p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Hollywood studios seeking to railroad The Pirate Bay have been stymied in their efforts to add insult to injury.

In a farcical trial almost certainly to be re-heard and featuring a biased judge and a prosecutor who asked for help from a Pirate Bay supporter, “Seven multinational conglomerates, whose monthly earnings run into the billions of dollars and would quite literally keep the same number of third world countries in food for four or five years, sued three young men and a supporter,” said p2pnet recently.

“These unimaginably huge corporations with mind-boggling, eye-popping annual revenues and employing thousands of people around the world, claim they`re being ‘devastated’ by Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and their .torrent search engine.”

Bank accounts belonging to The Pirate Bay Four may have been frozen by the Kronofogden, Sweden`s official debt collection agency, which had, “already sent payment orders to the four men convicted in the case demanding they pay the first 12.1 million kronor ($1.5 million) of the 30 million kronor damages claim that accompanied the guilty verdict against them,” said The Local.

Then, in a bid to stop to pThe Pirate Bay from linking to allegedly copyright infringing material, Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner demanded penalties be levied against the site’s operators for every day they keep the tracker and website online, says TorrentFreak.

But, “After reviewing the case, the District Court has denied the labels’ demands today, and said that they will give the Pirate Bay operators a few weeks to state their position in the dispute,” says the story, adding:

“The record labels are also given a week to, should they chose, appeal the District Court’s decision to the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, apart from sensitising hundreds of thousands of people around the world to filesharing, the attacks on The Pirate Bay have also catapulted what was an obscure political party into the limelight.

Founded in 2006, the Pirate Party took 0.6% of the vote in Sweden’s last general election in 2006, but it had the support of 7.9% of Swedish voters, up from 3.4% from a week earlier, said a Demoskop poll conducted between May 13 and May 22, quoted by The Local.

And that could be enough for it to clinch at least one seat in the European Parliament, it has Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge stating.

Stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

to be re-heard – Legal experts demand Pirate Bay re-trial, May 11, 2009
biased judge – The Pirate Bay trial judge accused of bias, April 23, 2009
asked for help – `Call-to-arms` in The Pirate Bay case, February 24, 2009
p2pnet – The Pirate Bay decision leak `a bit LOL`, April 18, 2009
The Local – Sweden to freeze guilty Pirates` loot, May 12, 2009
TorrentFreak – Pirate Bay Money Squeeze Rejected by Court, May 25, 2009
into the limelight – Swedish Pirates cruise to Europe Parliament, May 22, 2009
The Local – Pirate Party Sweden`s third-largest: poll, May 22, 2009