The Pirate Bay is a file exchange server (based on the torrent system) from Sweden. Today it is the largest server in the world with over three million visitors every day and it is constantly sued by copyright holders and various copyright protection organizations (in the latest case by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)). The biggest trial in the history of Pirate Bay started on 16 February 2009 and on 17 April the Stockholm district court found the operators of the site guilty for "promoting other people's infringements of copyright laws". Each one of them is sentenced to a year in jail and a total of 30 million SEK (approximately 3.5 million USD, 2.7 million EUR) in fines and damages. The fact that the activity of the site was organized and commercial strengthened the charges. Still The Pirate Bay is appealing the case so under Swedish law, this verdict is not lawful until all appeals have been processed.
Many people consider that such cases not only influence the copyright laws but also are dangerous for the freedom of modern Internet. For example after the verdict IFPI demanded that Swedish internet service providers block The Pirate Bay. The providers refused and stated that it is not their job to censor the websites for their customers and that they support the principles of afree and open Internet.
A large response to this case and the verdict itself came from the Swedish Pirate Party. This party has nothing to do with swashbuckling adventures; it is focused on reforming laws regarding copyright and patents. Also Pirate Party supports the strengthening of the right to privacy, both on the Web and in everyday life, and also the transparency of state administration. Formed in 2006 this party encouraged people to form similar parties and organizations in the whole world. After the verdict on The Pirate Bay case, over 18,000 people joined the Swedish Pirate Party raising its membership to over 33,000 members. Right now it is the fourth-largest Swedish party by membership count and the party that has the largest youth organization. During the whole case the Pirate Party organized protests and on the next day after the verdict over 1000 protesters gathered in the streets of Stockholm. As mentioned above the Pirate Party views this case and the actions that followed, not as an attempt to reform the laws regarding copyright, but as an attempt to control the Internet and private lives.
And by the way, the biggest problem about suing sites like The Pirate Bay is that these sites actually do not exchange information, they just uphold servers that help users to connect to each others and exchange some stuff between their personal computers. During the case one of the Pirate Bay lawyer tried to use this fact and selected the user King Kong as an example of person that is not even under Swedish jurisdiction. This was immediately labeled by the press as King Kong Defense.
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