Copyright Law

Swedish Bank to Freeze Accounts of The Pirate Bay Admins

By DrewWilson

One of the most talked about trials surrounding file-sharing today took a new twist. The bank in charge of the accounts of The Pirate Bay admins signalled that it would co-operate with an enforcement body and freeze them. All this while the administrators of the famous BitTorrent site is demanding a re-trial.

It’s a new twist that could possibly deal a fresh blow to the administrators of The Pirate Bay, but a report from The Local also said that the fine would not affect him financially because he doesn’t have the money to pay it.

Peter Sunde responded by putting the payment orders through a paper shredder.

?I?ve already shredded them. I don?t have the money so it?s not going to affect my personal finances,? he told the TT news agency.

As it stands now, only one of the men, Wasabröd food empire heir Carl Lundström, has sufficient funds to pay off the claim.

Since the fine is to be paid by the four men together, and the other three men convicted in the case — Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg — lack assets of any sizeable value, Lundström will end up footing the entire bill.

It seems strange that one ruling is enough to seize bank accounts, even if a re-trial is being demanded on the basis of a conflict of interest on the judges part given that it often takes financial support to help win a case. If one were to put together a conspiracy theory surrounding this, a good way to do it is to suggest that the copyright industry wants to knock out any financial support the admins might have, weakening their ability to defend themselves.

Still, there’s no telling what kind of preparations the admins might have taken prior to the trial, so it’s difficult to say for sure what kind of affect this will have on the overall legal case.

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 May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).