Record Labels Increase Legal Pressure on Pirate Bay

[p2p rules]

Despite a resounding court defeat against the combined might of the music and movie industries, The Pirate Bay continues to operate - at any given moment there are in excess of 20 million peers connected to the tracker. In any event, the verdict is subject to appeal and could drag on for years yet.

The music industry plaintiffs from the case, Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner, have had enough of this situation and through their lawyer Peter Danowsky, have applied to the court requesting it starts imposing additional fines on three of the defendants for as long as they continue to infringe their copyrights.

According to DN.se, the application to the district court describes The Pirate Bay as an “infringing service”. The plaintiffs claim that they have been able to download 467 music albums to which they own the copyright, via The Pirate Bay.

Because of this, the record companies have demanded that the operators of The Pirate Bay - Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi - take steps to ensure that it is impossible for Internet users to download any of the works to which they own the copyright, using The Pirate Bay.

Additionally, in what appears to be an attack on The Pirate Bay’s bandwidth supplier, the plaintiffs are demanding that the ISP ‘Black Internet’ stops providing services to The Pirate Bay.

Worryingly, the application also asks the court to start applying the requested financial penalties before the District Court actually rules on it and that the four defendants shouldn’t be allowed to comment.

IT security expert André Rickardsson told DN.se that he was surprised the record companies have asked for The Pirate Bay operators to be fined;

“Swedish law applies in Sweden and their Internet service isn’t even in Sweden,” he said. “I don’t understand why the district court has anything to do with this. The Pirate Bay operates in countries where the activity is permitted.”

“They are acting like a bull in a china shop and this isn’t going to generate any sympathy for them in the matter.”

TorrentFreak