Copyright Law

The Pirate Bay Guilty Verdict ?Significant Positive Progress? - United States

By DrewWilson

One of the major sticking points for many Swedish is the fact that the United States have effectively interfered in the daily internal affairs of Sweden when trying to take down The Pirate Bay. A newly released Special 301 report (PDF) could be interpreted as further evidence of tampering with the affairs of a sovereign country.

The USTR, or the Office of the United States Trade Representative, has just issued their Special 301 report. While there were a number of things that wasn’t surprising, like arbitrarily blaming Canada which Michael Geist has already analyzed and picked apart, there was an interesting note buried within the pages regarding the guilty verdict of The Pirate Bay.

In a section that lists “positive developments” in different countries that starts on page 10, the USTR says, “Several countries made significant positive progress on IPR protection and enforcement in 2008 and early 2009.”

On page 11, Sweden is mentioned:

“Sweden ? In April 2009, a Swedish court convicted four defendants in connection with the Pirate Bay website, which was previously listed in the 2008 Special 301 Report as a notorious virtual market on the Internet. In addition, a new measure in Sweden permitting rights holders in civil proceedings to obtain the identities of individuals implicated in the unauthorized exchange of digital content from ISPs entered into force.”

The USTR then concludes, “The United States commends this positive progress by our trading partners. The United States will continue to work with these and other countries to achieve further improvements in IPR
protection and enforcement during the coming year.”

The report misses a few facts like the fact that the verdict is being appealed on the grounds of an unfair trial, the fact that the Pirate Party of Sweden doubled in size since the verdict was read and that artists have said that the punishment for The Pirate Bay operators was extreme.

Realistically, the copyright industry can cheer on the guilty verdict all they want, but it’s a view few would actually share outside of the industry. It’s also evident that the trial against The Pirate Bay has the United States finger prints all over it.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).