the best coverage of the TPB trial.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 12 Jun 2009 @ 6:58pm

    Re:

    Meh, I look at @Sophia and @Brokep. Neither has said anything about this.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 12 Jun 2009 @ 7:05pm

    Re:

    Someone has to have the story first, and yes, it would be big news if the one appeal used is thrown out.

    Yes, someone has to have the story first, but others would have it soon after. No one else seems to be mentioning it -- including the TPB folks.

    Furthermore, the NYT piece credits the THR piece, but that article (from yesterday morning) does not appear to be accurate either.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2009 @ 8:20pm

    So Good...

    See, this just shows how good the "professional reporters at the NY Times" really are. They're so good that they can actually report the news before it even happens! Now that's good!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2009 @ 8:23pm

    Re: So Good...

    They must have a time machine! Wow, amazing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    M, 13 Jun 2009 @ 12:43am

    You are correct NY times has not checked thier sources.

    Living in Sweden I follow this very closely. The current situation is that they have said the Judge was not biased. The matter of appeals is acording to Swedish media a process that could take up to a year. My reconendation to anyone following this is to google translate www.dn.se This is Swedens largest respected newpaper.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2009 @ 4:30am

    RE: You are correct NY times has not checked thier sources

    Or there's thelocal.se. Not sure how respected they would be, but they probably do a better job than google of translation :-P

    http://www.thelocal.se/piratebay/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    Peet McKimmie (profile), 13 Jun 2009 @ 4:53am

    Has The Pirate Bay Lost Its Appeal... Or Should We Not Trust The NY Times?


    Why do we have to choose? Can't both be true?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2009 @ 5:24am

    Re:

    Since one of Mike's goals is to discredit mainstream media (those buggy whip people), you don't get to choose both. Either they are right or they are useless, nothing in between.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Brutus Beefcake, 13 Jun 2009 @ 6:28am

    NY Times = Pravda

    Worthless joke of a news org.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    CleverName, 13 Jun 2009 @ 7:18am

    Re: Re: discredit

    How did you come to that conclusion ?

    and I thought MSM was doing it all by themselves.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Griper, 13 Jun 2009 @ 7:31am

    In his defense

    The writer is a fluff writer, I don't think the times takes him seriously.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Wolfy, 13 Jun 2009 @ 8:03am

    Of course, there would be no attempts to help a decision to go one way by reporting it in advance...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Charles, 13 Jun 2009 @ 8:52am

    That's okay... they also said terrorists took down the trade towers also... ah ha ha

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Noah Fence, 13 Jun 2009 @ 8:59am

    Lost it's appeal?

    I, personally, still find the Pirates Bay VERY appealing!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    bob, 13 Jun 2009 @ 9:58am

    The nytimes is a great paper - it fits exactly in my bird cage. It's the only use for it, though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Jason, 13 Jun 2009 @ 10:32am

    Re: Lost it's appeal?

    That's what I was thinking. The writer was expressing his disenchantment.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. icon
    stat_insig (profile), 13 Jun 2009 @ 12:23pm

    Re: Re:

    Well... everybody can make mistakes. I still rely on major newspapers and websites to provide me with facts. Blogs play a complimentary role by providing some facts (ignored by major houses), but I wouldn't rely on that.

    Major News Providers: 90% fact (good accuracy) + 10% commentary (except in the case of FOX where it is 25:75).
    Blogs: 5% fact (fair accuracy) + 95% commentary.

    Sometime commentaries posted on the major news websites are confused for facts and that is quite disturbing!! (Eg: http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/an-innocent-abroad/?scp=1&sq=foxy%20knoxy&st=cse ).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. identicon
    ScytheNoire, 13 Jun 2009 @ 1:38pm

    Bigger they are, the more they are wrong

    I never trust large news groups, these big corporations, as they are often wrong, and their opinions are tainted by corporate money and corrupt political agenda's.

    It's bad when a place called "The Pirate Bay" is more truthful and upstanding than a major national newspaper.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2009 @ 8:04pm

    Re: In his defense

    The writer is a fluff writer, I don't think the times takes him seriously.

    They seem to take him seriously enough to pay for his stuff and publish it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2009 @ 8:07pm

    Re: Re:

    Hey, looky! We've attracted an NYT troll!
    Now where's that bug spray?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. icon
    timstevens (profile), 13 Jun 2009 @ 9:03pm

    C'mon, the NY Times wrong...again?

    Is this the same NY times with Krugman the foaming Bush inquisitionalist and Nobel Laureate, Dowd the permanently single, yet still hot for an old broad columnist-babe and Rich, the hate everything old white-dude curmudgeon?

    To think that the NY times, which coincidentally is virtually bankrupt (lousy business plan) would get a story completely wrong.

    So, if your product (news and information) is suspect, why would anyone believe their spin, er reporting?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    The Mighty Buzzard, 13 Jun 2009 @ 9:09pm

    Trust the NYT?

    We haven't been able to trust the New York Times since they started putting ideology ahead of the truth, many years ago. No, I'm not even talking about commentators vs. journalists; I'm talking about the decision of which news is Fit To Print.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 13 Jun 2009 @ 10:54pm

    Went to the pirate bay and ....

    ... to see what it was and had this downloaded onto my machine ....


    [DEFAULT]
    BASEURL=res://ieframe.dll/dnserror.htm
    [InternetShortcut]
    URL=http://www.zees earch.net/go.php?track_url=aHR0cDovL2MyNi52YWxhcnkuY29tL3BjbGljay52YWxhcnk/Yz0zNzk2MTI3Ny0yYWRjLTRhM DctYTNkOC0yY2QxOGJkZTMyNjA=&keyword=jobs+in+my+area&bidvalue=0.003441&xmlprovider=valary &display_url=&action=redirected
    IDList=
    IconFile=http://www.zeesearch.net/favicon.ico
    Ico nIndex=1
    [{000214A0-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
    Prop3=19,2


    Anyone know what it is?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  29. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2009 @ 8:37am

    Re: Went to the pirate bay and ....

    Read about that here (in the comments section):

    http://thepiratebay.org/blog/155

    link to this | view in thread ]

  30. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2009 @ 8:37am

    Re: Went to the pirate bay and ....

    Anyone know what it is?

    Who ever is running your DNS service seems to have redirected you someplace. Check with them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  31. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2009 @ 3:59pm

    Re:

    Terrorists did take down the twin towers. You maybe disputing the identity of those terrorists though, but whoever took down those towards are, by definition, terrorists.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  32. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2009 @ 4:04pm

    Re: Re: Went to the pirate bay and ....

    Or he can change his DNS server.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  33. icon
    stat_insig (profile), 14 Jun 2009 @ 5:46pm

    Re: Re:

    They are also called "freedom fighters" in some societies ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  34. icon
    Tor (profile), 15 Jun 2009 @ 6:45am

    I read many english-speaking reports about it that got the facts wrong. Maybe the NY Times was fooled by one of those. It's surprising though that they don't check their facts better.

    When the Appeals Court makes it decision I'm sure we will see lots of news about it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  35. identicon
    Pete Austin, 15 Jun 2009 @ 9:59am

    NYT Still Wrong (3 Days Later)

    This seems to be the accurate version: "According to the Stockholm District Court, Judge Tomas Norström was not biased and therefore that component of the Pirate Bay appeal has failed... The appeal will continue with other grounds being submitted to the Court of Appeal, however, this was always one of the strongest components of the appeal."
    http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25575/1239/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  36. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Jun 2009 @ 12:12pm

    Re: NYT Still Wrong (3 Days Later)

    This seems to be the accurate version: "According to the Stockholm District Court, Judge Tomas Norström was not biased and therefore that component of the Pirate Bay appeal has failed... The appeal will continue with other grounds being submitted to the Court of Appeal, however, this was always one of the strongest components of the appeal."
    http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25575/1239/


    Nope. That IT Wire report gets it wrong too. It's confusing the district court, who claims that judge wasn't biased, with the appeals court, who needs to rule on it. That part of the argument has NOT failed yet. The appeals court simply has not ruled on it.

    The district court gave its opinion to the appeals court, and the appeals court is still considering the matter.

    Saying that that part of the appeal "failed" is flat out incorrect.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  37. icon
    Tor (profile), 15 Jun 2009 @ 12:58pm

    I read many english-speaking reports about it that got the facts wrong. Maybe the NY Times was fooled by one of those. It's surprising though that they don't check their facts better.

    When the Appeals Court makes it decision I'm sure we will see lots of news about it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  38. identicon
    whatever, 15 Jun 2009 @ 5:09pm

    it's fixed now

    "This article has been revised to reflect a correction: An earlier version of this report stated that the men's appeal had been denied."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  39. identicon
    further, 15 Jun 2009 @ 5:12pm

    Re: it's fixed now

    The editor is lazy too. Even the correction notice is poor. It reads better like so:

    "This article has been corrected. The earlier version stated that the appeal had been denied."

    Fewer words. Much better.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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