Musician Upset That He's Being Used In Lawsuit Against Pirate Bay

from the not-against-it-at-all dept

Earlier this year, Swedish prosecutors finally filed charges against the Pirate Bay, using some of the evidence given to them by the IFPI. Among that "evidence" was a list of Swedish musicians supposedly "hurt" by file sharing. Apparently the IFPI didn't bother to check with those musicians to see how they felt about this. One Swedish hip hop star stood up to the IFPI pointing out that he has nothing against the Pirate Bay and, in fact, is "pro-file sharing," which is even represented in his music. On top of that, the IFPI doesn't own the rights to his music. Because of this, the IFPI has now had to cut back on how much money they're claiming the Pirate Bay owes them. However, if they did that with one artist, it makes you wonder how careful the IFPI was with other musicians as well.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, lawsuit, musician, sweden
Companies: pirate bay

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.

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

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?

Filed Under: copyright, lawsuit, pirate bay, sweden
Companies: pirate bay

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?

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

Swedish Politicians Who Actually Understand The Issues Surrounding File Sharing

from the well,-there's-a-first dept

It's pretty common for polticians to have an extremely superficial understanding of the real issues involved with copyright these days. For that reason, many are susceptible to the entertainment industry's misleading and inaccurate talking points about how it's about "theft" rather than obsolete business models and artificial scarcity vs. infinite goods. In the few cases where we see politicians getting beyond that, it's usually still not about recognizing the business model issue, but continuing the myth that this is about finding a "balance" between consumers and content creators. However, for what may be the first time, it appears some politicians in Sweden really do seem to understand the issues. In response to an effort to implement more stringent copyright laws, some Swedish politicians are coming out against the proposal, while noting that it really is a business model issue. Karl Sigfrid, a Swedish MP, notes:

"The cause for file sharing is basically that it's possible. People have always done it to the extent that they've been able to. With cassette tapes 20 years ago and electronically today. Copyright laws preventing individuals from sharing information have never been legitimate in the eyes of most people.... The change needed might be so radical that it's no longer about selling copies of immaterial products at all."

A politician understanding the deeper issues and talking sense? Didn't see that coming.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, politicians, sweden

Charges Likely To Be Filed Against The Pirate Bay

from the the-game-of-whack-a-mole-continues dept

While the Pirate Bay has been known for quite some time among many people, the moment that really got them the most attention was when (thanks to pressure from the US) Swedish officials took the site down and began an investigation. It only took a little while for the site to come back up, after which traffic shot up in large part thanks to the press attention from the recording industry declaring "victory" over the site being down. The Swedish investigation, however, has apparently had a tough time figuring out if The Pirate Bay actually breaks any laws. After all, it's really just a search engine for content. The company doesn't host any of that content itself. Admittedly, plenty of content you can find from The Pirate Bay is unauthorized, but some of it is perfectly legitimate. The people who are making content available may be breaking copyright law, but simply indexing and pointing people to that content should be perfectly legal.

It seems hard to justify going after the Pirate Bay for anything, and it's taken Swedish investigators well over a year to come up with charges it can throw at the operators of the site -- though it sounds like they won't be filed for a few months. Oddly, it seems that part of the strategy isn't just to go after the folks who run the site, but also one of their employers, who is apparently a politically controversial figure. Torrentfreak suggests that this move is designed to move public sympathy against the site, though until the evidence is presented, it's difficult to assume anything. No matter who is charged and for what, get ready for the next case to watch in the ongoing global game of legal whack-a-mole by the recording industry.

Filed Under: bittorrent, copyright, file sharing, lawsuits, music, sweden
Companies: pirate bay