Media News - Monday, June 29, 2009

Pirate Bay retrial call rejected

A Swedish court has thrown out a request for a retrial by the four men behind The Pirate Bay website. The four were found guilty of promoting copyright infringement in April and face jail sentences and hefty claims for damages. The Pirate Bay's lawyers called for a retrial when it emerged that one of the judges in the case belonged to several copyright protection groups. The Swedish court said the judge's affiliations did not bias the case. The Svea Court of Appeal said Judge Tomas Norstrom should have declared that he was a member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Swedish Copyright Association before the case went to trial. No appeal is allowed against the judgement. The four men behind The Pirate Bay, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde, were sentenced to one year in jail and told to pay damages of SEK 30m (EUR 2.7m) to entertainment companies such as Warner Bros and Sony Music Entertainment. In response to the ruling Peter Sunde said The Pirate Bay would now file charges against Sweden for violating the human rights of the defendants. (BBC News)

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