
Pirate Bay's judge biased: Member of copyright organisations. - yason
http://www.thelocal.se/19028/20090423/
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jonas_b
As a Swedish citizen this sends shivers down my spine. Since we have a rather
weak constitution with little division of power we've relied on the good faith
and judgement of our officials to avoid corruption, which has worked pretty
well so far.

But now, to send people to jail, fully aware that he's affiliated with
stakeholders in the case, that's just sickening.

Okay, swedish prisons for intellectual property offenders probably have a
summer camp atmosphere to it, but that's not really the point. To take
someones liberty should not be taken lightly.

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vaksel
Does swedish law has the thing where a verdict can be thrown out due to bias?

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eli
Well, I assume they wouldn't petition for something that doesn't exist. And
the article makes clear that there's a court of appeals.

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vaksel
well yeah appeals is one thing, but it won't automatically clear them, I'm
mainly thinking of how the Ted Stevens case was thrown out after a guilty
verdict, due to prosecutor misconduct, surely there is the same thing for
judges too.

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redrobot5050
Except in the case of Ted Stevens, everyone realized that it was corruption,
and the people that "let him off the hook" are now under investigation for
corruption.

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jessep
Seriously? How on earth could this have not been uncovered long ago? I know
that the pbay lawyers are really good, I wonder if they knew this all along
and held it as a card in case they lost.

I mean, the judge is not just a member of a Swedish org campaigning for more
strict copyright, he's on the board! Absolutely amazing, I can imagine him
chuckling and rubbing his hands together when he had the opportunity to hear
the case.

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knightinblue
If I was a pbay lawyer and I knew this info, I wouldn't release it right away.
This way, if the judgment is for my clients, great! If not, I can then release
it, claim bias, and get a new trial.

If I released it right away and replaced the judge, I won't have an ace up my
sleeve if the judgement goes against my client.

It's pretty smart actually.

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jonas_b
Quite insightful comment!

I think now, if they spin this correctly, PBay will have far more leverage for
their main point - that the trial is a set up by the IFPI-industrial complex.

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abrahamsen
The organization "Svenska föreningen för upphovsrätt" that gets most of the
press claims on their home page to be an apolitical organization for people
interested in copyright law, with no opinions on its own.

<http://www.upphovsrattsforeningen.com/foreningen.asp>

I don't really see that membership as a problem, unless the reality of the
organization is something different from what is stated. The other
organization is "Svenska Föreningen för Industriellt Rättsskydd" which has as
its purpose to strengthen industrial control over copyright, patent and
trademarks.

<http://www.sfir.se/Verksamheten.html>

I'd say that membership should have been enough for the judge to declare
himself as having conflicts of interest, and ought to result in disciplinary
action against the judge.

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praptak
Where I live (not Sweden), the Judges' Code of Ethics forbids any personal
contacts or economic associations that could cast any doubt on judge's
impartiality while carrying out their duties. I'd say that membership in a
lobbying organisation is uncomfortably close to the above.

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chris11
Short press release from the Pirate Party
(English):[http://www.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/pirate_party_corruption_a...](http://www.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/pirate_party_corruption_and_miscarriage_of_justice)

~~~
jessep
Thanks for posting. That Pirate Party release is definitely worth reading.

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chris11
And there goes any credibility IFPI had... I understand that the IFPI has no
obligation to question the judges bias, but seriously, how could they think
that this would not come out? Public opinion in this case is just as important
for the prosecution as the verdict. And they probably just lost on both
grounds.

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pierrefar
Who needs media industry when the best entertainment is real life?

~~~
ryanwaggoner
The 99% of the population who has no idea what The Pirate Bay is, let alone
that there was a trial. Most of those people couldn't find Sweden on a map.

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jrockway
How does that fact not make this entertaining?

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rms
Sounds like this will work -- one potential judge had been excluded for having
similar connections.

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jonke
In sweden there are usually several "judges". The one at the chair is the
"Judge" (educated at law) and the rest is lay assessor. But they have the same
voting power (therefore they are all judges). The lay assessor should,could
consult the judge about what the law says about a subject.

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quoderat
The problem is that the whole system is corrupt, not just one individual.
Corruption is how you get buy-in, in our current arrangement.

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badger7
That's just disgusting. What's the penalty for a judge having an undeclared
interest in Sweden, anyone?

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mahmud
Public ridicule; he will be labeled a "Norwegian" for the rest of his life.

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judofyr
On the other side, we would just call him "Swedish".

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miracle
I also hope for a retrial so they can each get 5 years of prison!

