Pirate Bay Judge Not Biased?

After the guilty verdict, the Pirate Bay challenged the decision with the allegation that the judge was biased. The Stockholm District Court was in charge of reviewing this allegation, and concluded that:

"-his membership in several pro-copyright groups was merely an educational tool that increased his knowledge of the issues."

This is sure to outrage the already angered population who support the Pirate Bay, and view this as a sweeping act of money, power and corruption talking over any sort of objective trial. For anyone unfamiliar with the Pirate Bay's case, and why it's pretty significant, I recommend taking a stroll down memory lane: The King Kong Defense

The Pirate Bay was brought to trial in Sweden due to heavy pressure from US lawyers (on behalf of Hollywood and other media business). They charged the Pirate Bay, a bit-torrent tracking site, of promoting and encouraging the act of "illegal filesharing." Do people have a right to share their music, their movies, if they are not making a profit off of them? Is Sweden being bullied into enacting laws that more powerful countries seek to be instated? Do US companies have the right to do this? And furthermore, to what extent will we lose our privacy in person-to-person sharing? As the internet becomes a vital role in society, big decisions like this one set precedents.

As people become more integrated and interconnected, the older, stricter legal and economic systems need to evolve. If you take a look throughout history, it seems clear that the system needs to evolve with and for the people, not the other way around. Luckily, this is being done at a smaller level. The Creative Commons offers a new legal system for sharing your media. So too does the Science Commons do for collaborative research. We're living in a new world, and it's high time governments and businesses learn they can't stop that from happening.

Sources: Court Review Says Pirate Bay Judge Not Biased

Pirate Party gains a seat in European Parliament

The swedish Pirate Party has gained "7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot," making them capable of gaining a seat in the European parliament. Major win for the internet generation! The Pirate Party has a number of goals:

1) Re-regulate copyrighting.
2) Abolish the patent system.
3) Reduce surveillance on the internet.

About time there were official voices of support for modern forms of media exchange, no?

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE55623320090607

Pirate Party Gains Numbers, Support

After losing a trial this spring, The Pirate Bay's has appealed for a re-trial in a higher Swedish court. Since then, there has been an explosion of political support, even the creation of a "Pirate Party." Do we have the right to share and download movies with each other? If you're not profiting from it, Spain thinks so. In Pamplona spain, the defendant was acquitted of his charges: downloading and sharing thousands of movies and songs, due to the lack of any evidence that he was profiting from said file-sharing. At least someone is making sense! There is a lot of international pressure built up to support this crusade, but equally there are growing numbers, particularly of the younger generations on the opposing side.

The battle can get messy, but what it comes down to is a fight for media rights. Do we have the right to share information and media freely and openly? Is the traditional legal copyright system actually impeding creativity and expressive freedom? The Pirate Party, and others like them think so. Hollywood and other media companies (often not the artists themselves), disagree. Year after year, they attempt to crack down on "pirating" files, but it seems to no avail. As the older generations get older, and the younger generations mature into the cultural and political spheres, we might see decisions reflecting the Spanish court's attitude towards media sharing in the internet age.