
Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Requests Pardon - Garbage
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-peter-sunde-requests-pardon-120511/
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bobsy
I don't understand. Its only 8 months. While i don't agree with the verdict,
his peers found him guilty.

"I can't go to prison because my new company needs me." is surely not a reason
to avoid prison. I am sure the prison has doctors and can treat the majority
of ailments and illnesses.

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danssig
I find locking people away from their life for more than a day or two
absolutely barbaric. I'm surprised a country often rated most democratic in
the world locks people away for non-violent offenses.

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dagw
So what should the punishment be for non-violent offenses?

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danssig
There are many options. Charge them money (and ensure you can force them to
pay it back, e.g. wage garnishing), public service was suggested, etc. Looking
them away from their life seems incredibly excessive.

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hej
I’m totally in favor of mild punishments and I do think that imprisonment is
barbaric and should be avoided if at all possible, but money as a punishment,
for example, is not without problems.

It basically gets rich people of the hook. If there is a flat rate to pay,
that’s the case anyway, but even if the punishment is a percentage of
someone’s income, this disproportionally hits poor people. Poor people need
all their money to survive – pay rent, pay heating, pay food – there is
nothing extra, no money to save. Once you are making several dozen times that
money, a monetary punishment hits you disproportionally milder.

It’s funny that you seem to be worried about the poor for which this type of
punishment is probably absolutely devastating and not very likely to have any
positive results at all. The poor are a problem, not because they might not
pay, but because the punishment might be excessive and not lead to a positive
outcome for them (i.e. it doesn’t prevent repeat offenses).

Preventing repeat offenses and being a deterrent seem like the only two
legitimate justifications for punishment to me, and I’m not sure whether money
can do that.

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danssig
It depends on what we're talking about. If a person stole money then they
should have to pay that back with reasonable interest. So that wouldn't be
tied to how much money the person has, they're basically giving back what they
took.

If it is some other crime that can't be handled by simply giving the money
back you could just scale up the costs, for example. E.g. if you make $1m/yr,
then the penalty is 90% of your earnings. If you make $10m/yr, it's 99%.

Just brainstorming. I don't know what the proper solution is, but looking
people in a cage seems crazy to me.

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dagw
_If a person stole money then they should have to pay that back with
reasonable interest._

What if I attempt to steal money, but fail? Do I get to walk away unpunished?

 _they're basically giving back what they took._

What incentive is there then to not try to steal? Best case scenario I retire
on a tropical island with tens of millions in the bank. Worst case scenario I
end up more or less where I started and can just try again next week.

 _if you make $1m/yr, then the penalty is 90% of your earnings. If you make
$10m/yr, it's 99%._

What if I make $50k/yr according to the IRS, but have millions stashed away in
hidden bank accounts? Do I simply pay $5000-10000 and move on to my next
crime? You're basically describing a system where there is essentially no
downside to white-collar crime unless you are monumentally stupid.

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syn3rgy
I can't help but wonder: What is the point of the 11$ million debt? He'll
obviously never be able to pay even the tiniest part of the money, so why
bother?

How do they calculate the monetary "damages" any way?

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bluelu
Sure he can. He (and probably is still doing) made lots of money through
advertisements on thepiratebay.

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wyclif
Actually, I don't think that's at all probable. See the comment on the
Torrentfreak thread about all that. There is a tremendous amount of expense in
running TPB.

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benologist
A tremendous amount of expense where? Servers are cheap, bandwidth is cheap
and they don't do trackers or even serve torrent files now, and they don't
produce content.

The only thing there's a tremendous amount of is ad impressions.

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wyclif
Like I said, that's all dealt with on the OP thread. Did you not read it? No?
Let's review then:

1\. Legal costs. 2\. Operators for each mirror. 3\. High prices for server
costs. 4\. Multiple residences. 5\. Difficulty in attracting large
advertisers.

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__alexs
I find the idea of openly pardoning people based on business interests
extremely disturbing. Is this a thing outside of Sweden too?

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jacobr
He has requested pardon, not been granted it. I find it _highly_ unlikely he
will be pardoned, at least using the business interest argument.

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truncate
He should be happy that he is not going to prison atleast! (electronically
tagged in his apartment)

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kahawe
> _After being found guilty of copyright offenses in connection with the
> operations of The Pirate Bay_

Did Sweden fundamentally change their copyright laws or how could the
piratebay guys be found guilty, in detail?

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olalonde
They downloaded copyrighted material illegally?

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Schmidt
They may have, but the charges were "assisting copyright infringment" and not
copyright infringement. (Medhjälp till upphovsrättsbrott).

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olalonde
I stand corrected. I was under the impression that the charges were unrelated
to TPB since TPB is still in operation.

