In a few days The Pirate Bay as we know it will cease to exist. You can expect a more in-depth article on the sale later on, but I want to focus on a clear and present issue at hand: when the new owners flick the tracker switch, millions of torrents will be crippled or killed. (bar DHT and similar techniques for dramatic cue !)
What could have been done? What can we do now? What can we do to prevent this in the future? Somebody, please think of the trackers!
DRM is a scheme of the past. Why the iTunes store is still florishing, I can only guess. Ease-of-use and tight coupling with the Apple product line (lifestyle) might be the reason. Since april, all of the iTunes songs are DRM-free. The problem is, this right is not invoked on already purchased items. Well, I think they’ve lost one customer today, and it’s a kind they need.
More draconian DRM schemes and patronizing functionality limitations behind the cut Continue reading »
If the judge was involved in three major copyright organisations, with members including several of the prosecutors, how unbiased can his judgement be? Hit the image for fail-graph.
(see Torrentfreak for more details)
And more importantly, why didn’t this news break earlier … Peter Sunde’s lawyer has already appealed for a retrial.
“Intellectual Property is the oil of the 21st century.”
Mark Getty, chairman of Getty Images, one of the world’s largest Intellectual Proprietors.
At 11 AM this morning, the Swedish court declared the verdict in the The Pirate Bay trial: all four defendants found guilty, a hefty fine ($3,620,000) and one year jail time for each of them.
After following the trial closely for 2 weeks on this blog, I can only conclude that this sentence is too harsh. I can also recommend Sofia’s twitter feed, who’s translating the rest of the verdict as we speak.
More updates, summary and transcript of the Press Conference and thoughts behind the cut
Due to a very busy day I didn’t have the time to fully cover today’s episode of the #Spectrial. For excellent coverage of the events, I happily refer to Torrentfreak.
Just some side remarks and thoughts on today’s events behind the cut. I’ll get back to you tomorrow! :)
The trial against the Pirate Bay kicked off again (see brokep’s Twitter) at 13:00 today. You can find a convenient schedule of the hearings coming up at QbatHQ. The next three days will consist of so called witness hearings (am I the only one thinking witness sounds a bit off in a case like this?). These witnesses are mostly industry CEO’s and police investigators. Scheduled for this afternoon were Magnus Martensson, legal advisor of the IFPI, and Anders Nilsson, representing the AntiPiratByran bureau (an anti-pirate organisation in Sweden).
It were two hours in which I couldn’t help but wondering whether or not the prosecutors learn from past mistakes. Spectacular scoring system and more behind the cut.
*note: Day 6 was a break.
Today Peter Sunde (brokep) and Carl Lundström were questioned by the prosecutors. In summary, Peter Sunde did a really good job at choosing what and what not to answer. It’s appalling to see how many questions were unrelated to the (remaining) charges in the trial, and how many of these questions were allowed by the jury.
Lundström was next, and they got him cornered a couple of times. It’s very clear that brokep, anakata and TiAMO know the borders of what they can say and can’t say, while Carl – who’s connected with the site through advertising deals and physical support – is not really upto that.
Summary of the most important points behind the cut.
The trial will start again next Tuesday, so three days of rest for the #spectrial live reporting. I’d like to thank all people reading my blog, I’ll try to keep it up next week.
Of all days in the The Pirate Bay trial, this one was the most difficult to cover. Several of the prosecutors got to talk to TiAMO (Fredrik Neij) and Anakata (Gottfrid Svartholm Warg). A lot of questions and responses were out there, the Twitter feeds translated them live at a whirring speed.
I’m trying to cover the trial as best as I can from this blog, combining other blogs, the audio feed and twitter material. It’s nice to see that UK newspaper The Guardian quoted me on their website.
I’ll try to summarize day 4 behind the cut.
Waking up and reading the Spectrial has called it a wrap for the day. As expected, the prosecutor referred to the dropping of 50% of the charges as a ‘small change’. The defendants did not agree, of course. Swedish newspaper Metro headlined “Fiasco for Prosecutors”.
A lot of industry representatives had their say (it seems they all have to re-explain how Bittorrent works, over and over again), and the interesting thing about their talks is this idea: one download = one lost sale. It’s a debate that got through the roof about the indie game World Of Goo too (see Rock, Paper, Shotgun).
More behind the cut. Continue reading »
| Code is poetry. | Please,  |
Suffusion WordPress theme by Sayontan Sinha |
