Ben Reid
2 Jun 2006 19:22
As you are probably aware by now, Swedish Police confiscated the servers of popular Bittorrent index ThePirateBay.org earlier this week, accusing it of being a source of global internet piracy. Now the operators of the site have stated that they intend to claim damages from the Swedish authorities if their innocence can be proved.
The statement, posted up on The Pirate Bays' website, said that those behind the site, "can receive compensation from the Swedish state [if] the upcoming legal processes show that [Piratebay] is indeed legal".
The Pirate Bay has always maintained that its' servers contain no actual media files, but links to BitTorrent files containing material. Christopher Wallin of the IT group of Swedish law firm Delphi & Co doesn't believe this is likely to be seen as an adequate defence. "Our opinion is that that is silly. That is an argument they have been making for the last two or three years," he said. "They have committed a contributory offence, it is a contribution to copyright infringement."
Update 3.6: After three days' downtime, The Pirate Bay is now back online sporting a new logo (pictured above), although doesn't appear to be fully functional just yet.
Source:
The Register