Well that’s it then, everyone out of the pool — Sweden’s Supreme Court just announced it won’t agree to hear an appeal by The Pirate Bay’s founders, meaning the jail sentences and fines imposed by the Swedish Court of Appeals will stand. In other words, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström, who started file-sharing site The Pirate Bay in September 2003, face jail time and have to collectively pony up a fine of 46 million Swedish kronor (US$6.7 million).
In April 2009, The Pirate Bay’s founders were found guilty of abetting copyright infringement and sentenced to a year in prison, plus a fine of 30 million SEK (about US$4.2 million at the time). All four appealed, but the Swedish Appeals Court upheld the verdict in November 2010, decreasing the sentence’s jail times, but increasing the fine to 46 million SEK. The group then attempted to bring the case before Sweden’s Supreme Court, but found themselves rudderless this morning after the Supreme Court effectively waved the case off.
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Under the now final terms of sentencing, Sunde faces eight months in prison, Neij, 10 months and Lundström just four months. Svartholm, who missed the appeals hearing for medical reasons, faces a full year in prison.
Reacting to the verdict, defendant Lundström’s lawyer Per E Samuelsson called it “absurd,” adding that he was “disappointed that the court is so uninterested in dissecting and analyzing the legal twists and turns of one of the world’s most high-profile legal cases of all time.”
The lid on the case isn’t airtight yet: The group has the option to appeal to the European Court of Justice, but the sentences will be carried out in Sweden regardless, though TorrentFreak notes a Swedish justice system tradition involves knocking 12 months off a prison sentence when the case is over five years old. It’s not clear whether the case meets the criteria, however. TorrentFreak claims it does, but Swedish prosecutors filed charges on Jan. 31, 2008 — four years ago, not five.
Sunde’s taken to his blog about the verdict, writing that the group “[isn’t] surprised by this” and alleging that the prior court proceedings were corrupt.
Even though the outcome (which we still haven’t reached) is not favorable for my personal situation, the end goal that we fight for is so much more important than some peoples personal struggles. I’ll live with not being rich – which is easy when you’re not rich anyhow – the rest of my life. I’ll live with whatever sentence I’ll get in the end – I’ll just finish my book. The fight goes on with or without me, I’m just a pawn. But at least I’m a pawn on the morally right side. I’m proud as hell of what I’ve done and I would not change my involvement in any way. I actually think I could have done much more for the fight. And I will.
What’s next? The Pirate Bay’s website is still up, but the .com URL now redirects visitors to a .se (Swedish) address, something TorrentFreak says is because the site’s operators are worried U.S. authorities may try to seize its servers.
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