Copyright Law

Appeals Court: No Retrial for the Pirate Bay

By soulxtc

Rules Judge Tomas Norström wasn’t biased when he convicted the BitTorrent tracker site’s founders for copyright infringement despite being a member of the same pro-copyright organizations as the entertainment industry’s attorneys.

It’s official. There will be no retrial in the Swedish District Court which found the founders of BitTorrent tracker site the Pirate Bay guilty for the facilitation of copyright infringement. The case will now proceed forward in the standard appeals process.

Lawyers for the the Pirate Bay’s founders had called for a retrial, arguing Judge Tomas Norstrom was biased due to his membership in several pro-copyright organizations that actively lobby for more stringent copyright laws.

“We have reached the conclusion that we do not agree with the conflict of interest claim,” said appeals court Judge Anders Eka.

He said that being a member of group that promotes the interests of copyright holders isn’t being biased since they are entitled to protection under Swedish law like everyone else.

“For a judge to back the principles on which this legislation rests cannot be considered bias,” he said in his ruling. “The court has come to the conclusion that none of these circumstances, neither alone nor together, means there is doubt on whether the judge was objective.”

Judge Eka did criticize Judge Norstrom for not disclosing his ties to the groups earlier so that the issue could have been resolved before trial, but nonetheless found he was not biased.

“The fact that he failed to shed light on this does not however mean that there was any wrongdoing during the proceedings that would require a retrial,” said Judge Eka.

It follows an earlier court review by a 3-judge-panel investigating the matter for Judge Eka, whose determination of a lack of bias by Judge Norstrom provided the basis for his decision.

“This is part of a pattern. It show that the Swedish legal system is no longer to be trusted when it comes to copyright cases. It’s a travesty of justice quite simply,” said Christian Engstrom, newly elected Pirate Party member to the European Parliament.

“There are certainly problems with the laws too but this also shows that the courts are not capable of applying the laws in a correct manner. I’ve been a lay judge for seven years and I’ve never seen an indictment as bad as the Pirate Bay verdict. But that didn’t stop the court from setting ridiculous sentences,” said Engström.

He also predicted the verdict would mean even more support for the Pirate Party, its membership having already skyrocketed from 7,000 before the Pirate Bay conviction to almost 50,000 today.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).