Pirate Bay Lawyer Seeks Retrial Judge has conflict of inter

[CoFree]

Pirate Bay Lawyer Seeks Retrial
Tom Ivan's

A defence lawyer in the Pirate Bay case is seeking a retrial after it emerged that the judge who sentenced his clients sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and is also a member of the Swedish Copyright Association.

"My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest," said judge Tomas Norström on Swedish radio (via the Guardian).

But according to defence lawyer Peter Althin, a judge found to have similar connections to Norström was excluded by the court last autumn.

The four men behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay were sentenced last week to one year in prison and ordered to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) applauded the verdict and called the trial a “landmark” case.

"This decision confirms that the harm being inflicted on creators of digital works by BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay will not be tolerated, and that such actions are subject to criminal sanctions," said Michael Gallagher, CEO of the ESA.

[sadalius]

Well, the defense attorney was correct in bringing that subject to light. There is no way that judge could convince me he could keep his facts untainted by being on the board of the SAPIP and also a member of the SCA. The defense should have done their research on the judge before hand, but they might have and just let it play out so they would have a card to play if things didn't go their way, which would be a smart tactic.

[CoFree]

There is no way that judge could convince me he could keep his facts untainted by being on the board of the SAPIP and also a member of the SCA

The defense should have done their research on the judge before hand, but they might have and just let it play out so they would have a card to play if things didn't go their way, which would be a smart tactic.

yep
all to true.

[HaGGardSmurf]

There is no way that judge could convince me he could keep his facts untainted by being on the board of the SAPIP and also a member of the SCA

I agree. Its like being a guy, and something real important is happening around you, but there is a naked chick beside you. Doesn't matter if your a reverend, your going to look at the chick even for a moment.

The defense should have done their research on the judge before hand, but they might have and just let it play out so they would have a card to play if things didn't go their way, which would be a smart tactic.

That is if they get a retrial. IMO, they didnt do their research, I wouldnt take the risk of having a bias judge in my trial, if I lose, it would be pretty hard to get a new trial (especially in tpb's case)

[CoFree]

Pirate Bay Trial Judge Admits He Was Member of Copyright Protection Org
Jason Mick
Pirate Bay admins' lawyer demands a retrial

Last week, the trial of four admins from The Pirate Bay, the world's largest torrent site, concluded. The result was a stunning defeat for the pirates, with a guilty verdict and a sentence of over $3M USD in damages (to be paid to Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures) and a year in jail.

Now new revelations have surfaced. It turns out the judge presiding over the trial, Judge Tomas Norstrom, was a member of two Swedish copyright protection groups. He confirmed his affiliation this week, which first surfaced in Swedish Radio reports.

The affiliation represents a relatively clear conflict of interest, given that the prosecution lawyers consisted of three lawyers of similar affiliations. Peter Althin, who represented Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde in the case, is demanding a retrial. He states, "This is completely new to me. It is reasonable that we should have known about this before. It is a clear case of bias."

After successful actions against Kazaa and Grokster, two popular P2P clients, copyright lawyers are eager to trying to take down The Pirate Bay, which boasts over 22 million users. And it appears they had a fully loaded deck to do it with the trial of the administrators, as they had control of the Judge and the prosecution.

All four defendants will appeal the guilty verdict Friday. It is likely that all of them will request a retrial as part of that appeal.

Judge Nordstrom, meanwhile, defends his record, claiming he was completely unbiased. He admits he is a member of The Swedish Association for Copyright and Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. He also admits he worked with Monica Wadsted, who represented the American movie industry in the trial, in resolving internet domain name disputes. Despite these close ties, though he insists the trial was clean. He states, "I don't think there are any circumstances that have made me biased in this case."

Meanwhile, Pirate Bay ringleader Peter "brokep" Sunde was quick to poke fun at the judge's affiliation, calling it "quite remarkable". He sums up the trial, in comments to the AP, in one word -- a "farce".