Intellectual Property Law

Special correspondent Oscar Swartz reports.

STOCKHOLM -- As the landmark trial of The Pirate Bay wrapped up its first week Friday, the prosecutor fought to tie the last two defendants to the daily operation of the world's most notorious filesharing site.

Four defendants in all are accused of contributory copyright infringement for allegedly deliberately facilitating the making available of copyrighted works to the public.  Establishing intent is crucial for a crime to have been committed under Swedish law, and the prosecutor and civil plaintiffs have tried to show that the overriding purpose of The Pirate Bay is to encourage unlawful sharing of copyrighted material.   But in their testimony earlier in the week tech geeks Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Fredrik Neij stuck to the story that the sole purpose of the site is to let internet users transmit whatever material they want.

Warg and Neij were never public people, and that showed in their sometimes awkward testimony. But Friday's first witness, Peter Sunde, aka Brokep, is The Pirate Bay's official spokesman, and he's accustomed to the spotlight. He wore a grey hoodie as he took the stand to defend the website, even as he sought to distance himself from its operations.

The first questions posed to Sunde by prosecutor Hakan Roswall  focused on his ideology, prompting Pirate Bay supporters in the blogosphere to cry foul.  Referring to the open-culture activist organization that founded The Pirate Bay the prosecutor asked: "Is it correct that the Pirate Bureau discusses copyright and is critical of copyright as it is today?"

"What is your personal opinion on copyright?" he followed up.

When recording industry lawyer Peter Danowsky asked the same question later,  Sunde fired back. "That is a political question," Sunde said.  "Is this a political trial or a legal trial?"

Danowsky's answer: "In what way is copyright a political question?"

Danowsky then produced printouts of news articles on The Pirate Bay, pointing out  statements made by Sunde. One exhibit came from a 2006 Wired.com  article, from which Danowsky read the last paragraph aloud: "We're also into educating people about the consequences of piracy. We're teaching them how to do it."

Sunde said that he meant that The Pirate Bay educates people about filesharing in general. He quoted the paragraph before to show that his statement was a response to MPAA, which claimed that it was "educating people about the consequences of piracy and getting involved."

Likeable with a boyish face, Sunde can argue with die-hard enemies on TV and still carry a winning smile while his opponent resorts to cursing.  He testified Friday that he was  to "only" a media contact for  the website,  and that he never actively participated in the acts charged by the prosecutor --namely, "organizing, systematizing, programming, financing or running " Pirate Bay. But Danowsky confronted Sunde with e-mail printouts taken in the 2006 police raid, which seemed to show that Sunde was more involved than he's acknowledged.

Carl Lundström, a wealthy 48-year old businessman,  has a far more tenuous connection to the site, and he did not face any ideological questions on the stand. The prosecutor tried to tie Lundström to The Pirate Bay as a "co-owner," but Lundström claimed that he has only sold hosting and internet services to the site's operators.

Fredrik Neij, one of the young defendants, was hired by Lundström's CTO as a network technician in 2004, while Neij was already running the then-tiny filesharing site.

Lundström's admitted giving The Pirate Bay's crew moral support and sympathy, but said he'd rejected becoming a business partner with them, finding the prospect too legally risky.  "I didn't want to get into potential illegal things when I had 50 employees", he stated.

The court is adjourned for the weekend, with testimony set to resume Tuesday afternoon. Among the scheduled witnesses is John Kennedy, the chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries - the international version of the RIAA. The trial is expected to wrap up and the end of next week. The three civilian law judges, and a fourth professional judge, will decide the defendants' guilt or innocence by a majority vote. In the event of a tie, the professional judge's vote will prevail.

Friday night,  Sunde will play DJ at a party arranged by the Pirate Bureau. Stockholm's digerati are expected to turn up to show support for The Pirate Bay.

Photo: Peter Sunde faces the cameras outside The Pirate Bay courtroom Wednesday. (Oscar Swartz)