

Pirate Bay Appeal Judge Faces Ban, Works For Spotify - nixy
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-appeal-judge-faces-ban-works-for-spotify-090921/

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nopassrecover
Ignoring your views on The Pirate Bay for a moment, you have to wonder what
could lead to such many conflicts of interest. Is it really that common in
Sweden for law professionals to be so tightly involved with the entertainment
industry?

The main police investigator was working for Warner Brothers.

The first judge, Tomas Norström was a member of the Swedish Copyright
Association. Three of the plantiffs lawyers are members of this same
organisation. Norström is also on the board of the Swedish Association for the
Protection of Industrial Property which means he has strong enough
views/influences on copyright to actively participate in an anti-piracy
organisation that interacts with the entertainment industry i.e. plantiffs.
These connections were undisclosed.

One of the original three allocated lay judges to the first trial was a member
of a composers' association actively involved in advocating further copyright
protection. Fortunately he excused himself from the trial.

The board to review the alleged bias of Tomas Norström was originally meant to
include judge Ulrika Ihrfelt who was also a member of the Swedish Copyright
Association. It is claimed that all Swedish copyright practicing lawyers have
membership to this association but because of the potential conflict she was
removed from the bias investigation. She is now the judge in charge of the
appeal. However, it would appear that as the membership was back in 2005, and
passive membership in this organisation is at least common for copyright
lawyers, bias is not an issue with judge Ulrika Ihrfelt.

One of the three allocated lay judges to the retrial is also an employee at
Spotify, who are a paid peer-to-peer music service that includes the major
music labels (plaintiffs) as shareholders.

On an unrelated note, one of the titles The Pirate Bay are being charged with
distributing is World of Warcraft, which is absolutely useless without a
purchased cd key and subscription.

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budu3
I thought as much. How hard is it, in Sweden, to find someone who isn't
associated with the entertainment industry?

------
ErrantX
This is just a total legal farce.

I am fully behind prosecuting them - or rather challenging their tenacity - in
court (because I believe they do a lot of more harm in the campaign to bring
digital media into this century)..

But dammit you do this properly, by the book and get it really really really
right. And if you lose then you lose, deal with it.

You don't make martyrs out of them.

