Swabbing the Decks

It's been a while since we last checked in with our favorite ongoing trial of epic proportions: The Pirate Bay Trial continues, and the laughs just don't stop.

Day 7

Day 6 was a day off, so on Day 7, the trial picked up where we last left off (i.e. The prosecutors not knowing how to respond to TPB).

Today is more of the same. The prosecutors brought in a professional witness who had been handling the case for a while - a cop, who was gathering evidence by "Downloading illegally, then taking screen-shots."

That's pretty pitiful. It's almost like they don't understand what Photoshop does...

Anyways, TPB quickly pointed out that they had no evidence, since the cop did not know how to use BitTorrent properly, and therefore, had no actual "proof." The Pirate Bay then pointed out that what they do (search and index torrents) is actually something that Google does naturally (searching and indexing sites, including torrents). The trial ends there for today, as the prosecutors decide whether they should try suing Google too...

Day 8

The prosecutors reveal that the only reason that they AREN'T suing Google is because Google is one of their partners, proving once again that this isn't really a case about justice, but rather the prosecutors trying to get money. Way to be, guys.

The whole trial today comes down to "why The Pirate Bay is killing the music industry." Allegations are levied, without any proof, and there's a lot of grandstanding. I really don't like the prosecution... even if I agreed with them, (which is dubious), the way they've gone about the whole thing has been terrible. I'm afraid the judge may award them a victory just because of how monumental a precedent it might set, but honestly, if that happens, I will lose all faith in the justice system.

Well, more so.

Day 9

A whole day on what BitTorrent is. Why they didn't do this first is beyond me - might have saved the IFPI a lot of embarrassment, I'll tell you that much.

Anyways, it's more or less a discussion on how BitTorrent was legal, and useful, technology - whether or not what TPB does (i.e. indexing) is illegal is still up for debate (though the IFPI is only arguing that the Copyrighted material is illegal, so technically indexing isn't an issue, it's creation and posting...)

Seriously, this case drives me crazy, sometimes. For future reference, if you're going to sue somebody, do your research and know what you're talking about first. If you don't, (and everyone has access to everything over the internet, so people WILL find out), you look like a fool. That can't be good for your brand.

TorrentFreak is also the latest inductee to my Links. I would suggest giving it a good look, since even the non-trial articles are very informative, and often well thought out. Plus, judging from articles like this, they actually research before saying something. A blog that fact checks more than trial lawyers is simply another example of the lunacy of this trial...