MESSAGE
| DATE | 2009-02-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Copyright Wars continue
|
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16:36 GMT, Monday, 16 February 2009
Pirate Bay file-sharing defended
Gottfrid Svartholm Varg, partially obscured, and Peter Sunde
The founders of a website which carries links to copies of music, films
and TV programmes have gone on trial in Sweden on charges of copyright
theft.
The Pirate Bay is the world's most high-profile file-sharing site and is
being taken to court by media firms including Sony and Warner Bros.
The men face up to two years in prison and a fine of $143,500, if
convicted.
"File-sharing services can be used both legally and illegally," defence
lawyer Per Samuelsson said.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi and Carl
Lundstorm have portrayed themselves as digital libertarians and say that
they cannot be prosecuted for copyright theft because none of the
content is hosted on their computer servers.
The men are accused of "promoting other people's infringements of
copyright laws", according to charges filed by senior public prosecutor
Haakan Roswall.
Representatives of the movie, music and video games industry are seeking
about 115 million kronor (10.6 million euros) in damages and interest
for losses incurred from tens of millions of illegal downloads
facilitated by the site.
FROM THE BBC WORLD SERVICE
More from BBC World Service
"It is legal to offer a service that can be used in both a legal and
illegal way, according to Swedish law," Mr Samuelsson said at the
opening of the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.
He said the site "can be compared to making cars that can be driven
faster than the speed limit".
Monique Wadsted, a lawyer representing media firms, including Warner
Bros and MGM, involved in the case said: "It's not a political trial,
it's not a trial about shutting down a people's library, and it's not a
trial that wants to prohibit file-sharing as a technique.
"It's not a political trial"
Monique Wadsted, lawyer
"It's a trial that regards four individuals that have conducted a big
commercial business making money out of others' file-sharing works,
copyright-protected movies, hit music, popular computer games, etc."
The Pirate Bay, which was founded in 2003, directs people to "torrent"
links, which allow file-sharing program BitTorrent to download and
upload files among potentially millions of users.
"They have already failed to take down the site once. Let them fail
again"
Gottfrid Warg
Swedish police raided the company's offices several times and seized
nearly 200 servers in 2006, temporarily closing the site. But it
re-opened a few days later with servers hosted in different countries.
Mr Warg, in a webcast on Sunday, said: "What are they going to do about
it? They have already failed to take down the site once. Let them fail
again.
"It has a life without us."
John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industries, representing 1,400 member record companies
worldwide, said: "The Pirate Bay has hurt creators of many different
kinds of works, from music to film, from books to TV programmes. It has
been particularly harmful in distributing copyrighted works prior to
their official release.
"This damages sales of music at the most important time of their
lifecycle."
Mr Kennedy said the four men had "made substantial amounts of money"
from the site, "despite their claim to be only interested in spreading
culture for free".
On Sunday, Mr Sunde said: "It does not matter if they require several
million (kronor) or one billion. We are not rich and have no money to
pay."
--
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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