The Pirate Bay trial

The Pirate Bay trial
Protesters showing support for The Pirate Bay on the first day of the trial.
CourtStockholm District Court, Sweden
Full case name B 13301-06
Decided17 April 2009
Court membership
Judge sittingTomas Norström

The Pirate Bay trial was a joint criminal and civil prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the copyright infringement of others with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay.[1][2] The criminal charges were supported by a consortium of intellectual rights holders led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who filed individual civil compensation claims against the owners of The Pirate Bay.[3]

Swedish prosecutors filed charges on 31 January 2008 against Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Peter Sunde, who ran the site; and Carl Lundström, a Swedish businessman who through his businesses sold services to the site. The prosecutor claimed the four worked together to administer, host, and develop the site and thereby facilitated other people's breach of copyright law. Some 34 cases of copyright infringements were originally listed, of which 21 were related to music files, 9 to movies, and 4 to games.[2] One case involving music files was later dropped by the copyright holder who made the file available again on the website of The Pirate Bay. In addition, claims for damages of 117 million kronor (US$13 million) were filed.[4] The case was decided jointly by a professional judge and three appointed lay judges.[5]

The trial started on 16 February 2009 in the Stockholm District Court, Sweden. The hearings ended on 3 March 2009 and the verdict was announced on Friday 17 April 2009: Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were all found guilty and sentenced to one year imprisonment and pay a fine of 30 million SEK (about €2.7 million or US$3.5 million).[6] All the defendants appealed the verdict, and in November 2010 the appeal court shortened the prison sentences, but increased damages.

On 1 February 2012, the Supreme Court of Sweden refused to hear an appeal in the case, prompting the site to change its official domain name from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se.[7]

  1. ^ Kravets, David (31 January 2008). "Pirate Bay Future Uncertain After Operators Busted". Threat Level. Wired News Blogs. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  2. ^ a b Larsson, Linus (31 January 2008). "Charges filed against the Pirate Bay four". Computer Sweden. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
  3. ^ Lindenberger, Michael A. (20 February 2009). "Internet Pirates Face Walking the Plank in Sweden". TIME. Archived from the original on 23 February 2009.
  4. ^ Harvey, Mike (18 February 2009). "Half of Pirate Bay charges dropped". The Times. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009.
  5. ^ "Piratnämndeman fick lämna uppdrag". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 14 January 2012.
  6. ^ Ricknäs, Mikael (11 March 2010). "Pirate Bay Appeals Looks Set to Start in September". PC World. IDG. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  7. ^ Pirate Bay shifts domains after appeal fails New Zealand Herald, 2 February 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.