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Pirate Bay's judge biased: Member of copyright organisations.
- pierrefar 18y agoWho needs media industry when the best entertainment is real life?
- ryanwaggoner 18y agoThe 99% of the population who has no idea what The Pirate Bay is, let alone that there was a trial. Most of those people couldn't find Sweden on a map.
- jrockway 18y agoHow does that fact not make this entertaining?
- chris11 18y agoAnd there goes any credibility IFPI had... I understand that the IFPI has no obligation to question the judges bias, but seriously, how could they think that this would not come out? Public opinion in this case is just as important for the prosecution as the verdict. And they probably just lost on both grounds.
- rms 18y agoSounds like this will work -- one potential judge had been excluded for having similar connections.
- jessep 18y agoSeriously? How on earth could this have not been uncovered long ago? I know that the pbay lawyers are really good, I wonder if they knew this all along and held it as a card in case they lost. I mean, the judge is not just a member of a Swedish org campaigning for more strict copyright, he's on the board! Absolutely amazing, I can imagine him chuckling and rubbing his hands together when he had the opportunity to hear the case.
- TomOfTTB 18y agoI don't know how Swedish courts work but in the United States all you can really do is privately ask the judge to recuse himself. If he chooses not to you can request that be noted in the court record as possible grounds for an appeal and from there you go on with your case. So really all an attorney can do is wait things out and then present it as an appeal after the trial.
- eli 18y agoSounds like it's the same over there.
- nebula 18y agowhen he had the opportunity to hear the case. Was that opportunity just a coincidence? or it was manipulated so that he would hear the case?
- tvon 18y agoAny reason to actually believe it was manipulated or are you just tossing out suggestions of conspiracy?
- badger7 18y agoIt's perfectly valid to question whether or not a conflicted judge pulled any strings to hear the case - that sort of thing goes on, and he has shown lack of judgement at best and outright corruption at worst. Everything about his position in this case needs to be thoroughly investigated, but that's one of the most important things IMHO. If he made any effort to hear this case himself, that makes lack of judgement less likely and planned corruption more likely.
- rbanffy 18y agoIf a conflicted judge pulled strings to hear the case, this proves a conspiracy. This accusation should be thoroughly investigated and, perhaps, the way cases are assigned should be rethought.
- badger7 18y agoThat's just disgusting. What's the penalty for a judge having an undeclared interest in Sweden, anyone?
- chris11 18y agoShort press release from the Pirate Party (English):http://www.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/pirate_party_corruption_and_miscarriage_of_justice http://www.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/pirate_party_corruption_a...
- jessep 18y agoThanks for posting. That Pirate Party release is definitely worth reading.
- radu_floricica 18y agoStrong as the language may be, it's from a political party. They're paid to be furious on command. I'd be much more interested in the reactions of moderate Swedish media.
- jonas_b 18y agoAs a Swedish citizen this sends shivers down my spine. Since we have a rather weak constitution with little division of power we've relied on the good faith and judgement of our officials to avoid corruption, which has worked pretty well so far. But now, to send people to jail, fully aware that he's affiliated with stakeholders in the case, that's just sickening. Okay, swedish prisons for intellectual property offenders probably have a summer camp atmosphere to it, but that's not really the point. To take someones liberty should not be taken lightly.
- rbanffy 18y ago"have a summer camp atmosphere to it" Perhaps. But the climate won't help much ;-)
- vaksel 18y agoDoes swedish law has the thing where a verdict can be thrown out due to bias?
- eli 18y agoWell, I assume they wouldn't petition for something that doesn't exist. And the article makes clear that there's a court of appeals.
- vaksel 18y agowell yeah appeals is one thing, but it won't automatically clear them, I'm mainly thinking of how the Ted Stevens case was thrown out after a guilty verdict, due to prosecutor misconduct, surely there is the same thing for judges too.
- redrobot5050 18y agoExcept in the case of Ted Stevens, everyone realized that it was corruption, and the people that "let him off the hook" are now under investigation for corruption.
- miracle 18y agoI also hope for a retrial so they can each get 5 years of prison!
- abrahamsen 18y agoThe organization "Svenska föreningen för upphovsrätt" that gets most of the press claims on their home page to be an apolitical organization for people interested in copyright law, with no opinions on its own. http://www.upphovsrattsforeningen.com/foreningen.asp http://www.upphovsrattsforeningen.com/foreningen.asp I don't really see that membership as a problem, unless the reality of the organization is something different from what is stated. The other organization is "Svenska Föreningen för Industriellt Rättsskydd" which has as its purpose to strengthen industrial control over copyright, patent and trademarks. http://www.sfir.se/Verksamheten.html http://www.sfir.se/Verksamheten.html I'd say that membership should have been enough for the judge to declare himself as having conflicts of interest, and ought to result in disciplinary action against the judge.
- praptak 18y agoWhere I live (not Sweden), the Judges' Code of Ethics forbids any personal contacts or economic associations that could cast any doubt on judge's impartiality while carrying out their duties. I'd say that membership in a lobbying organisation is uncomfortably close to the above.
- quoderat 18y agoThe problem is that the whole system is corrupt, not just one individual. Corruption is how you get buy-in, in our current arrangement.
- jonke 18y agoIn sweden there are usually several "judges". The one at the chair is the "Judge" (educated at law) and the rest is lay assessor. But they have the same voting power (therefore they are all judges). The lay assessor should,could consult the judge about what the law says about a subject.