Half the charges against the Pirate Bay abruptly dropped

Intellectual Property
Share

pirate-bay-certified.jpgIn a shock development this morning at the “Spectrial” of the Pirate Bay’s four administrators, half the charges against the site have been dropped. It’s a massive blow for the prosecutors, who will now only be able to try the defendants for “assisting making available”.

This happens on only the second day of the trial, and came about because the prosecutor has no way of proving that the .torrent files that he’s using as evidence were actually tracked by The Pirate Bay at any point. In fact, many of the screenshots submitted clearly state that there’s no connection to the tracker.

This is significant because, as I pointed out on Channel 4 News yesterday, the Pirate Bay only acts as a signpost for the files shared over it. It’s like a matchmaking service – uniting people who have content with the people who want it. It takes no part in the actual transaction. As a result, the Pirate Bay likens the trial to a car manufacturer being prosecuted for making cars that can exceed the speed limit.

In the meantime, the site itself has seen a surge in popularity thanks to the publicity from the trial. 150,000 more torrents are currently being shared than at the same time last week. Swedish web traffic is also up 10Gbs over previous weeks – the Pirate Bay claims that upto 80% of all web traffic is bittorrent, so that also suggests a massive jump in usage.

Of course, this won’t stop the prosecutors attempting to being the site to justice once more, with stronger evidence, but given that the trial’s been two years in the making already, it’s not going to be soon. Given the inevitable appeals the the four promise following any successful prosecution, by the time any action is taken on the site, there’ll almost certainly be a new king of the hill in the filesharing world.

Duncan Geere
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv

3 comments

  • “…the Pirate Bay only acts as a signpost for the files shared over it.” Exactly right! As reported on Russia Today and Newsy.com, “It is not stealing, not morally or not legally. The way that corporate law is written you aren’t actually committing a crime if you’re just 
referencing the pirate material. You need to actually take an active part in the sharing.”

  • Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, my sides have spilt……
    The Pirate Bay are soo coool, making the prosecutors look stupid.

    The arrogance of the prosecutors reminds me of when I got caught with about half a sixteenth of cannabis (very small qty), I had to come back to the police station to receive a caution form some spotty kid 15 years my junior. Anyhow the police boy kept saying how this makes profit for organised crime and the imported sex trade (to the UK)is all my fault. I said, OK in future I will grow my own, which he did not like at all, but could not give me a good reason why not other then “they said so”….

    Go Pirate Bay, Go……

Comments are closed.