p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- TorrentFreak’s Ernesto has turned up an interesting new twist in the lawsuit in which scurvy crews of corporate movie and music companies are trying to make the people who run The Pirate Bay walk the plank.

“In a desperate move to amp up her case against The Pirate Bay, prosecuting lawyer Monique Wadsted has asked authors for quotes and support in preparation for her closing arguments next Monday,” says Ernesto, going on:

“Unfortunately for her, the friendly request backfired as a befriended author turned out to be a fanatical Pirate Bay supporter.”‘

The way things are going to be entertainment cartels, this latest disaster is almost expected.

On Day One 50% of the corporate case went down the tubes and soon after, Swedish prosecutor HÃ¥kan Roswall failed to »»»

• Use windows mediaplayer
• Understand bittorrent basics
• Start a powerpoint presentation under 15 minutes
• FTake screenshots that were relevant as evidence
• Document .torrent files (LOL)

Now, movie industry lawyer Monique Wadsted asked her friend and novelist Carina Rydberg (right) for help, and the latter, “posted a call-to-arms on a Facebook group for Swedish authors,” says TorrentFreak.

And it went like this »»»

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.

As the digital society has progressed, not all authors have recognized the marketing opportunities of file-sharing. What is interesting, however, is that Carina Rydberg’s real stance on file-sharing differs dramatically from her Facebook post. Swedish blogger projO published postings from Carina Rydberg from earlier discussions in the same Facebook group, where she confessed that she was a registered user at The Pirate Bay. So why is she a member there?“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 “Further on in the same discussion thread, she doesn’t spare her praise:

“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.”

As panic over her hypocrisy increased, Carina Rydberg quickly edited the posts on Facebook to cover her tracks. However, she made a comment to a torrent on The Pirate Bay in November where she repeated a similar statement, that she encouraged the making available of her out-of-print novels.

In recent posts to the authors’ Facebook group, several enraged members have demanded that the person who leaked this information from the group be expelled. However, the founder of the group stated that there are no rules about the contents having to be kept private, and that leaks like this are something you must take into account when posting to a Facebook group.

He added: “I think Carina’s post was somewhat offensive since it presupposes that all authors agree on what is obviously a subjective opinion.”

Meanwhile, Carina Rydberg has come out all guns blazing in running errands for her friend Monique. Despite her earlier support for The Pirate Bay she has forwarded the request to The Swedish Writer’s Union. “They absolutely don’t want to support the pirates,” she wrote in a another Facebook post.

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the authors were to be paid for their work, or if Monique Wadsted expected to get user generated content for free. One thing is sure though, an anti-Pirate Bay quote from Carina and friends wont be worth much in court now.

TorrentFreak – Pirate Bay Prosecution Hires Hypocrite Pirate Author for PR, February 23, 2009
went down the tubes -  The Pirate Bay trial, live and online – Day One, February 18, 2009  

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 11:09 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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