Half of Pirate Bay’s charges dropped on first day

Robert Hallock 17 Feb, 2009 at 10:55am ET Article published in Tech

As the court case which pits The Pirate Bay against the IFPI gets under way, technical ignorance has forced the IFPI to drop half of their charges just one day into the trial.

It is reported that much of the evidence presented in the first volley of legal proceedings did little to prove that The Pirate Bay harbored or facilitated the dissemination of illegal content. In effect, this has forced the IFPI to abandon the vast majority of their copyright infringement facilitation charges.

In light of the recent developments, TPB lawyers are obviously thrilled. “This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and-a-half days,” they said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the IFPI took an entirely different tack and said that the dropped charges have little impact on the greater case.

“It’s a largely 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.”

Something tells us that The Pirate Bay isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Comments

17 Feb 2009 ~ 12:52pm DrLiam "The Pirate Bay isnâ€™t going anywhere any time soon."

It's just the calm before the storm. ;P
17 Feb 2009 ~ 1:04pm chrisWhite I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to decide this issue, I can really see both sides. On one hand I'd like to see TPB stick it to the system, but on the other side they clearly are breaking copyright law (or encouraging it) and I think copyright law is a good thing.
17 Feb 2009 ~ 7:16pm Daniel They aren't encouraging copyright infringement. They have a notice on the sight that says not to distribute illegal content through them.

And as reported by Russia Today and Newsy.com, one of the creators said, â€œIt is not stealing, not morally or not legally. The way that corporate law is written you arenâ€™t actually committing a crime if youâ€™re just â€¨referencing the pirate material. You need to actually take an active part in the sharing.â€

So... I don't really know what they're still doing in court, but it's not going to end well for the prosecutors.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 3:22pm MrTRiot TPB isn't putting up torrents. It's users are.

Case closed. TPB isn't going anywhere
18 Feb 2009 ~ 9:26pm NiGHTS

Daniel wrote:

They aren't encouraging copyright infringement. They have a notice on the sight that says not to distribute illegal content through them.

Yet their website is a portal full of illegal content.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 9:32pm Thrax Under Swedish law, it isn't. That's the crux of the case.
18 Feb 2009 ~ 10:18pm NiGHTS Right, I'm just saying. Each side's bending what they can as far as they can for their own benefit.