In a major victory for the entertainment industry last week, two of the Pirate Bay’s key domains were seized by the Swedish government on the grounds that they were tools used by an illegal operation to help share stolen content. Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij isn’t sitting idly by, however, as he has announced that he will be appealing the ruling… as soon as he gets out of jail, which should be next week.
Last week a two year old case launched by the Swedish state concerning a pair of key Pirate Bay domains came to an end. While the prosecution failed in its quest to hold the Swedish .SE registry responsible for infringements carried out by The Pirate Bay and its users, it did convince the Stockholm District Court to put ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se out of action. Even though the domains were held in a third-party’s name, the Court found that Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij owned and operated them. On that basis they were ordered to be placed under the future control of the Swedish state, never to be used again. “Fredrik Neij has participated in the [copyright infringement] crimes that have been identified and he is the actual holder of the domain names. It is therefore no obstacle to confiscate domain names from him,” the Court said. The parties were given until June 9, 2015, to appeal but less than a week later we now know that The Pirate Bay’s most recognizable domains will remain operational for at least a little while longer.
