TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Anti-Piracy Group Say Police Have Arrested “Elite Pirate”
- LimeWire Settles With Record Labels, Still Faces $1 Billion Claim
- Pirate Bay Founder ‘Disappears’, But Not With Malice
| Anti-Piracy Group Say Police Have Arrested “Elite Pirate” Posted: 09 Mar 2011 03:36 AM PST Notorious anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån, who have been a thorn in the side of everyone involved in file-sharing from The Pirate Bay to the recently closed Swebits, are claiming another significant victory. Yesterday, APB’s Henrik Pontén announced that following an investigation by his organization, last Friday police swooped on a man they believe to be a significant player in the so-called warez Scene. “He is one of the elite pirates,” Pontén said. “It is good that the police have a broad focus in their work and can act against the advanced and illegal sources of BitTorrent users.” The man, who is said to be around 30 years old, was arrested in the small city of Gävle by local police and specialists from Sweden’s anti-piracy unit. “It was a major crackdown,” said Paul Pintér, Coordinator at the Intellectual Property Crime Department at Stockholm police. Initial reports claimed that the man was the administrator of servers known in the Scene as ATHF which are said to host as many as 8,300 movies, TV shows and games. While access to the servers was naturally exclusive (APB reports that around 100 people had access), it is from servers like these that the wider file-sharing community obtains much of its material. Frederick Ingblad from the Prosecutors Office said that the early allegations against the man “had been strengthened” following the examination of seized computer hardware. “There were nearly 7000 films stored,” Ingblad said, adding that many films had been distributed either before or shortly after their premiere. “In this case the offense involves so many movies that conviction could result in a prison sentence,” Ingblad added. Throughout his interview the man is believed to have denied the charges. |
| LimeWire Settles With Record Labels, Still Faces $1 Billion Claim Posted: 08 Mar 2011 02:35 PM PST
One of these lawsuits has now been concluded with EMI, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony and several other major music publishers reaching a settlement agreement with LimeWire. No details on the deal have been released, except the court filing which note that both parties “shall each bear its own costs of suit, including attorney’s fees.” While this settlement brings to an end a lawsuit started in June last year when LimeWire was still operational, by no means does it mark the end of LimeWire’s legal troubles. Due to the complex copyright pyramid the music industry has set up, many of the same companies are still fighting the company in a separate case as copyright owners (vs. publishers). This case is where the permanent injunction which forced LimeWire to shut down was issued last October. According to the injunction, LimeWire "intentionally encouraged infringement" by LimeWire users, its software was used "overwhelmingly for infringement" and the company knew about the "substantial infringement being committed" by its users. The evidence further showed that LimeWire marketed its application to Napster users and that its business model depended on mass copyright infringements. The injunction was the result of a lengthy and ongoing litigation process which dates back to 2006, and soon after it was awarded the record labels filed a claim to recoup damages said to have been caused by LimeWire. The labels calculated that the company behind the popular file-sharing client owes them up to a billion dollars. The case dragged on and in recent weeks dozens of documents were submitted to the court in a noteworthy side-battle. To get to the bottom of how the music industry sets up licensing deals with other Internet companies, LimeWire subpoenaed internal emails from Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, Google, MySpace and others. Thus far a quarter million pages of emails have been collected, leading LimeWire to draw some interesting conclusions. Among other things, they found that unauthorized downloads actually boosted the revenue of music labels, and that their income took a dive when LimeWire shut down. Both parties continue their dispute in the coming weeks and a trial has been scheduled for May, in which the damages claim will be assessed. While the record labels are hoping to catch a big score against LimeWire, many ex-users of its file-sharing client have moved on to one of the many LimeWire alternatives, or the resurrected pirate edition. |
| Pirate Bay Founder ‘Disappears’, But Not With Malice Posted: 08 Mar 2011 07:39 AM PST
As co-defendants Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom all made their way into the Court, Gottfrid was on another continent, kept there due to medical reasons. Gottfrid's mother, understandably concerned, announced she would fly out to Asia to support him. Svartholm's absence initially caused some confusion at the hearing. His lawyer, Ola Salmonsson, asked for the case to continue without his client present, but the entertainment industry representatives demanded that the earlier District Court “guilty” verdict should be made permanent. In the event the case went ahead with three defendants, who were all found guilty receiving sentences ranging between 4 to 10 months and sharing damages of 46 million kronor ($7.23m). It was decided that Gottfrid’s case would be heard at a later date.
“The reason is that we do not know where he is,” Gottfrid’s lawyer, Ola Salmonsson, told Swedish Radio yesterday. “Personally I think it’s sad that we can not maintain a contact so we can discuss the situation, it’s not good, of course,” he added. Apparently the Court of Appeal is hoping that at least in the first instance, Salmonsson can find his client but if that fails adverts can be placed in newspapers in order to contact him. TorrentFreak has learned that at least up until a couple of weeks ago, Gottfrid has remained in Cambodia. The country has been Gottfrid’s home now for some time and his presence there has solicited comment from anti-piracy outfit BREIN’s Tim Kuik, that he is “hiding there”. While Gottfrid may be giving the appearance of maintaining a low-profile, that appears to be for good reason. According to sources living in the area, Gottfrid is still battling illness and is being supported by his mother who recently flew out to Cambodia. We are aware of other details but while mindful of our duty to report, we will respect Gottfrid’s privacy and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery. In the meantime, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom wait to hear if their case will move to Sweden’s Supreme Court. |
After LimeWire 
When Gottfrid Svartholm, aka Pirate Bay founder Anakata, failed to turn up at the Court of Appeal in Stockholm on September 28th 2010, his no-show made all the early headlines in the hearing.
However, that date has not yet been set by the Court of Appeal.| You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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