Ridiculous Judgement from Sweden
2009-04-17 17:41:21 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
The verdict in the case of The Pirate Bay Four has been announced. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000.
While only a few weeks ago, it seems like an eternity since the trial of The Pirate Bay Four ended and the court retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty - backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.
Today, Friday April 17, the court issued its decision: article continuously updated
“The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case,” said the district court. “This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”
Peter Sunde (born September 13, 1978) alias ‘brokep’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Peter Althin, brokep’s lawyer said, “I spoke to Peter and he wasn’t very surprised. A journalist he’d spoken to knew an hour before it was public that all four would be convicted. The verdict was leaked from the court. I have to think about what effects that can have on the sentence. It is unacceptable that the court is leaking.”
Fredrik Neij (born April 27, 1978) alias ‘TiAMO’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Gottfrid Svartholm (October 17, 1984) alias ‘Anakata’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Anakata’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said, “We’re appealing. It’s very surprising that the court has chosen to treat the accused as a team.”
Carl Lundström (born April 13, 1960)
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ’severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.
It appears that the court chose to not take any of the technical details into account and only judged based on intent. They find it clear that the intention of the defendants is to facilitate sharing of copyrighted works and based their verdict on this.
While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.
The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.
The defense put it to the judge that he had folded under intense political pressure. The judge denied this stating that the court made its decision based on the case presented.
At one point the judge was asked if he was concerned for his personal safety after handing down this decision. The judge said he hadn’t received any harassment and was quite surprised at the question.
While the judge won’t be getting any flowers for this verdict, Roger Wallis who spoke in favor of The Pirate Bay at their trial and received a mountain of floral tributes in return, noted, “This will cause a flood of court cases. Against all the ISPs. Because if these guys assisted in copyright infringements, then the ISPs also did. This will have huge consequences. The entire development of broadband may be stalled.”
Peter Sunde characterized the verdict as ‘unreal’ and said that he didn’t expect the jail sentence. He briefly spoke with Fredrik and Gottfrid and all were surprised with this outcome. In response to the fines Peter said: “We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay if we could. If I would have money I would rather burn everything I owned.”
Sunde has already explained that this decision does not mean the end of the line in this case. There will be an appeal which means we are still far away from the ultimate decision - possibly years away. Any appeal from either side must be submitted to Sweden’s higher Court by 9th May 2009.
Rasmus Fleischer, one of the founders of Piratbyrån commented, “The sentence has no formal consequence and no juridical value. We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed.”
As for the fate of the site, Peter has already promised that The Pirate Bay will continue. The site itself was never on trial, only the four individuals listed above.
[from torrentfreak.com ] UPDATE |
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2009-04-15 20:57:22 Posted
by: ikat381 Category: Copyright
Hugh Atkin's hit Barack Roll video has been muted by Sony's copyright bots. As a response to the mindless assault on fair use, Atkin has remixed a new video which features Rick Astley's own support for the Barack Roll: UPDATE |
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2009-04-10 13:39:06 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Digital Rights
ADBUSTERS WINS A LEGAL VICTORY AGAINST CANADA'S MEDIA GIANTS, LEGAL ACTION IN THE US MAY BE NEXT
After 15 years of legal tussling to bring democracy to the public airwaves, Adbusters has finally scored a great victory. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has granted us an appeal in our landmark case against Canada's CBC and Canwest Global, giving us the go-ahead to set a precedent and establish some public rights over the airwaves.
People are spending an unparalleled 8.5 hours per day in front of screens and even with the influx of new screen formats – cell phones, computers, Kindle – TV is still dominant. It’s the most powerful social communications medium of our time. And yet it is a place where commercial imperatives rule and dissenting voices are routinely censored. Adbusters’ attempts to purchase airtime from major commercial broadcasters for its socially-minded public service spots have been repeatedly denied over the years.
The airwaves are public property – just like city sidewalks or parks. They are a public space where freedom of speech must prevail. This is an inspiring idea for media activists and could pave the way for further legal victories down the road not only on the TV airwaves, but in cyberspace as well.
Not surprisingly, none of Canwest’s 13 daily newspapers or 23 TV channels covered the appeal court ruling. The silence has been deafening. Canadians citizens should be aware that the largest media conglomerate in our country is censoring the news to suit its own interests.
Here’s who did cover the story: CBC Radio, the Globe and Mail, the Georgia Straight and the Tyee.
CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, MTV and the Food Channel have also repeatedly refused to sell us airtime over the past 15 years and we would like to launch a freedom of speech legal action in the US. If you know an American lawyer who may be interested in being part of our legal team then let us know, email kono@adbusters.org.
The endgame will be a series of lawsuits around the world forcing the half a dozen media megacorporations controlling the bulk of news and entertainment flows around the planet to return some control back to the public.
Email kono@adbusters.org if you want to talk strategy or contribute to our legal war chest. UPDATE |
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2009-04-10 12:27:53 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
Came across this excellent video by Corey Vidal singing a Star Wars themed *ORIGINAL* a capella. Warner Music issued a take down notice in January and it was taken down. Ridiculously. Naturally enough, the media jumped on the story and the video was eventually put back up. Here it is for your viewing pleasure...(and below, a typical reaction to Warner Music's takedown campaign)
UPDATE |
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2009-04-08 16:56:32 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
[from BoingBoing.net]
Hugh from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "EFF's Fred Von Lohmann asks whether President Obama broke any laws when he gave an iPod loaded with music and video to the Queen."
First, let's imagine that the President (or his staff) bought the 40 show tunes from the iTunes music store. Do you "own" the music that you buy from iTunes? The nearly 9,000 words of legalese to which you agree before buying don't answer that question (an oversight? I doubt it). Copyright owners have consistently argued in court that many digital products (even physical "promo" CDs!) are "licensed," not "owned," and therefore you're not entitled to resell them or give them away. (And the Amazon MP3 Store terms of service are even worse for consumers than iTunes -- those terms specifically purport to strip you of "ownership" and forbid any "redistribution.") UPDATE |
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2009-03-25 14:27:40 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Remix Culture
The Mashup / Remix Conference 2009 took place at Ohio State University on 12-13 March last...
The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and Wexner Center for the Arts have collaborated for a novel discussion on the implications of mashup and remix in the world of Web 2.0. Recent technological developments have created a wave of user-generated content in which pre-existing sounds and images are appropriated, reshaped, and shared with unprecedented ease. Bringing together new media artists, prominent academics, and influential members of the media community, this event will discuss ways in which the digitization of music, film, and visual art over the internet is influencing the future of these industries and the future of copyright law.
Organized as a combination of panels, roundtables, and performances, the event will engage presenters and audience members to think broadly about the legal, political, economic, and cultural landscapes accompanying mashup art and collaborative creation.
Selected papers and essays by participants will be published in a special issue of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, the law school's interdisciplinary journal that focuses on law and policy issues related to the ways in which digital information and communication technologies are transforming society. UPDATE |
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2009-03-23 22:40:53 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
First they came for the teenagers. Could toddlers be far behind? Nope. Thanks to the good folks at YouTomb, we’ve learned that Warner Music’s automated takedown net has now caught two videos of little kids being little kids.
Of course we can’t show you the videos since they’re, well, censored, but the YouTomb snapshots tell most of the story. One showed a 4 year old lip-syncing to the old Foreigner hit, “Juke Box Hero.” The other apparently showed a baby smacking its lips to the tune of “I Love My Lips”—a song originally sung by a cucumber in an episode of “Veggie Tales.” Both videos are obvious fair uses (these are transformative, noncommercial videos that are not substitutes for the original songs, and there is no plausible market for "licensing" parents before they video their own children singing) and perfectly legal—just like the video of a baby dancing to a Prince song that Universal Music Group took down in 2007.
These are just a few of the thousands of videos Warner has instructed YouTube to block in the past few months. According to statistics kept by YouTomb, there were twice as many videos removed from YouTube in January 2009 as in the entire previous year combined. The numbers are all more appalling because, thanks to Warner's reliance on YouTube’s automated, censorship-friendly Content I.D. tool, there is no reason to think that Warner even bothered to watch these videos to decide whether it actually objects them before blocking them.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it until the folks at Warner come to their senses: it’s time to stop the censorship. The Content ID system should be set to flag possible infringing works and then Warner should have a human review those works before they are taken down.
And if Warner won’t reverse course altogether, it should at least promise that no one will be sued for simply disputing a Content I.D. removal. Warner loses nothing by this: even after a user files Content I.D. dispute, Warner still has the option of using a DMCA takedown notice to target videos to which it really objects. By publicly committing to using the DMCA process, Warner will reassure fair users that they can raise the red flag without fear of finding themselves in the middle of an expensive and unexpected lawsuit. [by Corynne McSherry, EFF) UPDATE |
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2009-03-17 11:44:00 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Remix Culture
Brett Gaylor's excellent documentary about remix culture and copyright issues is currently screening around the U.S. If, like me, you are based in Europe and wish to watch it, Brett has kindly made each chapter of the film available for viewing on his website, Open Source Cinema. An important piece of work. Also, see below the 2007 Danish documentary, Good Copy - Bad Copy, also a very important piece.
UPDATE |
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2009-03-12 17:27:31 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Remix Culture
Exceptionally gifted author and social media guru JD Lasica has recently rebranded his blog, Socialmedia.biz, with a new look, new logo and new focus as a group blog with many talented contributers including Ayelet Noff, David Spark and Chris Abraham. The site is a goldmine of useful information for anyone wishing to keep their finger firmly on the pulse of the social media frontier.
Here's a description of the rebrand from JD himself:
"I’m happy to announce that Socialmedia.biz is now a group blog, with a wealth of talented contributors, as well as a network of business strategy consultants who understand the social media needs of large and midsize companies.
I started blogging in May 2001 when Dave Winer, the father of blogging, gave me a free UserLand Manila blog. Since then, I hopped to MovableType and TypePad, changing the name from New Media Musings to Socialmedia.biz in 2005 because of the fast-paced changes in the mediasphere." UPDATE |
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2009-03-11 01:54:00 Posted
by: ragaman7 Category: Copyright
From boingboing.net: "Fredrik Neij, one of the PirateBay admins currently on trial in Stockholm, admitted that he was hupping his servers from the courtroom while the lawyers were making closing arguments:
- A server was down and I restarted it, Neij tells expressen.se. He is one of the four founders of The Pirate Bay that stand accused of “complicity to making copyrighted material accessible” (yes, that’s the charge). That didn’t stop him from taking care of a server mishap in the middle of the trial’s closing argument.
Thepiratebay.org was down during the best part of Monday, which had a good deal of file-sharing folks worried that the website might be down for good this time. Thankfully for them, he had his trusty laptop at hand and could restart the server remotely, so that eager fileswappers could get back inside.
-We have Internet access [in the court room] so it was no problem, Neij told Expressen today (Tuesday);
-Besides, I’m keeping up with the coverage of the trial.
The farcical battle between a sadly incompetent prosecution vs. knowledgeable and sometimes loud-mouthed defendants is almost at an end, and the fact that Neij manages thepiratebay.org’s servers remotely during the trial is just one of several examples that point out the huge gap in technical know-how that the sides have exhibited." UPDATE |
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