Swedish prosecutor Håkan Roswall notes that the BitTorrent tracker site is not some sort of charity and estimates it earns some 11.6 million kronor per year.
Today was the day that prosecution in the trial against The Pirate Bay for facilitation of copyright infringement gave their closing arguments.
Swedish prosecutor Håkan Roswall began by arguing that even though the person actually committing copyright infringement resides abroad, the actual crime occurred in Sweden.
This proves that the prosecution doesn’t know what it’s talking about because that’s simply not the case. The BitTorrent protocol means that pieces of data are collected from users connected to a swarm from all over the world and then reassembled on a person’s PC. The only crime committed in Sweden, which it isn’t under Swedish law, is, allowing users to communicate with another by downloading a non-copyrighted BitTorrent tracker file.
Roswall’s answer to this is that “the effect of the crime is what’s important, not the actual technology used.”
“A person who is holding someone’s coat while they assault someone else is complicit in the crime,” he told the court.
He went on to note that the real purpose of The Pirate Bay was to make money and aid in piracy, and that under Sweden’s e-commerce law there is no immunity for the middleman.
Roswall is seeking one year prison terms for each of the four founders of The Pirate Bay.
“I believe that the correct punishment should be one year in prison and that is what I am requesting that the district court hand down in this case,” he told the court.
Roswall initially estimated that the site raked in about 1.2 million kronor ($130,000 USD) per year, but now raises that amount, thanks to better calculations, to 11.6 million kronor ($1.2 million USD).
“And therefore The Pirate Bay isn’t some sort of charity operation. It’s a business,” he said.
Peter Danowsky, representing the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), then gave his closing arguments.
“What the defendants have done, with financial and strategic help being directed by Carl Lundstrom, is create a database available to anyone in the world allowing users to download copyright works through just a few clicks with no recompense to any rights holders,” he said. “The defendants actively assisted and encouraged illegal actions and this should affect the compensation awarded to the plaintiffs.”
Danowsky reiterated music industry claims that the damages sought should cover not only record sales lost to The Pirate Bay, but the loss of goodwill and other harm caused by file sharing.
He then called into question the expert testimony of Roger Wallis from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), who argued that there are benefits to file sharing and that copyright as a system may have outlived its utility.
“Wallis’s 30% guest professorship at KTH provides about as much credibility as something on par with a newspaper editorial,” said Danowsky, adding that the court should give more weight to testimony by IFPI’s John Kennedy and Ludwig Werner who “know what they are talking about.”
Too bad they know so much about The Pirate Bay, but so very little about how to sell music in the digital age.
The defense is scheduled to give its closing arguments tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
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“… loss of goodwill” towards the music industry?
goodwill (n)
1. An attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence.
2. Cheerful acquiescence or willingness.
3. A good relationship as of a business with its customers or a nation with other nations.
4. The positive reputation of a business viewed as an asset equal to the excess cost required to acquire the business over the fair market value of all other assets.
No the music industry did that all by themselves.
You should ignore a 3rd party expert in favor of our experts who are on payroll paid by us to spin statistics. Clearly our experts are more qualified because the numbers display what we want them to display. blah blah blah
Funny thing is what kind of expert is Kennedy who STILL concludes that one download = one lost sale?
One who has been bought out by the industry to act as a mouthpiece for the industries own otherwise unqualified claim.
“Swedish prosecutor Håkan Roswall began by arguing that even though the person actually committing copyright infringement resides abroad the actual crime occurred in Sweden.
This proves that the prosecution doesn’t know what it’s talking about because that’s simply not the case. The BitTorrent protocol means that pieces of data are collected from users connected to a swarm from all over the world and then reassembled on a person’s PC. The only crime committed in Sweden which it isn’t under Swedish law is allowing users to communicate with another by downloading a non-copyrighted BitTorrent tracker file. ”
Totally agree. It’s like blaming the traffic light for any car accident that occurred on the road the traffic light sits on. It’s absurd.
I thought they made 1 million Us dollars a year per founder.
They can’t even keep their figures straight.
Haha. That doesn’t surprise me though considering they couldn’t figure out their own statistics on Canada’s piracy rate just two years ago.
let’s hope Piratebay pulls through. I noticed their server is down right now and got worried. Even if they do go down that will suck for the 4 who get sent to prison and sued but those users will just go somewhere else hasn’t anyone realized this by now? There’s still mininova and a million others.
the trial? huh! It’s been a waste of 3 weeks learned nothing that we didn’t already know just like we knew it would be… a complete waste of their own time a money.