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The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest BT website, was taken to court
Date: 2009- 03-11 Popularity: 8 Source: China News and Publications Author: Ma Chunmao
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Global The Pirate Bay, the largest BT website, was sued for infringement in a court in Stockholm, Sweden. The four founders of the Pirate Bay website were accused of facilitating piracy activities, causing billions of dollars in losses to international record and film companies including Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, and Warner Bros.
International record and film companies such as Sony BMG and EMI filed claims totaling more than 10 million euros, of which record companies including EMI and Universal demanded compensation of 2.2 million euros. If convicted, the four defendants could also face two years in prison and a fine of up to $180,000 each.
On March 3, the last day of court hearing in this case began. Various associations representing music companies, publishers, and screenwriters appeared in court to make statements, emphasizing the importance of protecting the interests of creators and protecting innovative industries. Jonas, Chairman of the Swedish Independent Music Association, Kaniel, Chairman of the Swedish Music Publishers Association, Ludwig, Swedish Chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Jins, Secretary General of the International Publishers Association, and Gore, Secretary General of the International Music Publishers Alliance, made relevant statements respectively. . The latest news is that the court has decided to make a judgment on the case on April 17.
Since the case involves the world’s largest BT website with more than 25 million simultaneous online users, as well as international record and film giants such as EMI, Universal, and Warner Bros., the case has attracted the attention of global record and film copyright industries and The focus of the Internet industry. Copyright lawyer Akash Sasideva said this is one of the largest piracy lawsuits yet. If successful, the plaintiff will win not only a legal and commercial battle, but also a public relations battle. The entertainment industry wants to make it clear that this type of piracy will not be ignored.
Fierce arguments in court
According to a survey by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the Pirate Bay website allows users to download and share files for free in 34 languages. In January this year The number of simultaneous online users once reached 22 million, with 1.6 million torrent files.
On the morning of February 16th local time in Sweden, the case began to be heard, and the four defendants expressed their dissatisfaction when presenting their defense. Per Samuelsson, defense attorney for Pirate Bay founder Karl Lundstrom, argued in court that "The Pirate Bay is just one of thousands of sites offering the same or similar services. "The scope of their service is legal. You can find completely legal torrent files through it, or you can use it as an illegal tool. The service itself cannot judge whether the torrent file is legal." The founder of The Pirate Bay once said that the website does not store any. Illegal content is just a network for users to share content with each other. There is no copyrighted content on the website.
On the second day of the trial, the case took a major turn. Due to insufficient evidence, the prosecution of The Pirate Bay for "assisting copyright infringement" was dropped, and the subsequent trial was mainly about whether The Pirate Bay "assisted in downloading (infringing files)." During the trial of the case, because the prosecutor could not provide strong evidence to prove that BT torrent files were related to The Pirate Bay's servers, the judge believed that only a BT torrent search engine could not determine that The Pirate Bay had infringed copyright. The defendant said that The Pirate Bay did not violate any laws because it operated like a search engine and did not provide copyrighted files, but simply directed users to the location of the files.
Another focus of the trial is whether downloaders will purchase more music products after downloading. In response to the Pirate Bay’s statement that “those who download the most from P2P are the ones who purchase the most genuine copies,” Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said that netizens who download music from The Pirate Bay spend significantly less on music products than in the past, because If they can't get the music product for free, they have to buy it. It is said that the global music industry's sales have fallen by more than 30% since 2001. From 2001 to 2008, illegal online downloads have caused the global music industry's sales to fall from US$27 billion to US$18 billion.
Fighting with rights holders for many years
In May 2006, Swedish police raided The Pirate Bay's data center and confiscated a large number of servers that provided services to more than 100 websites. However, the raid did not have a big impact on it. In less than 3 days, The Pirate Bay reopened and generated a large number of new users due to the increased visibility of media reports around the world. The website moved some of its servers out of Sweden and the company's headquarters moved to the Netherlands. However, it is reported that at least one server of the website is still located in Sweden. Since then, the site has been up and running and a lawsuit against The Pirate Bay's founder has been pending.
In Italy, the Pirate Bay website was once blocked by the Italian government, but soon after, the court ruled that access to the website was restored on the grounds that the Pirate Bay did not distribute infringing content and did not violate any laws. Previously, users who visited The Pirate Bay in Italy would be directed to the IFPI server and read a warning message. This was considered a violation of privacy, and the Italian Piracy Party also filed a complaint.
The means of competition between the two sides are also quite diverse. In January this year, anti-virus software company Sophos discovered a new Trojan Troj/Qhost-AC. It did not try to install spyware or malicious programs, but only blocked The Pirate Bay and another BT website Mininova. Many people speculate that the creator of this Trojan is the Motion Picture Association of America, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or other related anti-piracy organizations.
Not to be outdone, The Pirate Bay claimed to have obtained conclusive evidence proving that record and film industry giants such as Sony, EMI, and Universal Music had hired hackers to hack into their servers. The Pirate Bay also frequently cleans up suspicious torrent files to prevent anti-piracy organizations from using seeding or seeding servers to collect evidence.
The Pirate Bay has many supporters
Sweden was once known as the "paradise for online infringement". After many infringing websites in Europe were forced to close their sites, they would move to Sweden to continue their operations. Under the convenient conditions of laissez-faire, lax copyright laws, and fast and cheap broadband, an average of 1 in 10 people here uses BT. This provides the necessary conditions for the growth of The Pirate Bay.
In Sweden, The Pirate Bay has also gained support from a considerable portion of the public. According to foreign media reports, on January 1, 2005, IT manager Rick Falvinge set up a website calling on those who downloaded from the Internet to register in order to form a political party - the Pirate Party. Participated in the Swedish parliamentary election in September 2006. This proposal unexpectedly gained a lot of support, and after the 2006 election, the Pirate Party became the largest party without parliamentary seats in Sweden.
The Pirate Party believes that many companies use copyright laws to protect their own interests and hinder the circulation of knowledge, especially online downloads. They advocate reforming copyright laws, abolishing patents, and respecting privacy. Their views have also been supported by many people. Similar organizations have been imitated and established in the United States, France, Italy and other countries, and many netizens regard it as a banner for Internet freedom and the spirit of sharing.
It was reported that a poll at the end of 2008 showed that 21% of Swedes intended to support the party in the upcoming EU parliamentary elections, among men aged 18 to 29. This data is as high as an unprecedented 55%. Taking advantage of the Internet, the party's membership increased by 50% year-on-year in the previous quarter, surpassing the number of Swedish Green Party (Green Party).
The support from the public makes the case delicate. In fact, while the case was being heard, the Swedish website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was hacked by Pirate Bay supporters. Therefore, the plaintiff had to explain in the indictment that “this is not a political trial, nor is it depriving people of their right to enjoy knowledge, nor is it a trial to ban the development of shared technology, but it is to accuse them of facilitating piracy and Profit from it."