Three men convicted of being behind the online piracy service known as The Pirate Bay will remain guilty after their pleas for an appeal have been officially denied.
Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundstrom found no sympathy from the judge for their part in breaking Swedish copyright law over the course of several years. It was a landmark case when they were brought to court, and Pirate Bay immediately came under harsh scrutiny.
The Svea Court of Appeals did, however, reduce the sentences for each of the guilty parties. They were originally set to serve a year in prison, but that sentence was taken down a notch to four months for Lundstron, eight for Sunde, and 10 for Neij.
However, with a shorter prison term their damages were actually increased. They were originally ordered to pay 30 million kronor, but now must hand over 46 million, or roughly $5.5 million.
A fourth defendant in the original trial, Svartholm Warg, was ill and unable to take part in the group appeal case. He will undergo his own appeal at a later date.
The Pirate Bay still exists, and has been a muddy area for legal action because it doesn’t actually host pirated content, but does easily allow it to be transmitted and shared. The guilty ruling in the original trial, and now the decision to keep it upheld, changes the face of online piracy.
Pirate Bay still has nearly 5 million users. All of the defendants say they no longer have anything to do with the site.
