The trial of four men accused of being accessories to illegal file sharing for their involvement with The Pirate Bay resumed this week in Sweden. There were no dramatic developments like the prosecutor’s decision to drop half the charges last week. Instead he concentrated on entertainment industry witnesses.
Perhaps the most notable witness was the one who didn’t make it. Police investigator Jim Keyzer made headlines last year when a possible conflict of interest became public. Keyzer was working Warner Brothers, one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world, while investigating The Pirate Bay.
After finishing his investigation Keyzer took a leave of absence from the police department to work exclusively for Warner. He returned months later, but the prosecutor was reportedly unable to contact him to testify.
Instead of Keyzer, a lawyer who works for the IFPI testified to downloading infringing content using a Pirate Bay tracker. But when questioned by the defense he admitted to using a feature of BitTorrent that would allow him to download with no tracker whatsoever.
Result for: ifpi
The Swedish website for IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic industry was hacked yesterday to protest the ongoing Pirate Bay trial in that country. It was replaced by a simple message,.which according to Betanews translates to the following.
Stop lying HÅKAN ROSWALL!
The ruthless hunt conducted by the IFPI, Anti-Piracy Office, Warner Bros., and all the other companies with a pawn in the game has now resulted in a trial in which four innocent men are accused of copyright infringement.
This is a declaration of war against anti-piracy and the industry players behind it, and we urge the public to boycott and lynch those responsible.
IFPI is just a beginning. To be Continued.
Håkan Roswell is a prosecutor arguing the case against four Swedish men in charge of The Pirate Bay. They are accused with being accessories to making copyrighted works available. Originally they were also charged as accessories to copyright infringement, but Roswell dropped those charges a day after the trial began.
Result for: ifpi
Just as it has been in the UK and around Europe, the proposed ‘three strikes’ law for Internet pirates has been shut down in Germany.
The three strikes law would force ISPs to give two warnings to suspected unauthorized file sharers and then shut down their Internet connection on the ‘third strike.’
The German Department of Justice has met with German ISPs and one clear conclusion was made: Three Strikes laws are “incompatible with German pirvacy and telecommunications laws.”
In response, the IFPI said Germany would possibly face a competitive disadvantage against other countries that are still debating enacting the laws.
Germany’s Secretary of Justice Brigitte Zypries added:
“I don’t think that (Three Strikes) is a fitting model for Germany or even Europe. Preventing someone from accessing the Internet seems like a completely unreasonable punishment to me. It would be highly problematic due to both constitutional and political aspects. I’m sure that once the first disconnects are going to happen in France, we will be hearing the outcry all the way to Berlin.”
