Pirate Bay prosecutor amends charges

Håkan Roswall, the prosecutor in the trial of the men behind the popular file sharing site The Pirate Bay surprised a Stockholm court by amending the charges as the trial entered its second day on Tuesday.

• Justice Minister reluctant to store data (4 Feb 10)
• Swedish police conduct file sharing raid (3 Feb 10)
• Sweden sets pace as countries race to tackle music piracy (27 Jan 10)

Roswall has removed all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material" from the charge sheet against the four men, Hans Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström.

Roswall has confirmed that he now plans to limit the charges to the production of the actual torrent file and not the resultant hard or soft copy. The new charges will be amended to read "complicity to make (copyrighted material) available".

"A sensation," according to defence lawyer Per E. Samuelson.

"It is very rare that you win half the case after one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor has been deeply affected by what we said yesterday."

But Peter Danowsky, legal counsel for the music companies in the case, said the change would simplify the charges against The Pirate Bay.

“It’s a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works,” he said in a statement.

The second day of the trial at Stockholm district court continued with the presentation by Roswall of downloads facilitated through The Pirate Bay.

The media in question includes films such as Harry Potter, Syriana and Walk the Line as well as games such as Diablo 2.

There was also a technical discussion over whether torrent files could be connected to trackers other than The Pirate Bay.

"This is a misunderstanding over the technology from the prosecutor's side. None of the downloads presented in the court can be proved to have been made from The Pirate Bay's tracker," Fredrik Neij, one of the four defendants, explained.

"Technically these guys stand a head above police technicians and the prosecutor has not really understood how it works," Samuelson concurred.