ABBA, King Kong, datanörd and the entertainment industry walked into a bar ...

David M Williams
Sunday, 22 February 2009 06:41

Business IT - Networking

This time Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi was the one to be questioned but he responded in similar ways to Neij, specifically, the site just pretty much runs, nobody has any official role, they all do bits and pieces, nobody is responsible for any specific thing or has a title. Sunde claimed no lazy cash lying around from the Pirate Bay, nor that he felt responsible for the site.

The prosecution brought up material that appeared to contradict things Sunde had said but again the judge ruled the items inadmissible being new evidence. He remind the prosecution that any material they planned to bring up must be submitted before questioning has commenced. This led to nine new documents being handed in.

The week concluded with Gottfrid Svartholm explaining how the so-called global piracy “warez scene” works.

Svartholm is one of those people who wear a beard despite it not suiting them in any way, which led to his description in the Swedish press as a typical “datanörd” or “data nerd,” another term sure to now find favour in the English language.

The prosecution attempted to pin down a connection between the Pirate Bay and “the scene” but Svartholm claimed that not only is it not the case that the scene hire the Pirate Bay’s services but the scene actually hate the Pirate Bay (due to its mass-spreading of releases.)

It’s been a long week for prosecution and defence alike and for all the muscle of U.S. industry heavyweights all signs are that no gloves have yet been landed.

At this stage, consensus among commentators is that no genuine evidence has yet been presented. This, coupled with the withdrawing of half the charges and regular rebuking by the judge, is no doubt causing distress among the prosecutor’s camp.

Of course, not all see it this way with ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus slamming Pirate Bay users as lazy and stingy and asking “how hard is to pay your own way?”

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the trial unfolds and whether the Pirate Bay team are found guilty of any charges. No matter the result there will be definite ramifications on peer-to-peer file sharing worldwide.