Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström — the founders of the wildly popular torrent site The Pirate Bay — have had their previous convictions upheld by a Swedish court of appeals. While the three defendants did see their prison sentences reduced, the court did increase the fine levied on the the trio from 30 million kronor to 46 million kronor (USD $6.5 million). In April of 2009, a 1 year jail sentence was handed down to all three defendants, the new sentencing has the Swedish residents spending between 10 and 4 months behind bars: Neij, 10 months in prison; Sunde, 8 months in prison; Lundström, 4 months in prison.
“In two years, this type of piracy will be over,” said Ludvig Werner, chairman for the Swedish arm of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. “After a ruling like this and all the pioneers start to get older and have children and families, piracy won’t occur to this extent.”
Christian Engström, a Pirate Party member of the European Parliament, refutes that claim, “The judgement has no meaning for file sharing. It has continued to increase from year to year and the technical capabilities continue to develop.”
No word on what impact, if any, this ruling will have on The Pirate Bay website.
