The Pirate Bay trial invalid? (translation of Swedish article)
Posted on | April 23, 2009 | 17 Comments
Just a couple of hour ago, this breaking news article was published on the webpage of SR (Swedish National Radio). It unveils how the judge of the The Pirate Bay spectrial is actually an active member of the Swedish copyright lobby.
As no English media has picked up the story yet, I have made a rough translation from Swedish. As I am not entirely fluent in Swedish (I am Danish), there are a few words that still needs translation (marked in red paranthesis below). If anyone can help, email me at editor@autofunk.dk/freeform101_web and I will adjust the translation accordingly. (Update: All missing translations now ammended, thanks to Christa and Anders Olsen on email – as well as to Finnswede, Henrik M, gs ao. in the comments).
Also, any better formulation/translation of any part of the article will be appreciated.
“TRIAL MAY NEED TO BE DONE OVER”
This Friday all four founders of The Pirate Bay were sentenced to one year in prison and paying approx. 30 million Swedish Kronor in compensation and damages. But now an examination by Swedish radio P3 Nyheter (P3 News) shows that the judge in the trial may not be impartial. And the trial may need to be made over.
“I think that the judge should have chosen not to take the case. It is definitely a delicate conflict of interests,” says law attorney Leif Silbersky.
Through examination it turns out and there are relations between the judge in The Pirate Bay-trial and prosecution; meaning the film and music industry and their attorneys.
Swedish Association for Copyright (SFU)
Here the judge is a private member. Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted that represent the copyright owners in The Pirate Bay trial are also members. The association writes on its homepage that they are “a meeting spot for qualified copyright discussions”.
Swedish Association for Industrial Legal Protection (SFIR)
The association deals with questions of patent and industrial design rights, but has also worked in favor of stronger copyrights. Here the judge is a member of the board.
Stiftelsen.se
An extra job that the judge fills alongside his work as a council member in the ‘Tingsretten’ (Court of Property).
“It may be necessary to for the trial to be done over again,” says Leif Silbersky. “But in order for that to happen the attorneys must deal with this immediately.”
Criticism from various sides
We have talked to several experts such as professors in law practices, judges in Högsta Domstolen (Supreme Court) and lecturers of justice.
“I would not have taken this case, if I had been in this situation,” says Justitieombudsmannen (Ombudsman of Justice) Rune Lavin.
“It is obvious that he never should have taken this count,” a professor in law practice, that chooses to remain anonymous.
Judges must not have any reason to be deemed partial
There are different types of bias. The most obvious case is if a judge is related to one of the inflicted parties. This is not the case here. But the concept of ‘delikatessjäv’ (conflict of interest) exists, and that means that you as a judge must not have any reason to be deemed partial.
“But I do not think that I can be deemed partial because of these engagements,” says Tomas Norström, judge in The Pirate Bay trial.
How do you explain that several law experts disagree with you?
“You will have to ask them that yourselv. Every time I am presented with a count, I access if I see myself as partial. That I have not in this case,” says Tomas Norström.
But it does not matter what the judges thinks himself. This thinks Erik Bylander, associate professor in law practice at the Gothenburg Business College.
“Regardless of the judge’s viewpoint, it can seem highly questionable. In a high profile lawsuit such as this one, I am surprised that the court has not been more careful,” he says.
Read the original article in Swedish here.
Update:
English versions starting to pop up: thelocal.se, TorrentFreak, Open Rights Group and innumerous others.
Danish versions starting to pop up: epn.dk/Politiken.
Update:
Just got ping-backs from Boing Boing, and many others: myReport/Funkyzine, The Art of Foo, Nerdcore, Out Of My Mind, Random Media, Bloginfo360.net, Sofa King Lame, Lab For Culture, The New Blog Times, Topics About Swedish…and counting.
Tags: copyright > Erik Bylander > file sharing > Gothenburg Business College > Leif Silbersky > Rune Lavin > spectrial > The Pirate Bay > Tomas Norstrom
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April 23rd, 2009 @ 10:16 am
Pirate Bay judge had conflict of interest: mistrial?…
According to Swedish National Radio, the judge in the Pirate Bay trial is a board member for a copyright industry lobbying group, and this conflict of interest may result in a mistrial. The Swedish article has been translated into English on Freeform 1…
April 23rd, 2009 @ 10:51 am
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April 23rd, 2009 @ 11:20 am
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April 23rd, 2009 @ 11:30 am
Some help with the translation:
rättskydd = legal protection
mönsterskydd = design protection
jäv = bias
delikatessjäv = delicacy bias
förvåna = suprise
April 23rd, 2009 @ 11:32 am
‘delikatessjäv’ – literally ‘delicacy bias’, some sort of legal term. no idea what the correct translation is.
‘rättskydd’ = legal protection
‘mönsterskydd’ = literally ‘pattern protection’
‘jäv’ = bias
‘förvåna’ = surprise
April 23rd, 2009 @ 11:32 am
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[…] Hope?? […]
April 23rd, 2009 @ 11:58 am
Förvåna = surprise
jäv = disqualified or non-competent due to bias
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April 23rd, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
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April 24th, 2009 @ 10:36 am
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May 17th, 2009 @ 2:45 am
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