The Channel Wire

June 25, 2009

There will be no retrial for The Pirate Bay, the Swedish BitTorrent file-sharing behemoth whose founders were found guilty in April of assisting copyright infringement. While defense lawyers for the Pirate Bay sought to prove bias on the part of the trial's presiding judge, Tomas Norstrom, an investigation by the Swedish Court of Appeals found no evidence of sufficient bias.

The Pirate Bay's three founders and an investor were found guilty of assisting copyright infringement on April 17. They were ordered to pay a collective fine of 30 million kronor (about $3.55 million) and each spend a year in prison. Days after the trial ended, however, a lawyer for the defendants demanded a retrial, following reports that Norstrom had close ties to three pro-copyright organizations in Sweden.

At the time, Sweden's Sveriges Radio revealed that Norstrom is a participant in the Swedish Association of Copyright, a board member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Copyright, and a member of .SE, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation.

But the Court of Appeals wasn't swayed.

"We believe that his membership to these copyright groups does not mean that there is any reason to doubt his impartiality when it comes to judging the case," read a statement from the Court of Appeals about Norstrom, provided to the Swedish newspaper SvD.

The statement recognized potential conflict in Norstrom's participation in the procopyright groups, SvD reported, but the Court did not determine enough bias on Norstrom's part to constitute a retrial for The Pirate Bay.

Does the no retrial decision mean Pirate Bay's defendants are going to walk the plank? Not quite -- The Pirate Bay still gets to appeal the guilty verdict. But the Swedish Court of Appeals' decision effectively neutralizes any bias defense on which The Pirate Bay's lawyers were hoping to hang an argument.

The Pirate Bay trial has helped to put illegal digital file-sharing back in the news, though it certainly hasn't been the only high-profile instance.

Recently, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won $1.92 million in damages from a 32-year-old Minnesota mother of four, found guilty under U.S. Copyright Law of illegally downloading 24 copyright-protected songs.

And in France, the country's National Assembly passed a "three strikes law" that would allow a state agency to cut off Internet connections of suspected music pirates if they were found to have illegally downloaded material more than twice.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which was the plaintiff in The Pirate Bay case, came out in support of the law soon after its passage.