Here's another "Bay" that seems to have survived;
Internet piracy trial of the decade to begin
Film and music industries seek millions in damages from file-sharing site the Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay Logo
Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent, San Francisco
A courtroom in Stockholm is set to stage the internet piracy trial of the decade. Four men behind the hugely popular Pirate Bay filesharing website are about to go before a judge for enabling millions of internet users to make illegal downloads of music, movies, games and software.
The Pirate Bay site, based in Sweden, is the world's largest BitTorrent tracker and search engine with an estimated 25 million active users. BitTorrent is a data-sharing protocol that makes it easy for users to transfer large files. The torrent files, listed on the site, contain all the information needed to download film or music files from others who have often copied them without permission.
Four men connected to the site have been charged with facilitating the distribution of copyrighted material. They were charged after police raids in 2006 when officers searched their premises in Stockholm and seized servers. The four defendants, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundström, face up to two years in prison and a fine of 1.2 million kronor (£100,000). The trial is due to start on Monday.
Music and film companies have also brought a civil claim for compensation that is being heard with the criminal prosecution. They are claiming compensation of 2.2 million euros, in connection with a sample of 23 music works selected by the prosecutor. The film industry is claiming damages of 10.9 million euros, in connection with four films and one television series selected by the prosecutor.
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The Pirate Bay has been in the sights of the music and film industries for several years as concern has grown over the level of illegal file-sharing. The four defendants have run the site since 2004 after it was set up a year earlier by the Swedish anti-copyright organisation Piratbyrån.
The website lists hundreds of thousands of torrent files, linking to content including big Hollywood films, music tracks from every major recording star and software from leading companies. The Pirate Bay has claimed that half of the world's torrents are found using its trackers. The site is free to use and is supported by advertising.
According to a geo tracker provided by the Pirate Bay, in one 24-hour period earlier this month, there were 3.3 million unique users in China (22.4 per cent). The US had 1.6 million users (11 per cent) and the UK 824,000 users (5.6 per cent).
Public prosecutor Hakan Roswall told Reuters in January 2008: "It's not merely a search engine. It's an active part of an action that aims at, and also leads to, making copyright protected material available.
"It's a classic example of accessory - to act as intermediary between people who commit crimes, whether it's in the physical or the virtual world."
Defenders of the four men have pointed out that no copyrighted material is stored on Pirate Bay's servers and no swapping of files actually takes place there. Pirate Bay locates file sharers on the internet and acts as a directory. The Pirate Bay's legal adviser, Mikael Viborg, has stated that because torrent files and trackers merely point to content, the site's activities are legal under Swedish law.
The music and film industries have instigated a policy of pursuing those who distribute copyrighted content. They hope that the case will set down a marker against illegal file-sharing and act as a deterrent to individual downloaders. Jo Oliver, general counsel of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents record labels across the world, told The Times: "This is an extremely detailed case which will reveal the operations behind the Pirate Bay. While publicly these are internet freedom fighters, we are hoping that this case will show that these are people who are making money by violating other people's copyrights"
The prosecution is expected to present evidence that the four men have set up the Pirate Bay to make substantial profits from advertising and may have used offshore accounts to safeguard their money.
Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden, said: "For people who make a living out of creativity or in a creative business, there is scarcely anything more important than to have your rights protected by the law.
"Copyright exists to ensure that everyone in the creative world â from the artist to the record label, from the independent film producer to the TV programme maker - can choose how their creations are distributed and get fairly rewarded for their work.
"The operators of The Pirate Bay have violated those rights and, as the evidence in court will show, they did so to make substantial revenues for themselves. That kind of abuse of the rights of others cannot be allowed to continue."
The Pirate Bay has insisted that the site will survive, whatever the outcome of the trial. The pirates have set up their servers in different parts of the world, claiming that they do not know exactly where they are.
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The authorities have acknowledged that this may be only the start of the battle. Hakan Roswall told Reuters: "Because the infrastructure is scattered among several places around the world... no separate country will be able to stop the site." But he said he believed advertisers might have second thoughts about using Pirate Bay if a guilty verdict is handed down. "That can be the sort of thing that influences the site in the long run."
Jo Oliver said: "I think that that if the site were to move, which is by no means a foregone conclusion, there would be further legal action in other countries."
The Pirate Bay could not be reached for comment, but in a blog posting the men behind the website said in January: "The past year has been good to all of us. Next year won't be as good, is our sad prediction.
"File sharing will not be very affected but our rights as human beings are being infringed on all the time. New laws are passed all over the world and especially here in Sweden. We're very sad by this so we hope that we are proven wrong."
The trial is expected to make daily headlines in Sweden, where illegal file sharing is a major political talking point, and will be followed closely on the internet around the world. There will a live audio feed of the trial from broadcaster SVT 24 and the Pirate Bay is encouraging journalists and bloggers to send updates to Twitter.
