If you’ve been reading your nerd sites recently chances are you have heard of the Pirate Bay, the file sharing site that for years has been directing illegal downloaders to ill-gotten booty. By not actually hosting the files on their servers they just about managed to stay one step ahead of the law (and rub many a legal department up the wrong way). The record companies have finally caught up with them though and their long running legal case has taken another turn.Just a week after the four people behind the torrent site were found guilty of breaching copyright law and served with a combined 3.6 million euro fine and a year each in prison, their lawyers have sought an appeal on the basis that the judge in the case is a member of the Swedish Copyright Association. The judge has come out and said that this bore no impact on his decision but lawyers for the Pirate Bay Four are pushing ahead with their appeal and Judge Norstrom isn’t doing much to calm matters, check out his quotes over on cnet along with the rest of the story.
Illegal downloading has been a problem ever since Napster came on the scene all those cyber years ago, things are changing though, as the nice people at Tower Records will testify, vinyl sales are up massively and sales of their USB turntables are also increasing. A definite backlash against the poor sound quality and risk of virus’ associated with illegal MP3’s. Ask your dad about the feeling of picking up a longed for 12” with its warmer analogue sound and perfectly sized artwork, it even beats the joy of browsing a collection of favourite CDs.
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