The End of File-Sharing?

A Swedish court has sentenced Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde, the four founders of Pirate Bay, the world's most popular file-sharing site, to one year in prison. Further, the four founders of Pirate Bay have been ordered by the Swedish court to pay over $1 million each in damages to major music companies and movie studios for helping millions of people break international copyright laws.

While the file-sharing site Pirate Bay does not store any copyrighted material on its web servers, it does act as a search engine, which facilitates locating copyrighted material and enables file-sharing of copyrighted material between users. In fact the file sharing that has occurred on Pirate Bay has reached historic levels with over 20 million participants sharing music, movies, and video games.

The immense scale of Pirate Bay's file sharing activity may have made it a prime target for music companies and music studios, who originally demanded over $17 million in damages; however, industry spokesman John Kennedy sees the conviction of the four founders of the file-sharing site Pirate Bay as only the beginning. "There has been a perception that piracy is OK...This verdict will change that," Kennedy said in an interview with the BBC.

In convicting the four founders of the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, the Swedish court has set a precedent. It is now possible to convict not only those who host copyrighted material on their web servers, but also sites and tools which facilitate file sharing and the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials.

The Swedish court's ruling against the file-sharing site Pirate Bay has met with mixed reviews. The industry insiders claim it sends a clear message to would-be pirates and those who would develop file-sharing tools: that their acts of piracy and file sharing are in fact prosecutable criminal acts. Rickard Falkvinge, Chairman of a Swedish political party, claims that by convicting the four founders of the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, "the courts and the politicians have declared war against our whole generation."

Whether it be a clear message to pirates, file-sharing sites, and those who unknowingly break international copyright laws, or a declaration of war against an entire generation, one thing is clear: After the conviction of the four founders of the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, the risks related to creating or operating a file-sharing site have increased.

For Pirate Bay, however, the rewards still outweigh the risk. Though shut down in Sweden, the site reopened days later using a Dutch server. Initial reports suggest traffic to the file-sharing site has increased since the conviction.

Court Jails Pirate Bay Founders, bbc.co.uk

Legal Threats Against The Pirate Bay thepiratebay.org

Pirate Bay Verdict: Reaction www.telegraph.co.uk