While the trial against The Pirate Bay torrent tracker taking place in Sweden is far from being over, things have already began taking a favorable turn for the four defendants, who founded the website. The charges now evolve around making available material under copyright terms, after prosecutors dropped the charge according to which the defendants assisted copyright infringement.
The prosecution has a very interesting vision on dropping the other charge (which by the way was motivated out of prosecution’s inability to prove that copies of the files were made). Here’s what Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, had to say:
It’s largely a technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact, it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works.
The trial now evolves around convincing the court that The Pirate Bay is guilty of complicity to making copyrighted material available. The plaintiffs, which include big names in the music industry, such as Universal, Warner Bros., Sony and others, as well as film companies, are seeking millions of dollars in compensation damages, fines and time in jail for the four defendants.
So far, in the first two days of trial, the prosecution has only managed to prove that they have not fully understood how the technology works, according to Fredrik Neij, one of the four defendants.
This is a misunderstanding over the technology from the prosecutor’s side, Neij said, as quoted by The Local. Furthermore, he added, none of the downloads presented in court as evidence were proved to come from The Pirate Bay’s tracker.
The prosecution presented evidence which included screenshots of computers connected to the tracker, but in the end, they’ve only managed to prove that The Pirate Bay cannot he held responsible for assisting copyright infringement..
Defense lawyer Per E. Samuelson called this a sensation, since it is not often that haft the target is won in less than two days, according to BitTorrent news site TorrentFreak. Peter Sunde, one of the defendants, also had something to say about it on Twitter: EPIC WINNING LOL.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement released earlier last week that the creators should have the right to choose how their work gets distributed, in addition to getting awarded for their work. According to IFPI, the men behind The Pirate Bay are responsible for damaging music sales and other businesses, for the sole purpose of gaining money.
The defendants have denied the accusations, saying they do not host copyrighted material. These accusations are not new for them, as The Pirate Bay has been accused on numerous occasions of copyright violation.
