
“Prison is a bit like copyright”, says jailed Pirate Bay founder - Garbage
http://senficon.eu/2014/08/prison-is-a-bit-like-copyright-peter-sunde/
======
bane
I think it's interesting to contemplate that all this is not about TPB
relieving anybody of their property, but the possibility of preventing
somebody from making the maximum amount of money possible off of their
property. TPB doesn't even host copyrighted material, and the access they
grant to it requires _just_ enough technical knowhow that most people don't
even bother and just pay for netflix and itunes.

Under no conceivable legal system has TPB violated any law (though TPB's users
may have). The closest analogy I can think of is putting the mayor of a city
into prison because there are people in the city who might break the law, and
properly running city services and having functional roads, public transport,
property title management, etc. enables them to break the law slightly more
easily.

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mike-cardwell
That description does not live up to the image I had of Scandinavian prisons.
Although I suppose an 8 month sentence will never be about rehabilitation and
can only be used as punishment.

~~~
Udo
As a European, I was surprised, too. But the key thing to remember here is
that he pissed off some very influential people, so it's likely they stuck him
in a maximum security facility with a lot of hardened criminals and some
instructions to make his life as difficult as possible. Which is par for the
course when you're an activist I guess, and a borderline-but-not-quite
political prisoner. If you're someone who gives the authorities a hard time,
they'll in turn give you a hard time, such is the nature of political
corruption.

However, it's important to keep in mind that his sentence is only 10 months,
which may not even be served fully. Those months are going to be bad, but the
guy will return to his normal life pretty soon. He's a community hero, and
financially taken care of, so there's probably not a lot to be worried about
in the mid to long term.

~~~
pathy
>so it's likely they stuck him in a maximum security facility with a lot of
hardened criminals and some instructions to make his life as difficult as
possible

The prison is ranked as a "lower security class" prison (Class 2). With 1
being highest and 3 lowest. Considering that he dodged his sentence for
several years it is not unreasonable to have him in the slightly higher
security prison. Additonally I believe the class 3 prisons are "open prisons"
(
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_prison](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_prison)
).

~~~
Udo
Thanks for clearing that up. The article certainly makes an effort to depict
it very differently.

------
zerr
What I don't understand - I'm still happily using Pirate Bay along with bunch
of other torrent sites (but mostly through torrentz.net search engine). So
what's the story behind it? Why PB still operates if it is proven that it is
illegal?

~~~
undershirt
PB has been hosted by an ISP belonging to the Pirate Party of Sweden since
2010. Shutting it down would be seen as political censorship.

~~~
haakon
The Swedish Pirate Party stopped hosting The Pirate Bay in early 2013:
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130226/09515722117/swedi...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130226/09515722117/swedish-
pirate-party-stops-hosting-pirate-bay-intends-to-sue-anti-piracy-organization-
unlawful-coercion.shtml)

------
leke
> Other items that arrive in the mail, such as vegan candy, won’t be handed
> out to him until after his release, “but at least the prison has to catalog
> every single thing you send me, which pisses them off,” Peter says with a
> wink.

Imagine if millions of people from all around the world sent Peter something
every week. I think the prison would want him out of there pretty quick.

~~~
mike-cardwell
Personally, if I was in prison, annoying the staff would be the last thing I
wanted to do.

~~~
stefantalpalaru
It's a rather civilized country, he won't get raped by the staff.

~~~
sjtrny
I don't think that was the concern. Probably something less sinister, like
delaying his mail or disallowing exercise time etc.

------
bellerocky
> “If you don’t constantly insist upon your rights, you will be denied them”

I think in US Jails like Rikers is that if you insist upon your rights you
will be thrown into solitary. Americans don't think prisoners should have
rights, they went through the due process system and lost them because they
did something bad.

~~~
killerpopiller
allegedly anyways

------
pavanred
Here's a question on a slightly related note. It is widely known that Gottfrid
Svartholm (anakata) is not provided access to books as opposed to Peter Sunde.
But, Gottfrid is allowed to receive letters. I was wondering if there is any
legal restriction on the content of the letters sent to such prisoners. If
not, would it be OK if books are sent by the page via letters either as-is or
paraphrased?

~~~
hippich
as-is could be copyright infringement. paraphrased - could be ok (although
IANAL :))

~~~
philbarr
Surely it's not copyright infringement unless you claim you wrote it yourself?
Like, you could buy a book, tear the pages out of it and send that.

~~~
cwp
If you claim to have written it yourself, that's plagiarism. It would only be
copyright infringement if you sent photocopies of the pages of the book. If
you're sending the original pages, there's no copying, and thus no
infringement.

------
agumonkey
I remember tpb showing his jail mailbox, so he can read mail but is he allowed
to answer them ?

------
hazz
Here is the original article, paragraphs of which seem to have been stitched
together to make the TorrentFreak version: [http://senficon.eu/2014/08/prison-
is-a-bit-like-copyright-pe...](http://senficon.eu/2014/08/prison-is-a-bit-
like-copyright-peter-sunde/)

~~~
e12e
Indeed. Thanks for the link. The difference is about 1451 to 1152 words (the
torrentfreak version is shorter).

~~~
frandroid
The question is, is the TorrentFreak version a good edit or should I rush to
the longer version? :P

~~~
c3o
The TorrentFreak version is missing a few of the more personal paragraphs
about Julia Reda's experience visiting him. His statements are intact.

------
l33tbro
Knock "centralization" all you will, but users must take responsibility for
their online lives. I'm sure it gives Sunde revolutionary feels to espouse
decentralization and demonize Big Internet, but the sad reality is that users
are the ones that have made Facebook and Google powerful and monolithic walled
gardens. Every society get's the internet it deserves.

~~~
yardie
When Google, Facebook, or Microsoft acquire a service I use and love is it
still the internet I deserve? Not all centralisation is done through natural,
market forces. Sometimes Big Internet uses its bottomless purse to keep itself
out in front.

~~~
rayiner
Giant companies using their cash _is_ a market force. How did they get that
money? In the market, through their massive user bases.

~~~
yardie
...and lawyers, and legislation, and patent portfolio, and many other events
that doesn't even touch a "free market".

You do know that at the moment the US gov't is deciding if 2 or 3 national
ISPs is enough competition. Where are all the other upstarts? Effectively
locked out. How? If you showed up early enough you were subsidised in
deploying infrastructure. If you showed up a little late that is no longer an
option to you.

So yes, continue being naive about how those market forces rely exclusively on
cash.

~~~
rayiner
We have one maybe two widely used search engines. One or two social networks
dominate the landscape. The third mobile OS is a distant competitor to the
main two. Two cell phone companies make almost all the profits in that
industry. Until recently, one processor manufacturer dominated the consumer
sector, with a competitor that it had to prop up for apperances' sake. Did
Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and legislation
to achieve victory?

Proponents of startups who also believe in the market have to deal with a
certain cognitive dissonance. They have to convince themselves that giant
corporations can only win through non-market means. But the fact is that the
market almost always favors scale. Apple and Samsung win not through suing
"upstarts" for patent infringement, but through the kind of vertical
integration only possible with scale. If you can spend $2 billion on a factory
to make sapphire glass screens at a price point the "upstarts" can't match,
then you win, through purely market means. If you're Verizon and can spend
billions to have LTE coverage everywhere in the country, that's what leads you
to dominance over the upstarts, not the regulatory regime.

Go back to before the modern regulatory state. Did Standard Oil and U.S. Steel
lawyer themselves to victory? No, they did the same thing Apple and Samsung
are doing: dominate the competition by leveraging scale.

~~~
nitrogen
_Did Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, use lawyers and
legislation to achieve victory?_

Sort of, don't know, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Page rank patent, ???, lawsuits on patent/copyright/look-and-feel against
clones and competitors, instruction set patents, one-click patent, anti-
competitive OEM contracts and more.

