The Pirate Bay vs Them: Day Three
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:-Ex-Abba keyboard player Björn Ulvaeus says supporters of The Pirate Bay are fighting for “the ‘freedom’ to be lazy and stingy”.
The Pirate Bay Fredrik Neij (TiAMO), Gottfrid Svartholm (Anakata) Warg, Peter Sunde (Brokep), and businessman Carl Lundström, aka The Pirate Bay, are being sued by Warner Bros, MGM, EMI, Colombia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG and Universal for alleged copyright infringement.
Acting on the behalf of the entertainment industry organisations is Swedish prosecutor Håkan Roswall.
And as a Swedish p2pnet reader summed it up, Roswall’s record so far is excellent – from the point of view of TPB.
Roswall »»»
- Failed to use windows mediaplayer
- Failed to understand bittorrent basics
- Failed to start a powerpoint presentation under 15 minutes
- Failed to take screenshots that were relevant as evidence
- Failed to document .torrent files (LOL)
Ulvaeus’ crack was reported by The Register, which went on:
“Ulvaeus, who also co-produced the box office hit Mamma Mia, wrote an op ed on the Swedish website Newsmill in which he berated those who endorse piracy.
“He claimed people who share files of copyrighted material were wrong to portray a David and Goliath scenario when it comes to individuals effectively sticking it to the man – in this case the movie and record industry.
” ‘But anything they steal was once one person’s idea, a single little person. They don’t want to talk about that,’ he wrote.”
Meanwhile, TorrentFreak’s enigmax says Day Three of the trial kicked of with the hapless Roswall dismissing the fact he lost 50% of his case yesterday as “small change”.
After various spurious representations from the likes of the IFPI, Sony, the infamous Henrik Pontén from Svenska Antipiratbyrån (Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau) and Monique Wadsted for the movie industry, the defense lawyers put ther case, he says, continuing »»»
Due to the reduction in the charges, the four defendants say they have no responsibility for the charges that remain.
The lawyers representing all four called on the court for the acquittal of their clients.
Fredrik Neij’s lawyer pointed out that the download figures as reported by the site were far from accurate, and that they should therefore not be used as evidence. It was further argued that uploading a torrent does not mean that the copyrighted files are also ‘available’, since it then has to be seeded. The torrent files, on the other had, are not exclusively on The Pirate Bay, and can also be found through other search engines such as Google.
Gottfrid Svartholm’s lawyer stated that users generate the content on The Pirate Bay, and that his defendant has no control over it. Peter Sunde’s lawyer pointed out that his client was merely the spokesperson of the site, and said that Peter was not responsible for anything else. It was further argued that the correlation between the number of downloads and damages suffered by the copyright holders is non-existent.
As Carl Lundström’s lawyer, Per E Samuelsson took the floor and pointed out the weaknesses in the prosecutor’s case. The defense argued that prosecutors have failed to prove that Lundström has been involved in any transfer of any copyrighted material. He played the King Kong defense.
“EU directive 2000/31/EG says that he who provides an information service is not responsible for the information that is being transferred. In order to be responsible, the service provider must initiate the transfer. But the admins of The Pirate Bay don’t initiate transfers. It’s the users that do and they are physically identifiable people. They call themselves names like KingKong,” Samuelsson told the court.
“According to legal procedure, the accusations must be against an individual and there must be a close tie between the perpetrators of a crime and those who are assisting. This tie has not been shown. The prosecutor must show that Carl Lundström personally has interacted with the user KingKong, who may very well be found in the jungles of Cambodia,” the lawyer added.
The trial, now well ahead of schedule thanks to Roswall, will continue tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
alleged copyright infringement – The Pirate Bay vs Them: Day Two, February 17, 2009
The Register – Abba star slates ‘lazy, stingy’ Pirate Bay fans, February 18, 2009
TorrentFreak – Day 3 – The Pirate Bay’s ‘King Kong’ Defense, February 18, 2009
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February 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Mr Abba needs a dose of reality, how about we go through his home and remove bootlegs and VHS copies and Cassettes of stuff he recorded and liked. We’ll remove all that isn’t official copies. Then we’ll take him to meet real people, real consumers, who did not have an income in the ’70’s that exceeded his home country’s GDP!
It is amazing that the **AA always has rich people bashing the consumer, don’t they realize that consumers are not rich and therefore have NO pity for the rich? Again, **AA groups show me REAL bands that had to close up shop PURELY because of file sharing! You can’t because that’s not what happens!
Stingy and lazy? Get real man, you’re supporting people that have been taking advantage of the consumer AND the artists since the 1950’s!
February 18th, 2009 at 11:36 am
in fact copyright past 10 years is about ABBA being lazy and stingy, GET off your butt and keep working leanr how to take that cash you get and invest it wisely and save some for a rainey day.
NIce he actually gave us more ammo
February 18th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Björn Ulvaeus did not save for retirement on time???? Björn Ulvaeus desperately needs money and is being paid by the kartels to speak for them?
Too late. ABBA is not Sweden. The Pirate Bay IS Sweden.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
MAFFIA = Epic Fail. 11!!111!!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
This twat (Björn Ulvaeus) as been churning out the same abba stuff for the twenty years, mama mia, chess and the like.
I liked abba, but now I THINK I will throw away my entire collection of abba now. Just another money grabing tosser.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
You know, the **AA never fails to amaze me with their outright dimwittedness. I mean, really now, you couldn’t even get a defense lawyer with an entire half a brain? Most lawyers have at *least* half a brain. Some have more (the lawyers defending children in abuse cases frequently have whole brains even!), but they had to pick the guy who not only doesn’t have half a brain, but can’t even use it.
The stuff he failed to do (failed to open a powerpoint? Wow. I mean, I’m no fan of microcrap’s software, but geez. How much could it take to open a freaking powerpoint file?) is just incredible. No wonder they don’t want their court cases webcast.