ThePirateBay owners may face prison time

[eyesonyouu]

ThePirateBay owners, Hans Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundströmare set to appear in court on Monday and could face two years in prison and a fine as high as $180,000 fine each. The four owners of the very popular public torrent web site face charges of copyright infringement. The servers are located out of Sweden and out of reach of law enforcement, meaning the site will likely stay online if the owners go behind bars.

ThePirateBay is known for hosting torrent files linking users to movies, software, games and other types of copyright material that is illegal spread among users using P2P protocol and a BitTorrent client. The site also includes a search feature for easily locating almost any type of material on the web site.

The site doesn't actually host the illegal content, argues ThePirateBay owners and lawyers, but only hosts a file connecting users to each other. "The Pirate Bay is not a pirate site. No copyrighted works are touching it in any way," says ThePirateBay. The owners mention the plaintiffs should be going after the users who are hosting and sharing the content and not the site itself.

ThePirateBay claims that Google is more liable for copyright infringement than they are, by providing millions of direct links to copyright material than ThePirateBay. Over the last year, the site has gone from 8 million users to 22 million, including speculated revenue of over $3 million.

[MRDJ]

including speculated revenue of over $3 million.

damn thats lot of money :D ..if they were living in india they could have just paid that much to the judge and walk free 8-)

[hereward]

They have been very public in their contempt. I wonder if this is going to come back and bite them.

The owners mention the plaintiffs should be going after the users who are hosting and sharing the content and not the site itself.

They sound worried.

Hereward

[eyesonyouu]

damn thats lot of money :D ..if they were living in india they could have just paid that much to the judge and walk free 8-)

Thats sad but very true!! In India there is no law for the rich X-(

They have been very public in their contempt. I wonder if this is going to come back and bite them.


They sound worried.

Hereward


Thats a very strong point. Services generally remove the content once they recieve the complaint. but they used to put their conversions in hall of fame making fun of them! :D

that used to be funny though!!

[bluffmaster12pm]

including speculated revenue of over $3 million.
Ha ha true said .. law is only for common pple in india .

But their google point is also strong . Hope TPB stays forever .

[Tars]

I read somewhere that the court case is happening now because Swedish authorities were on a deadline to either prosecute or drop the charges.
There has been alot of pressure put on the EU and isp about piracy so if the piratebay guys are found guilty it might lead to some further crack downs.

[farrell]

the site has gone from 8 million users to 22 million

This is why they failed to close it down the first time. They got tonnes of swedish protestors.

Check this out too, A BBC World "Click" report on the Pirate Bay file sharing website and it's creators:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVVT54hrSE

-Farrell

[laeresh]

i find this a bunch of bullcrap, piratebay is the reason that i BUY STUFF !!!!

If i downloaded a game and i liked it and it worked, i buy it.
else i dont, cuz i dont like it or aint working.

If i downloaded a movie and liked it, i buy it.

If i download music and i like the album, i order the album online.

So swedish government sucks.......

[eyesonyouu]

i find this a bunch of bullcrap, piratebay is the reason that i BUY STUFF !!!!

If i downloaded a game and i liked it and it worked, i buy it.
else i dont, cuz i dont like it or aint working.

If i downloaded a movie and liked it, i buy it.

If i download music and i like the album, i order the album online.

So swedish government sucks.......



Well these type of people are very few that buy stuff once they like!!



most of the people just KEEP the stuff they like and doesnt buy!! :p

[laeresh]

I also have my exeptions
Like lord of the rings conquest, full of bugs, multiplayer is crap, unbalanced, login to ea for playing online fails 80% of the time.
Then i aint buying ofcourse.

but look at it logically for instance dawn of war soulstorm.
Like the game alot, but if i wanna play with other people i will need a valid key, so buying the game IS the reason for me cuz then i can play online.
I haven't bought left 4 dead yet since i find the price rediculis for a game with only 20 levels..... if it drops down i'll be buying it.

I see piratebay as my friend, cuz it acts exactly like my friends.
I borrow games/movies, check them out and stuff and then i judge myself.

Though i just hate that the swedish government is being such an ass.
Even though lots of people ( i do it with some things like Star trek enterprise series, not paying 200€ for the box ) keep it.
STILL the people themselves violate copyright, piratebay does nothing wrong.

In fact i support the issue that google is way more copyright violating, since i can search warez and they give me valid links to warez sites, i can search porn even all kind of illegal pornographics content.

Google shows EVERYTHING !, even a movie where al qaida people slip someoens throat.

I find that far more disturbing then a couple of millions of people aint paying 30€ for something 19/20 people DO buy......

[Terminator]

Best of luck to the owners because its going to be really going to be tought for them