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Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

falkvinge.net

41–50 of 103 posts

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#41
post #17
post #6

I do not know if the facts presented here are true (although I expect that they are) this publication is heavily biased as it was founded by the creator of the Swedish pirate party.

Yeah. I took one look the site, decided that it look illegitimate and/or suspicious, and closed the page.

Illegitimate - no. It's my site and I can confirm that. I've been working hard on it for quite some time.

Suspicious - well, that depends on exactly what you are suspecting.

Cheers, Rick

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#42
post #21

As countries become more corrupted, their "legal" system becomes less about the law and justice, and more an arm of the state to impose its will. I've seen countless examples of this, where the law was ignored, precedent and procedure was ignored, and obviously corrupted officials acted for their best interest in persecuting the people the state had decided needed persecution. In fact, this tendency is so common, his…

Most of the stories I see that claim how the US is some type of a corrupt police state are selectively filtering and misreporting reality. There was a story that made the rounds a while ago… A felon flees police in a car, and later specifically swerves left to run-over the cop up ahead that is trying to deploy spikes on the road, and ends up running over his legs. Minutes later that felon crashes the car. At the same…

Yes, sometimes it's misreported. Many times it's spot on: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut/

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#43
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Swedes won't be forgiven because they let America bully them? Yup, that's logical.

Yeah, pretty much. Sweden is not poor; it is not uneducated; it is not corrupt; it is not dependent on the USA for economic or military aid; it's full of people who ostensibly understand that sometimes the USA should be opposed; and so on and so forth. They have means, motive, and opportunity to do the right thing at little cost to themselves, and they failed to do so.

Sweden has been a close ally of USA ever since the end of WWII. This was necessary due to our location near the USSR.

We might not rely on direct aid but with a small (nowadays) military and an export oriented economy being friends with USA is beneficial.

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#44
post #4

And even after all of that the piratebay still operates as though nothing ever happened. You have to give those guys props for stamina.

The Pirate Bay is indeed a technical trailblazer. Not necessarily for back-end architecture or user experience, but damn, the site is resilient against anything you throw at it.

Pretty much every Power That Be has tried to bring the site down, and it still stands.

That's amazing.

Cheers, Rick

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#45
post #21

As countries become more corrupted, their "legal" system becomes less about the law and justice, and more an arm of the state to impose its will. I've seen countless examples of this, where the law was ignored, precedent and procedure was ignored, and obviously corrupted officials acted for their best interest in persecuting the people the state had decided needed persecution. In fact, this tendency is so common, his…

So, what is to be done?

At root this is a philosophical problem, coming down to what people believe is true or false, good or bad. Now, many people will instinctively react very negatively to this remark -- see my last paragraph.

The US was never on a very firm philosophical base, but it was on an improved philosophical base. The thing is, while this may get an improved government going, unless you fix the philosophy of the culture, it's going to degrade over time.

Our problem is that our institutions, which are funded and therefore controlled by government, do not permit the right kinds of philosophy to flourish, and they promote the wrong kinds.

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#46
post #21

As countries become more corrupted, their "legal" system becomes less about the law and justice, and more an arm of the state to impose its will. I've seen countless examples of this, where the law was ignored, precedent and procedure was ignored, and obviously corrupted officials acted for their best interest in persecuting the people the state had decided needed persecution. In fact, this tendency is so common, his…

When all that you said is happening, and people feel that the government and the justice system is no longer on their side anymore, you will see people taking matters in their own hands, and punishing criminals on their own. This could lead to the destabilization of a society, but that's what the corrupt politicians and law enforcement are creating. Cause and effect. But they don't really care because of something that "may" happen 10 years down the road, and "why should they be the ones to fix it anyway?".

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#47
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, if someone made a webstie that was pro-marijuana, would you assume that was a crime? They're encouraging/tolerating piracy. The pirate bay did not host nor distribute any pirated files. So where's the crime?

So would owning a site called childporn.com and allowing people to post direct links to download child pornography without any attempt to stop it also not be a crime? Again, I'm being serious that I really dont know the answer. These are the actual issues at play. Can one really free themselves of legal responsibility by just saying we don't host or post the files ourselves?

Well, you're asking two questions here:

1. is it legal right now

That I can't say. Ask a lawyer. Most probably not, depending.

2. should it be legal right now

Yes, yes it should. That's the entire point behind "free speech" - once you start drawing lines, shit happens. And the problem isn't with child porn per se, the problem is with the horrific acts that produce it and the mentality of the people who enjoy it, but the image itself should not be in any way illegal. Think of scenes of gruesome manslaughter. There are people who get sexual satisfaction from seeing bloody dismembered corpses. Even so, those images, unsettling as they are to a mentally healthy person, aren't illegal.

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to follow the "fact" that the legal counsel was forcibly subjected to DNA registration, and the link went to the Wikipedia entry for the Pirate Bay raid. Which then linked out the reference for that specific "fact" to a blog that no longer exists. And this was the law student's (the referred-to "legal counsel") blog. Not exactly great. Also the notion that the Judge in this case somehow picked himself and was…

You're thinking of another judge, in the Netherlands. I haven't written in English about this subject before AFAIK.

Now that I think about it, you're right, it was the Netherlands judge story. My fault.

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You needed to open the link to see that? The link called Sweden a banana republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic A banana republic is a politically unstable country that economically depends upon the exports of a limited resource (fruits, minerals), and usually features a society composed of stratified social classes, such as a great, impoverished working class and a ruling plutocracy, composed of the…

Obviously it's a bit of a stretch. The term is being used here because it's another example of corporations becoming powerful enough to impose their will on the the justice system of a territorial state.

Corporations aren't the entities with a monopoly on the use of force. Governments are.

Re: Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial

#50
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm... since when did Sweden's political and legal systems slip into a being extremely right wing? Compared to the US, Sweden is extremely left wing (whether you like it or not).

Who isn't extremely left wing compared to the US?

I imagine Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. But I may be wrong.
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