Pirate Bay Founder Submits Emotional Plea for Pardon

Man this case has dragged on for quite a while and he makes some good points in his 4000 word plea to the court.
Personally, I feel like hes being railroaded, it shows just how far that Hollywood's tentacles reach. This is NOTHING even close to the Mega Upload case, which did have copywritten material on its server, TPB does nothing close to that.


Torrentfreak

“I ask pardon for a judicial system that has been steamrolled over by lobbyism and ignorance. But ultimately, I ask pardon for our future culture and communication. My case has significant impact on these,” Sunde starts his plea. What follows is Sunde’s view on the controversial case – how he got involved in The Pirate Bay and how he was dragged into the criminal investigation and subsequently punished for crimes that never occurred.

Sunde’s determinedness to stand up for his ideals of free sharing and culture have left emotional scars, but also bankrupted him. “And once I’m out of jail, where I’m certainly going to become increasingly bitter over the situation, I have a debt of 100 million Swedish Kroner (11 million euro).

Money in fantasy numbers, supposed to ‘compensate’ for aiding and abetting the assistance of a theoretically possible crime I’m supposed to have done by doing things that didn’t happen.” “An economic debt to some of the world’s richest corporations. A debt that practically means I don’t have a future in Sweden as a country, if I want to live off of anything other than breadcrumbs or the goodwill of my friends. This debt is equivalent to exile, to deportation. I will need to become an economic refugee from Sweden,” Sunde adds. The Pirate Bay co-founder ends by noting that while his conviction may please Hollywood, it goes against the will of the population. A population where millions are active users of The Pirate Bay. The pardon is also for them, according to Sunde.

sad thing is murders and rapisit get off with less.

But don't mess with companies bottom lines because they'll put you in a deep dark hole for the rest of your life.

Pirate Bay Founder! Make way for Prison!
And prepare to be boarded! You will Surrender your booty, and swab my deck!
Ye want to see me Cockswain?
Me buried treasure is in me pocket.
Shut Ye Pie Hole, I'm Diving in Ye Bung Hole!

Just wanted to throw out my pirate slang. Hehe!

In all seriousness, this guy is just another victim/martyr for the "freedom of the internet" movement.
He is right. The public is not on the side of Big Government, who is in the pocket of Big Hollywood and the Big Banks.

I would be surprised if the jury doesn't let him off easy. Depends on who the jury is made up of I guess. If it is truly a jury of his peers, I would suppose they would let him off as easy as the law permits.

Too bad the creeps in Govt write the laws and vote on them in such a manner that a Jury of Peers cannot acquit him or find him not guilty out of sympathy. They have to vote based on the letter of the law, which is carefully and evilly consummated.

Originally posted by benrl
sad thing is murders and rapisit get off with less.

But don't mess with companies bottom lines because they'll put you in a deep dark hole for the rest of your life.

You know, on the off chance that he wouldve gotten off (yea right) they wouldve just found some girl to claim he raped her or planted pedo porn on one of his servers or home computers.

reply to post by Juggernog


Swedish court clears rapisit because victim was transexual.

'We believe that he wanted to rape this woman in particular. But, as she turned out to be a man, the crime never was actually committed,'

So yea, forward thinking court system them Swedes have... but go ahead throw the book at the Pirate Bay guy.

and the sad thing was I didn't even have to hunt down that example, was the first thing to come up when searching for news from Swedish courts

reply to post by Fing3rm4n


not sure about sweden but in the united states there is such a thing as jury nullification which would mean he is found guilty but acquitted because the law is unjust or punishment undeserved

reply to post by sirhumperdink


Not every where in the states is jury nullification valid, Ca passed laws disallowing it.

reply to post by Fing3rm4n


You are right, he is a martyr, just like this kid was.. 23000.00 per song, what a freaking joke

A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 per song, after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him on behalf of four record labels, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Brothers Records Inc. A federal judge called the penalty unconstitutionally excessive and reduced the award to $67,500, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated it.

source

This is already past the "jury" point. He was convicted and sentenced already, for some reason they just haven't confined him yet.

If I was him, I would be a lot less concerned with the jail time than I would be with the fines imposed. What happens when he gets out, can't get a job, and still owes the RIAA's and MPAA's lawyers 11 mil? They will want to make an example, if they haven't already, out of him . . . no wiping those fines off the books.

I do love Pirate Bay though!

The kid referenced above should have learned about proxies!!

Check out a related article...

Source

“Assessing the criminal responsibility of ISPs should be the target key precedent in this case,” he explains.

Lundström wants the Supreme Court to consider if an ISP should be held liable for assisting in crimes committed by their customers. His lawyer, Per E Samuelson, says that to his knowledge no one has ever been found guilty on this basis before.

The appeal lodged by Lundström also questions the huge damages awarded by the Appeal Court against him. As an ISP with no knowledge of the alleged infringements, he feels a share of $6.5 million in damages is excessive.

It's all going to end up on the ISP's, that's the only hub before the internet reaches your doorstep.

Originally posted by benrl
sad thing is murders and rapisit get off with less.

+1 to this.
Shows what a messed up world we live in when sex offenders, rapists and pedophiles end up with less jail time than copyright violators.

reply to post by benrl


well thats retarded (and thanks i live in california and didnt know that actually)