Peter Sunde said on twitter - "Relax, nothing will happen with the TPB, us personaly or file-sharing at all. This is just a theater for the media."
While only a few weeks ago, it seems like an eternity since the trial of The Pirate Bay Four ended and the court retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution claimed that the four defendants were ‘assisting in making copyright content available’ and demanded millions of dollars in damages. The defense did not agree, and all pleaded not guilty - backed up by the inimitable King Kong defense.
Today, Friday April 17, the court issued its decision: article continuously updated
“The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case,” said the district court. “This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”
Peter Sunde (born September 13, 1978) alias ‘brokep’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Peter Althin, brokep’s lawyer said, “I spoke to Peter and he wasn’t very surprised. A journalist he’d spoken to knew an hour before it was public that all four would be convicted. The verdict was leaked from the court. I have to think about what effects that can have on the sentence. It is unacceptable that the court is leaking.”
Fredrik Neij (born April 27, 1978) alias ‘TiAMO’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Gottfrid Svartholm (October 17, 1984) alias ‘Anakata’:
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
Anakata’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said, “We’re appealing. It’s very surprising that the court has chosen to treat the accused as a team.”
Carl Lundström (born April 13, 1960)
Verdict: Guilty - 1 year in prison, damages to pay: $905,000
The court said that the four defendants worked as a team, were aware that copyrighted material was being shared using The Pirate Bay and that they made it easy and assisted the infringements. It categorized the infringements as ’severe’. The judge said that the users of The Pirate Bay committed the first offense by sharing files and the four assisted this.
While the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s exaggerated estimates of losses, it still set the damages at 30 million SEK ($3,620,000). This a hugely significant amount and the court has ordered that the four should pay this amount between them.
The judge also stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal. Rest assured, other torrent sites hosted in Sweden will be keeping a close eye on developments.
The defense put it to the judge that he had folded under intense political pressure. The judge denied this stating that the court made its decision based on the case presented.
At one point the judge was asked if he was concerned for his personal safety after handing down this decision. The judge said he hadn’t received any harassment and was quite surprised at the question.
While the judge won’t be getting any flowers for this verdict, Roger Wallis who spoke in favor of The Pirate Bay at their trial and received a mountain of floral tributes in return, noted, “This will cause a flood of court cases. Against all the ISPs. Because if these guys assisted in copyright infringements, then the ISPs also did. This will have huge consequences. The entire development of broadband may be stalled.”
Peter Sunde has already explained that this decision does not mean the end of the line in this case. There will be an appeal which means we are still far away from the ultimate decision - possibly years away. Any appeal from either side must be submitted to Sweden’s higher Court by 9th May 2009.
Rasmus Fleischer, one of the founders of Piratbyrån commented, “The sentence has no formal consequence and no juridical value. We chose to treat the trial as a theater play and as such it’s been far better than we ever could have believed.”
As for the fate of the site, Peter has already promised that The Pirate Bay will continue. The site itself was never on trial, only the four individuals listed above.
If you want a comprehensive look at "SpecTrial" - including the VERY LATEST news, go to torrentfreak.com - where the article came from :)
When I found it - i was surprised to learn it's actually from Yahoo. Weird. Why? It's weird to think of them moving into the "Desktop Email Clients" that have cluttered us (For lack of a better word) Some work better than others - while some just suck (Incredimail, i'm talking about you!) I've tried 'em ALL! Windows Mail that ships with Vista, which i'm still using right now. Windows Live Mail - the desktop version...which includes the stable and beta...to the Open source clients, like Thunderbird. Thunderbird works best in my opinion, but, after awhile - it seems like my email setup hates me! Either that, or Microsoft has found a new way to keep people using their products....
Whoa! Talk about conspiracy nut! I will give Microsoft credit - they're trying to break away from the horrid days of Outlook Express - but, that will still linger - especially with all the people still using XP who don't want to make a switch to Live Mail. OE's bigger brother is great on the other hand - it's just the small brother i have complaints about.
Anyways - more on to Zimbra now!
I came across a site that had broke the news that Yahoo! had spent $350 Million for Zimbra. So, at least they're trying. The setup of Zimbra is also very easy - and very clean. Kinda...Java-y (I know that's not a word! Sue me! HA HA!) For an open source email client right now - it's going really well! I think the only drawback right now is setting up Hotmail to use Zimbra. It's a little complicated - as in....prob'ly not happening. 
On the plus side - it does allow many other webmail accounts to be used. GMail, Yahoo!, Zimbra, AOL, IMAP accounts - and of course, POP access from your ISP! Many people won't even want to set up Gmail accounts - as Google finally made the Themes available to all of it's users (Well, if it's not there Yet, it will be soon!)
Once you're done with the setup process, and you get to your email - it actually looks like a full fledged web based email program. Prob'ly because it is built on AJAX (AKA: Web 2.0) - and, again, is very open source.
Moving around in the program is quite easy. It has to be. But, the one thing i find it lacks is the ability to see what's happening in all the accounts. At least, i can't figure it out. Maybe if i spent more than a few hours looking around, i might find it :)
All the features are there though! It's really amazing! A contact list is in there, a calendar is in there...search features are implemented if ya go to the "Advanced" button...and, there's a new thing called "Zimlets" - which are basically applets or Widgets. You can import maps into email - as well as pictures from Flickr, and you can even go local!
This is really a must for ya to check out if you're looking for an email client as an alternative to Mozilla and Windows. I know it's still in beta - but, become active in the community! It's open source - and the best things are Open! I will be definately leaving it on here for awhile to learn my way around it a little bit - and, to take a break from Windows Mail. We'll see if it can handle what i can throw at it - that's the ultimate test right there!
If you're interested in checkin' it out, and downloading it - Go HERE! Check out the screenshots, and see if it fits in your life. Only you know what's best for ya - i only report on it :)
