Description The operators of The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular file sharing sites, have been found guilty of copyright law violations by a Swedish court.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde have been sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 30m kronor (US$3.5m).
"According to leaked information from the court we lost (got the news last night). Trustworthy source as well," Peter Sunde was the first to break the news in a twit. He then reaffirmed that "nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever. This is just a theater for the media."
Unsurprisingly, the news was applauded by Michael Gallagher, head of game publishers' lobby ESA. "Piracy is the single greatest threat to the development and release of innovative and creative entertainment software that consumers demand and enjoy," he said. "It's a job killer in an economy that needs millions more jobs, not less. This decision confirms that the harm being inflicted on creators of digital works by BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay will not be tolerated, and that such actions are subject to criminal sanctions."
The Pirate Bay operators have made it clear that they plan to appeal the ruling.
