Info Pirates Jailed

Trey Brown
4/17/09
4:40

In an ever changing age of technology and information sharing there laws and rules that govern our society are looking for new precedents to follow. As of this week the on going trial over the conviction and incarceration of the operators of one of the world's biggest file sharing site The Pirate Bay has come to an end. The four men operating the site were sentenced to a year imprisonment and ordered to pay damages in the sum of 4.5 million Euros (5.8 dollars US). The Pirate bay operators are expected to appeal and feel that the situation has advanced to a bizarre point seeming to expect to win from the get go. Despite the large amount of damages supposed to be paid out the companies involved such as Warner Bros., Sony Music groups and Columbia Pictures feel the amount is nowhere near large enough. The Pirate Bay operators have expressed the sentiment though that they will refuse to pay the amount set by the courts, even if they had it. Their lawyer feels the court was heavy handed in their verdict and that the trial was highly political in nature and not about just. There will most definitely be an appeal upcoming.

With technology advancing as fast as it is society is definitely going to have a hard time without some kind of reform in information and data policies. Data sharing has become too common place for it to be considered a crime in some many different forms and it will most likely never stop. When it is technically illegal, in places like Europe, to rip and copy music to a music player from a disc you own and have paid for there is definitely room for change.

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