The founders of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year in jail in Sweden for breaking copyright laws by helping millions of users download music, movies and computer games for free.
Pirate Bay four jailed for breaking copyright in Swedish file-sharing trial - Telegraph
I think the kids need to heed this this ruling!
I bet google doesn’t get touched though.
One commentator said that the ruling had “implications” for Google. So they are going to have to get their act together, too.
I think it’s about time. Torrents are such a useful way to download stuff; it would be a shame to have it “besmeared” by illegal usage.
It’s a great technology but it’s just used for the wrong material at the moment. I think a year in jail is a pretty light sentence and probably a small price to pay for the amount of money the site is generating by traffic.
I suppose they will just move the site to a different place away from countries with copyright laws. I bet it’ll move to some oilrig in the middle of the ocean in international waters. That way they can’t touch them.
Piratebay Server becomes museum artafact ← Looks like someone is trying to cash in on Piratebay lol!
Pirate Bay guilty verdict: Now what? • The Register
“The comparison with Google is amateurish,” he said. “Whereas The Pirate Bay was set up to make piracy easier, Google, which has many pros and many cons associated with it, will cooperate if we ask them.”
http://www.linksandlaw.com/adwords-google-keyword-lawsuit-netherlands.htm
First example that came to mind. They’re picking on the little ones and ignoring the big ones how about Youtube. There is plenty if you go looking for them. How about google search .torrent
What is the difference http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lost+.torrent&btnG=Search&meta=
The whole internet legality needs tying up it is too obscure and made difficult by international boundaries.
pirate bay is still up and running though.
I think the ruling is bogus, really this doesnt benefit no one but corrupt companies and corrupt organizations like the MPAA and RIAA.
These days I more support the pirates, sorry but with all the regulations going around right now and governments wanting to monitor what we do on the internet I more sympathize with the hacker/ cracker/ digital pirate.
If anyone has been following this they are appealing the case. Wait and see what happens , so it will be awhile before a final verdict really comes.
By supporting piracy you also shoot yourself in the foot. Yes, DRM and other types of forcing are wrong but at the same time by advocating and supporting piracy you’re not punishing the companies but people who work in them.
Who do you think suffers most in a big business if they can’t sell their products? The million owners or the normal workers / people who produce the product?
Do you consider yourself some kind of a new age digital media hero by pirating songs because “Evil RIAA” does this or that or are you infact kicking the people making the music proverbially in the balls by taking what they’ve produced for free - same of course applies to computer software, movies and other media that can be easily copied - such as games.
If you’re going to pirate, at least admit you’re a sorry cheapskate ******* rather than “I fight the power, brother!” digital warrior.
I has a pirate 
Lets be honest here the artists rarely receive there fair share, that the companies do.
Not that I’m condoning piracy but the whole thing needs a shake up. In my ideal world the artists would be making more than the companies who are the middle men.
You can find many artists that aren’t happy with the present system, yet can do little to change it. Simply put if you’re not in favour with the company, have the looks etc… then you won’t get promoted.
But this is changing and the companies need to wake up and shake up. You only have to see the world wide noise being made about the ugly duckling with the voice.
Typically if I do download something off the internet rather if it is “illegal” or not I have reasoning.
Sometimes I do download things from Torrent sites, I admit it but most of the time its something that I know I cant find in a store somewhere or something I know may never be released on DVD here in the US (I am an anime fan, I typically download fansubs of series that most likely would either get a crappy dub here or not released at all)
And my download of MST3K episodes, MST3K is a very hard to find series as it is, it has no real DVD sale anymore and Rhino the company that was prodicing the discs stopped production of releaseing new episodes.
Now Best Brains the company behind MST3K never objected fan distribution, heck they encouraged it.
But still this is the main reason why I can be considered a pirate, but I do my research on what I desire to download.
I have downloaded a lot of stuff that will never see the light of day on the american DVD market.
So on this front I see myself as a liberator
Since I work for a software company - I know exactly what piracy does. Every single penny that pirates steal from the product goes directly away from our pouches and I can guarantee you it doesn’t motivate much to see some as$hat gloating how they’ve pirated the product and are now using it for free.
Even worse is people who advocate how they’re “sharing and caring” by putting up software on the torrent sites. Yes, I’m sure Microsoft and corporations of that size can survive if people pirate their software but smaller businesses get hit real hard by the ‘new age digital freedom warriors’.
I’m not disagreeing that it doesn’t hurt some people but it isn’t so cut and dry.
1 download doesn’t = 1 less sale
It can just as easily in other circumstances =
DRM’d want a back up.
1 extra sale as in fansub never heard of watch some scratchy copy. Want to support the smaller studio buy the release 6 years later.
Preview then a sale.
etc…
People that wish to own the real media have never resorted to downloading, these are the sales.
I totally accept with software it probably does hurt more so than perhaps the other medias. TBH I think anyone downloading software is asking for trouble only have to take the mac example recently.
But some software I think asks for it, I mean Photoshop is an arm and a leg and with an economy like this having over $300 just for a piece of software is overkill.
This is sort of how I see it, a lot of new anime does not come stateside for some time so I download fansubs…
If an official dub or release is offered I buy it.
Though for some animes I am glad I downloaded from the net (OnePiece)
Its amercan dub is a total joke (friggin 4kids!)