Yesterday, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were each sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million kronor in damages, by The Stockholm District Court. The four, who have denied any wrongdoing, are expected to appeal the verdict and have previously vowed to take the case as high as the Swedish Supreme Court if necessary. (Pirate Bay guilty)

Lew has written an insightful article on Kiwipolitico titled “Social, economic and political fallout of the Pirate Bay convictions”. Go read it.

I’m glad to read that swedish ISPs have got some balls and sanity. Today The Local writes:

The ISPs maintain that the ruling doesn’t apply to them.

“In part, this is not a legally binding decision, but above all, this is a judgement against Pirate Bay and nothing that effects any service provider. We will not take any action (to block) the contents if we are not compelled to do so,” Patrik Hiselius, a lawyer at Telia Sonera, told Svenska Dagbladet.

Bredbandsbolaget and Com Hem had the same reply. Jon Karlung, managing director of Bahnhofs, said the judgement does not change anything.

“We will not censor sites for our customers; that is not our job. I am against anything that contradicts the principle of a free and open Internet.”

(ISPs refuse to shut down Pirate Bay)

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Filed under: English,politics - @ April 18, 2009 19:31

Tags: BitTorrent, copyright, filesharing, free culture, free software, piracy, politics, sweden