Verdict reached on landmark Pirate Bay case

Valerie | 20 Apr 2009, 11:01

The co-founders behind one of the world’s most popular file-sharing websites, Pirate Bay, have been sentenced, the verdict allegedly leaked over the internet by a “trustworthy source” ahead of the official announcement.

In a landmark ruling for a trial that has been described as the “jewel in the crown of internet piracy”, the Swedish court found Frederik Neij, Carl Lundstom, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Warg guilty of making copyrighted material available online. The four men have been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor (£2 million) to several entertainment companies named in the lawsuit, including Sony Music, Warner Bros and EMI, who accused Pirate Bay of facilitating the illegal sharing of their copyrighted material.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represented music and film producers in the case, welcomed the verdict and said it believed it would have an impact on the continuation of filesharing.

In a statement, IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said:

“This is good news for everyone, in Sweden and internationally, who is making a living or a business from creative activity, and who needs to know their rights will protected by law.

“In the digital world we suffer from 90% piracy but it is still a $3.8bn digital industry that is more successful than newspapers, film or books. Even if we can move the needle slightly from 90%, it will be good.“

The Telegraph however, acknowledges that Pirate Bay is simply the latest in a long line of filesharing websites against whom legal action has been taken, with levels of online piracy showing no signs of abating. Music labels have, it observes, started to realise that “the best way of combating illegal filesharing is to beat the pirates at their own game – to fight free with free.”

Ben Perreau, chief executive and co-founder of Gigulate, a new UK startup which aims to match music news, blogs and gig listings against each other argues that the court ruling reinforces existing models for licensing when in fact the industry should be focusing on developing new ones:

“What is frustrating is that this doesn’t clear the way for music startups, it doesn’t help the industry and it doesn’t help musicians. It is helping these companies retame an existing model for licencing but what we’re hoping for is a model that helps artists get paid in a new economy where we know the market for recorded music is shrinking.”

Meanwhile, Jack Schofield at The Guardian asks whether Google and YouTube will be next in line to be targeted by the Federation of the Phonographic Industries and the Motion Picture Association of America, noting that there is no shortage of links to copyright information on Google.

In a digital age, the challenges relating to the protection of rights are not constrained by national boundaries which makes finding a global solution all the more important. C&binet will be taking an international lead on these issues when the forum meets in October for the first time.