When You Pick An Author To Represent Swedish Authors Angry At The Pirate Bay, Maybe Don't Pick A Pirate Bay Fan

from the just-a-suggestion dept

Who knows who is actually going to win the trial of The Pirate Bay in Sweden, but you have to admit that the prosecution has been screwing up left and right. The latest is almost comical in its ridiculousness. Apparently the lawyer representing the movie industry, Monique Wadsted, asked a novelist friend of hers, named Carina Rydberg, to gather up some quotes from other authors on how evil The Pirate Bay was for their careers. The idea was to use those quotes in her closing remarks. Rydberg, ever the good friend, posted to a Facebook group of Swedish authors:

"My friend Monique Wadsted, who represents the movie and gaming industry in the trial against The Pirate Bay, needs comments from creators and authors on these issues. She is currently preparing her closing arguments and would like to end it with a message from Swedish authors. It can't be long -- only 30 seconds -- so we're talking one-liners here."

"Since I know that we the authors are affected by file-sharing, I think this is an excellent chance to take a stand. [...] I'll try to write something and would like to encourage members to do the same. [...] Furthermore, Monique would love to see us coming to the court in person. As things look now, the whole situation is dominated by the pirates."

That all seems reasonable enough. As TorrentFreak points out in the link above, there are probably plenty of authors out there who haven't realized how to leverage file sharing to their own advantage, and they have every right to have their say. The problem, however, is that Rydberg doesn't appear to be in that camp. In that very same Facebook group, Rydberg has previously talked about using The Pirate Bay and how it's been helpful to her, even encouraging people to pirate her own out of print books. Torrent Freak highlights some of her earlier comments:

"Because I want to watch movies that can neither be rented anymore nor bought on the Internet. I want to read books that are out of print and will cost you 750 British pounds on eBay. For that reason, I want The Pirate Bay to stay. At the moment, I'm trying to download John Schlesinger's 'The Day of the Locust'; it takes time and it's not even certain I'll get a copy that is watchable - but at the same time I have no idea how to get the damn flick any another way...."

"The Pirate Bay is an invaluable source for content that publishers, record labels and movie studios for some reason can't or won't offer. If someone on The Pirate Bay chose to download the book I wrote in 1989 I would have no objection to that. That novel is practically impossible to get hold of and as an author I want to be read."

Not exactly the "spokesperson" the movie industry was probably looking for. Rydberg has apparently been rushing around trying to edit those old posts, but, of course, copies live on, elsewhere -- and she's also found to have commented similarly elsewhere. Perhaps she should have brought that up with Wadsted before agreeing to make statements trashing The Pirate Bay for court proceedings.

Filed Under: carina rydberg, monique wadsted, sweden, trial
Companies: the pirate bay