Swedish court jails 4 linked to file-sharing site

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Saw this story on /. this morning.

[quote]STOCKHOLM — Four men linked to popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay were convicted Friday of breaking Sweden’s copyright law by helping millions of users freely download music, movies and computer games on the Internet.

In a landmark ruling, the Stockholm district court sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year each in prison.

They were also ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6-million U.S.) to a series of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.[/quote]

Swedish court jails 4 linked to file-sharing site

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They weren’t found guilty of copyright infringement themselves, since TPB doesn’t actually host any files.  It’s a search engine.  So they were found guilty of assisting people in finding copyright infringing files.

So two options for the appeal:  either the law gets struck down, or everyone who works at Google (and every other search engine) is also guilty of the same thing.  You can use google to find all kinds of copyright-infringing material.

Sort of like finding the telephone company guilty of fraud because they publish your phone number in a phone book and someone called you on the phone and asked for your credit card number.

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@MiG

They weren’t found guilty of copyright infringement themselves, since TPB doesn’t actually host any files.  It’s a search engine.  So they were found guilty of assisting people in finding copyright infringing files.

So two options for the appeal:  either the law gets struck down, or everyone who works at Google (and every other search engine) is also guilty of the same thing.  You can use google to find all kinds of copyright-infringing material.

Sort of like finding the telephone company guilty of fraud because they publish your phone number in a phone book and someone called you on the phone and asked for your credit card number.

It’ll sure be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Interesting indeed.

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I don’t think it’s that simple - although I am, admittedly, not well-versed on this wonderful thing we call the Internet and the laws that govern it!
It seems to me, though, that there is a significant difference between Goggle and PB. Is not Google more a general information search engine, whereas PB specifically directs and invites you to download music, movies, etc.?

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@Max Power

It seems to me, though, that there is a significant difference between Goggle and PB. Is not Google more a general information search engine, whereas PB specifically directs and invites you to download music, movies, etc.?

I think you’re right.  PB seems to be nothing more than a facilitator for downloading.

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Well Piratebay isn’t a general search engine, if you word your searches correctly you can link (sometimes) directly to copyrighted content on Google. For instance, you can find .MP3 files from Artists which are under copyright law.

However, in the side note. Torrent search engines are not used specifically for the sharing of copyrighted & illegal content, there are genuinely unique and Free content being uploaded by Artists & Small production companies.