By Tom DunlapPirates are back in the news, although this time it's not treachery on the high seas. Now it's the four Swedish men who run the controversial file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay.
In a landmark ruling today, the Stockholm district court convicted the four -- Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundstrom -- of helping millions of users illegally download music, movies, and computer games.
The Associated Press's Louise Nordstrom
reported on the trial:
All four received one-year terms and were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and Columbia Pictures.
"We can't pay and we won't pay," Sunde said in a defiant video clip posted on the Internet. Mockingly, he held up a hand-scribbled "I owe U" note to the camera. "This is as close as you will get to having money from us," Sunde said.
With an estimated 22 million users, The Pirate Bay has become the entertainment industry's enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.
... Defense lawyers had argued the quartet should be acquitted because The Pirate Bay doesn't host any copyright-protected material. Instead, it provides a forum for its users to download content through so-called torrent files. The technology allows users to transfer parts of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.
The court found the defendants guilty of helping users commit copyright violations by providing a Web site with "sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and through the tracker linked to the Web site."
I'm torn on these file-sharing prosecutions. I do think artists should be paid for their work, although for years, lousy bands and movies stars have been gouging us. Who wants to pay $15 for a CD with one good song on it? (Thanks a lot, U2.)
The truth is, you just cannot stop this sort of file-sharing technology, especially in the hands of sharp, young technology enthusiasts who see the Internet as their birthright. So at some point it's futile to try. Movie studios, for instance, are going to have to continue to adapt. They need to try tactics like releasing the DVD of a movie the same day it hits the theaters.
I agree with one of the experts quoted by Nordstrom, and I'll let him have the last word.
File sharing wouldn't go away, [said Andre Rickardsson, a computer expert and former investigator for the Swedish security police], but users would likely turn to more advanced technological tools to hide their activities.
"It's not as if people will turn around and say 'oops, I'll have to stop file sharing now.' Instead the reaction will be 'oops, what can I do to protect myself from getting caught'."
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