Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

bomani2k — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:39:10 -0000

Exactly...logical consistency!

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

ilya — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:10:03 -0000

Actually the communists would be the ones promoting filesharing. Its the greedy anglo saxon capitalists "A.KA. Americans" who are the ones bitching for money over their I.P.'s

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Dude where's my impartiality — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:42:51 -0000

Of course stolen goods sold on ebay are goods that belonged to average wage earners.. It's not crap taken from anyone that can actually afford lose a few million dollars in undeserved profit...

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

caitlyn — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:45:05 -0000

I hate it

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Gab — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:26:43 -0000

Or perhaps they were convicted because they aid and abet copyright infringement, if we're gonna be honest with ourselves about this. I've used them, so I'm no saint either, just saying that the conviction isn't bc the judge is biased.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Zayne S Halsall — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:35:32 -0000

While it is obviously based on an individual's character, as not all people fail to be objective due to their affiliation with various parties, the law in Sweden should definitely cater for such potential conflict of interest and suggest a retrial.

Aside from the author's "a retrial seems like a very real possibility" comment - do we KNOW if the court or the defendants' legal team is taking this information as seriously as it should?

And to put on my grammar-nazi jackboots for a second, Mr Schroeder - please consider using a spell-checker before submitting articles. I'm not a journalist or editor, but to have a misspelling as rudimentary and obvious as "unbelieavable" in the first line of your article? For shame.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

bomani2k — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:06:05 -0000

Evolution isn't necessarily the survival of the fittest and strongest. It might more accurately be described as the survival of that which is the most adaptable to change. The industry is having a failure to adapt at present.

I find it instructive that big powerful capitalist and capitalist organizations who believe (in word) about market forces, free markets, etc...cannot hear the market saying-- no screaming, that "The PRICING & Distribution model currently employed is NOT viable or wanted". You consistently hear folk stating they pay and download for other reasons or would like to pay but don't want to pay for crap and be stuck with it AND/OR don't find the price commensurate with the products (although they do find value).

The industry continues to look this gift horse in the mouth and has decided instead to turn the horse into glue instead of riding it to a new profit paradigm. Old paradigms die hard, but they do eventually die. For that I'm most thankful.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

bomani2k — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:06:48 -0000

Proof of wrongdoing for the judge? Wow, you're a noob. The very appearance of impartiality is enough. The fact that so many people feel that there is a conflict lets you know that the 'appearance' of one is there. Having already dismissed a judge for the exact reason a reasonable person could conclude that the judges unethical actions were intentional. He states he thought it wouldn't affect his decision! It wasn't up to him NOT to tell of something which he apparently had reason to consider himself. He is duty bound to disclose it. Other judges, lawyers, clerks, business folk where aware of this and remained silent. As officers of the court they are supposed to report that ethics issue too. (even anonymously) This is a bigger issue than Pirate Bay and goes to the heart of why all potential conflicts should be disclosed since the integrity of cases, judges, lawyers, and the system as a whole can be called into question.

If the standard you attempt to use for the judge was applied for the Pirate Bay guys we wouldn't have had this trial in the first place. They had no evidence of copyright violation nor evidence of 'inducing' others to break the law. The investigation would have died for lack of evidence.

I'm an artist and I distribute mix tapes and created content FOR FREE on the Pirate Bay and other torrent sites (vuze etc). Music has been around for as long as we have existed in societies, I don't think content will disappear because the record industry has lost their way. Their money would be better spent developing a new business model or on learning how to swim in quicksand.

On Google: The fact that Google is larger so it has 'less' violating material is only stating that bigger, richer, established companies get to have torrents? Hogwash!

"When a present course is in conflict with a future on approach, companies, nations, and even species will cease to exist" -Darin Brownlee 2008

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Jonas — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:38:24 -0000

You don't know the half of it, some official web pages for these organizations have changed descriptions rather recently. It can all be located with google cache if you can read Swedish and where it previously said that the organizations listen pretty much exclusively to voices from pretty much all branches of the entertainment industry (read: are places for outright lobbyism) they have now been made more interest-neutral, saying that they're a forum discussing copyright issues.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

CHRIS RONK — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:30:29 -0000

Come on. Who are we kidding? Of course they are facilitating theft of copyrighted material.

Whether or not they broke any laws is a question that demands a fair trial.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

beach56 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:52:45 -0000

The judge should have excused himself. Whether or not he was actually biased is not the issue. In order for the ruling to be just and fair he must not only be unbiased, but should also have the appearance of independence. He is by any rational interpretation in a conflict of interest.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Remiss63 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:13:05 -0000

His ability to be a believable independent judge for this case is completely compromised. He should not have been involved with this case whatsoever.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Christian — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:20:52 -0000

This isn't just a problem about these trials.
Its an issue that peermeates the entire system.
Just look in the US and the kind of "special treatment" that Monsanto™ have been recieving
from its moles within the FDA and supreme court.
Look at all the unjust support the banks have been given lately; and all without accountability.
Its called Lobbydemocracy.
Significant for the Lobbydemocracy is the only thing that matters is power and influence.
As long as this twisted version of an democratic society is allowed to exist. the more it will infect all parts of our freedom untill we are little more than serfs under our "new" elite.
Our employers.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

mike — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:10:01 -0000

why should they go to prison... maybe you should go to prison for stupidity. They did not commit any crimes. they just own a search engine which locates certain types of files. you are in no shadow of a doubt a Nazi loving communist who doesn't believe in freedom.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

n00b — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:57:03 -0000

How is the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property "closely connected to the prosecutors in the case; i.e. the entertainment industry"?

Do you know what Industrial Property is?

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Zak — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:46:03 -0000

By all accounts, many web projects start without the intent on making money with it. Many hope their idea may go that route some day but it's not the driving force behind their idea, so much as a bonus if it actually works. We all need income so of course they're not donating to charity - good for them for being able to stop their rat-race zombie jobs.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Zak — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:37:56 -0000

You bring up excellent points...only conveniently forgetting one small but overwhelming fact.

Your examples were DEFENDANTS.

This is in regards to the JUDGE.

A defendents bias is supposed to be extreme regardless of thier actual guilt or innocence.

A judges bias is supposed to be absolute neutral, completely absent of any interest in the outcome from a personal standpoint. You actually believe that when he went back to these organizations hes a member of he wasn't heralded as a king ?

You're either terribly naive of general human nature, or your personal stance lies with the verdict and you're digging up really poor arguments for defending it.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

declan — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:10:45 -0000

I cant believe that there is in fact A Judge anywhere that has full impartiality. They're all corrupt by association! (to the capitalist system).

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Your Name* — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:54:59 -0000

Suede, stfu. Your "holier than thou" comments aren't needed here.

There is no debate here. This is fact. It's obviously a conflict of interest, and there must be a re-trial. I don't care whether you agree with piracy or not, they should have gotten a fair trial, and that judge had his mind made up before the trial even started.

Not only should there be a re-trial, but the judge should be disbarred for lack of common sense and judgment.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

jeremy — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:31:45 -0000

The judge was definitely biased. Fair trial!

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Plakboek — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:12:46 -0000

Everybody deserves a fair, open trial with a transparent and impartial legal process. If you deny this then we might as well go back to the dark ages and try running our society with star chambers and kangaroo courts.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Mikkel Mortensen — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:44:37 -0000

The makers of the Pirate Bay never did anything illegal. They only hosted a "hub" for finding .torrent files, be the contents (which are stored on the users of the torrents' machines) legal or illegal. That is no crime.

A .torrent isn't illegal in itself, and The Pirate Bay simply shouldn't be punished for what they've done if you follow Swedish law. But there is a lot of people who are biased into thinking .torrent files are simply illegal, and that's especially old folk or people who haven't had any interest in the subject.

At any rate, who's guilty would be the users of the website. They decide what's uploaded and what's downloaded, be it legal or illegal. If they want to file a lawsuit against anyone, let it be the users.

But remember one thing...

We are legion, for we are many.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

jason — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:42:13 -0000

yes, facts are facts. can you prove that the judge was biased or are you speculating because of his associations? many a mafia trial was lost in this country because prosecutors went to trial with their only evidence being association. while the phrase is "guilty by association" it doesn't hold any sway in a court of law.

if it can be proven that there was communication between this organization and the judge that the verdict of the trial should go favorably for the prosecution - that's proof. just being a member of an organization doesn't mean you can't be impartial. many people in this country hold religious views that say abortion is wrong yet they go to jobs where they may have to dispense an abortion drug.

there was even an article recently about a clerk in iowa who's personal views conflicted with the state's stance on civil union for all, straight and gay, and she said that even though it was a difficult choice personally she has to put that aside and do her job. was that the case with this judge? did he put aside his personal views and act impartially? i don't know but neither do you and that's the point. so unless someone can dig up some PROOF of wrongdoing i think the legal system provides that this judge is innocent (re: innocent until proven guilty).

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

peter — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:41:54 -0000

actually jason, courts have consistently ruled no such thing.

You are clearly a recording industry shill, trying to get people to believe that anyone cares about your outmoded business model.

Here's a lesson for you - for decades you ripped us off with price gouging, now we get our own back. Wake up and make tracks available in a way that is more convenient than the TPB, for a reasonable price and with no DRM, and hurry up about it or your business will die no matter how many people you sue.

Re: Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased?

Elias — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:38:00 -0000

The way the article is written makes the conclusion obvious, regardless of what the reader thinks. Any other background information?