The Piratebay Verdict

[CattyNebulart]

a) all that information did come from the usual file-sharing apologist sites,

Some of it came from the local and other news sties I would not call file-sharing apologist, but it seems to be a very polarized issue, and most of the news companies are owned by large media companies which have a vested interest in making copyright as extensive as possible. so unbiased sources are hard to find, especially in English since most experts in Swedish law tend to write in Swedish.

I'm not certain what the relevant Swedish laws are.

Neither am i to be honest, they are in swedish and I can't read that. however from what i gather the rules specify that even the appearance of bais should have been avoided, and such ties do need to be mentioned before the trial. And one of the judges in the panel to determine bais was a member of the same organisations. also the judge was criticised for not revealing this information before the trial, but it was ruled that his negligence was not sufficient to overturn the trial.

Also the Pirate Party Parliament member is clearly a very baised source, but he has 7 years of experience as a lay judge, and he claims it's a misscairiage of justice. It's hard to find information that does not come from him on the net in English right now, though i read a paper by a swedish law-scholar that predicted a win for the pirate-bay before the trial and cited Swedish and European law in support of that, but I can't find the paper any more.
Although to be honest 7 years as a lay judge is not a very strong background in law from what I gather.

If the pro-PB sites were correct, I'm a bit antsy about this. But if not, well, they're rotting in jail and stuck with a huge fine and that gives me warm fuzzies.

Keep in mind that in Sweden jail time and fines are generally much lower than in America. I have heard that you would probably get a lesser sentence for assault and robbery, and knowing what i know about Danish law which is similar that sounds likely. for comparison read the jail times in this article and then compare them to what the pirate bay founders got http://www.thelocal.se/19178/20090430/, and keep in mind they probably didn't have to pay a fine anywhere near as large.

Now tell me with a straight face that the pirate bay is about as bad as rape.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[CattyNebulart]

Also a quick explanation of what happened during after the trial since many sites misreported it.

* Before the trial the randomly appointed Judge was replaced by Norstrom. This is one of the reasons behind the bais allegations.

* Just before the trial one of the of the lay judges was removed for membership of the same/similar organizations as Norstrom. at this point Norstrom should
haven been aware that his own membership would pose problems. This is the core behind the bais allegations.

* During the appeals process for the retrial it first was assigned to a judge who was a member of the same organizations, and she claimed not to be baised.

* Others disagreed and the retrail appeal was moved to a different court and 3 judges, one of whom it turns out is a member of the same organizations. Still
the trial remained in this court and they ultimately judged that there was insuficient bais to warrant a retrail.

Some people see systemic bais in the above chain of events. I'm unsure, since basic demographics (older people tend to be more in favor of copyright, most
judges are old) create some institutional bais, but I don't think they are actively malicious. however this whole mess has eroded confidence among young
swedes in the Swedish justice system.

Some news organizations mistook the filing of the court norstrom is a member of claiming he was unbaised as a verdict, this was not the case. It was just a
filling to the appeals court.

Also they still get to appeal the trial, which might have been a factor in not granting a retrial sine it is already being appealed.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[CattyNebulart]

Related news http://www.thelocal.se/20340/20090629/, apparently sweden lacks clear guidelines on how to deal with this kind of thing.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Ayiekie]

And now they've sold the company. So
much for that fabled independence.

Quoting my favourite response:

"Information yearns to be free! Shares, not so much."

Since most Bitorrent trackers rely on searching other sites in an incestuous feedback loop, TPB going "legit" will seriously disrupt most BT sites
like ISOHunt and whatnot. Awwwwwww.

[CattyNebulart]

...will seriously disrupt most BT sites...

Right because P2P has proven so vulnerable to disruption in the past.

If the community loses trust they will just migrate to another site, and the entire pirate-bay could fit on an usb stick. so i wouldn't be hard for someone to migrate to a new site, or just recreate it from scratch.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Ayiekie]

While TPB's technology is certainly replicable, it will take considerable bandwidth and expertise to duplicate their capabilities, and the legal precedent
set by their conviction will narrow the field of contenders to do so. Why do you think other sites rely on them rather than doing their own tracking and
hosting?

P2P has certainly proven vulnerable to disruption on the "convenience" level, particularly where it relies on a centrally hosted database (as Napster
did, and as TPB and other bittorrent sites do). Illegal bitorrents certainly won't just vanish, but if they become less convenient to find, they will be
used less.

[Morganite]

There's plenty of other trackers out there. I don't expect much to change.

In fact, given the capabilities of bittorrent clients these days, someone could right here and now sever TPB's outgoing network connections with a rusty
axe, and a lot of their torrents could still keep going... pretty much forever.

-Morgan.