The Pirate Bay Captains Found Guilty

The founders of oft-discussed torrent website, The Pirate Bay were found guilty of "contributory copyright infringement" in Swedish court on Friday and sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay over $3 million in damages. And just like that, justice is served and filesharing is no more! Free of evildoers once again, the world can go on as it was before -- pristine and payed for.

All kidding aside, it's hard not to see the guilty verdict as fair, although jail time seems quite excessive. Maybe the RIAA should have just thrown us all in the slammer to teach us the lesson that their lawsuits obviously couldn't.

As for specifics, the above Wired blog writes, "Pirate Bay administrators Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were found guilty in the case, along with Carl Lundström, who was accused of funding the five-year-old operation."

TPB's spokesman remained level-headed: "Stay calm — Nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing whatsoever. This is just a theater for the media."

I'm inclined to agree. This victory is purely symbolic, as I've said about this trial numerous times on this blog. If anyone could even begin to explain to me how this could translate into any tangible obstacles for filesharing, I would be more than happy to hear it, but the fact is that nothing will change. If anything, all of this press could even add to the burgeoning torrent userbase.

There's a very informative podcast on the subject at CNET, which documents the joy felt by "copyright holders" but acknowledges the uphill battle still left to fight. The battle? The culture industry. The war? TBA.

What Exactly Is A Pirate, Anyhow?

As we await a verdict in Sweden's Pirate Bay trial, another group of "pirates" has been dominating the news. I'm talking, of course, about the Somali pirates, who last week attacked an American ship and upon fleeing, took the captain hostage. He was eventually freed and the three remaining Somali pirates were shot dead. But with the term "pirate" now strong in the public consciousness -- and we're not talking Johnny Depp -- you have to wonder who the publicist for these scruffy Swedes are.

Sure, they're fighting for free use and against "the man" but the word has recently taken on a far more sinister connotation -- something that doesn't bode well in a trial being played mostly in the media.

Frank Luntz, author of Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, is known for his reliance on language in political campaigns and is credited with coining phrases like "deep sea energy exploration" (aka drilling). Maybe they should consider hiring him.

And I only bring up politics because these men on trial actually have a political party and call it none other than... the Pirate Party! But the implications of a negative connotation can go a long way and if TPB are in this for the long, gamechanging haul, they should consider a language-based makeover. There's already a call for papers in a journal equating pirates and piracy. Not a good sign for things to come...

The OTHER Pirates in the News

Forget Somali pirates for just a minute. A verdict will likely be read Friday in the case against torrent mega-site The Pirate Bay, according to The Wall Street Journal. I've been following the trial for some time (check the archives, hopefully all of the posts are there, if not they will be soon--click 'The Pirate Bay' tag below) and I will be anxious to hear how the court rules.

This will obviously set a monumental precedent for how copyright infringement will be handled on a large scale as The Pirate Bay provides access to thousands and thousands of moves and music, through torrent files, all for free. The site claims 22 million users, but for now, eyes are on the four men that Swedish prosecutors targeted last year. They claim that only the index is theirs and that they have no control over what people do with it, according to the Journal, but if you ask me that sounds like a shaky defense. They could face up to a year in jail, but that won't begin to touch the market for this sort of large-scale piracy.

I don't know if this even sends a message of fear to the users, considering they are untouched. The hydra-head problem that these entertainment companies are facing is a daunting one and should The Pirate Bay shut down -- much like with OiNK's Pink Palace, may it rest in peace, the exclusive music torrent site that was closed in 2007 after a raid -- we will see many more copycats before these companies and lawmakers can breath a sign of relief.

Hollywood Still Bathing In Money

New York mag's Daily Intel blog is on the case with a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the Motion Picture Association of America's financial report from 2008. First, they wanted to hide it altogether lest we find out that they're not actually struggling. Today, the New York Times is reporting that sure, the report came out but it was curiously a lot shorter than previous years, and actually omits all marketing and production costs.

Tax incentives are obviously at the heart of all of this, but what strikes me, of course, is the piracy angle. With computers getting faster every year, the file-size issue -- which initially relegated online piracy to the much smaller music files -- is become nil and the online pirating of movies is obviously on the rise. Of course, they have been warning us about this "plague" for at least five years now, but I can say that personally the new ease with which I can download films has not gone unnoticed.

In the final quarter of the last two years, what with Academy Award screeners slithering their way online, I have made a few forays into previously foreign waters. Releaselog is an interesting resource and that's all I will say about that.

In New York City, a movie ticket will cost you at least $12.50. As we know, a torrent is free. And yet, if this financial report is any indication, the MPAA is still riding high.

Unofficial Merger: The Pirate Bay and Facebook

TorrentFreak has a fascinating blog post up today about a new feature implemented by The Pirate Bay that allows Facebook users to list their favorite torrents on their profiles.

The 'Share on Facebook' link has been added to all torrent details pages and makes it so that there is absolutely no visit to The Pirate Bay site necessary -- users just click on their friends' profiles and the torrent will automatically begin to download if a torrent client is installed.

Obviously, the industry officials who have commented are pissed but it's curious that Facebook declined to comment on the issue. They surely have bigger fish to fry but I do wonder if this story will get any place in the long term. As a sort of "online globalization", the integration of websites will be an interesting phenonmenon to watch especially in terms of piracy.

Gizmodo's Bittorrent Tips and Tricks

Now, mostly I just wanted an excuse to post this picture, but tech blog Gizmodo's post today entitled "How To: Use BitTorrent Like a Pro" is an extremely helpful read for all of you budding lil' pirates out there. If it's all old hat for you, the piece is probably still worth a read just to make sure you have all of your bases covered.

The Pirate Bay On Trial (continued)

The Fake TV Tumblr had the following dialogue posted earlier today:

Prosecutor: "When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?"
Judge: "IRL?"
Prosecutor: "in real life."
Pirate Bay defendant: "We do not use the expression IRL. No, everything is in real life. We use AFK—away from keyboard."
Prosecutor: "It seems I am a little bit out of date."
via
*I hear people are scalping tickets to this trial.

Lolz all around.

The Pirate Bay On Trial

My most-visited tech blog Gizmodo is following torrent tracker The Pirate Bay on trial beginning today. Wired also has some coverage.

Because The Pirate Bay hosts no files, they are actually being charged with "assisting in and preparing to committing copyright infringement" which adds an interesting caveat to this case and could affect how it will be used as a legal precedent. I will be interested to see this thing through even though the possibility for significant punishment is slim to none. The case, at least to Pirate Bay users and I'm sure the plaintiffs, is largely symbolic, but it's hard not to give the most focus to the bus that delivered the defendants today:I'll be following this case all the way through, but for more up to the day coverage, please do check out the links above.

A Statement of Intent

Mutiny on the Electronic Bay is an analytical aggregator---some sort of a hybrid Mars rover of a blogspot that will comb the web for relevant news, multimedia, and insight---about the online "piracy" of music, television and movies. My apologies: I cannot care about video games or computer programs.

Arrrgh, where's me torrent? I missed me Grey's Anatomy this week.

This blog will not necessarily condemn the process of downloading illegally and may even promote it in a roundabout way, yet I fully endorse the notion of supporting art that "deserves" it. Whatever that means.

I am improvising and this will be a work in progress all the way through. Your comments might help. Let's give this a shot...

[Note: Mutiny on the Electronic Bay comes from the Florida band Against Me! song of the same name. It applies perfectly. A shoddy live video is above.]