Profiles: The Pirate Bay Four
The eyes of the world will be watching Stockholm during the trial of four men from The Pirate Bay charged with being accessories to copyright infringement:
Peter Sunde
Typically The Pirate Bay spokesman, 30-year-old Peter Sunde is of Finnish and Norwegian heritage.
He describes himself on his blog as an entrepreneur and that he works "with (or rather against) intellectual property".
A high school drop-out, Sunde went back and finished his exams later and started a career as an IT consultant.
As for The Pirate Bay, “the idea is to enable anyone and everyone to share information, no matter what type of information, to whomever they want without being censored or moralized over,” Sunde told The Local in October 2008.
Carl Lundström
Alleged financial supporter of The Pirate Bay, Carl Lundström is also facing charges of tax evasion, as reported by The Local in December 2008.
In his forties, Lundström is the oldest of the defendants and the most public. He made his fortune when the Wasabröd family business was sold. He then owned the telecom company Rix Port80, which was subsequently sold to Phonera.
Never far from controversy, it has been reported that Lundström has supported political parties on the far right.
Fredrik Neij
Thirty-year-old high school drop-out Fredrik Neij formed PRQ, the web-hosting company which first hosted The Pirate Bay.
Now owned by foreign investors, PRQ has, according to the New York Times "gone out of its way to host sites that other companies would not touch. It is perhaps the world's least lawyer-friendly hosting company."
In addition to taking care of the server maintenance, upgrading, and hardware on The Pirate Bay, Neij has become an important voice on file-sharing and copyright issues.
He was interviewed on the subject in the documentaries “Good Copy Bad Copy” and “Steal This Film.”
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg
“The record companies can go screw themselves,” outspoken 24-year-old Gottfrid Svartholm Warg told The Local in March 2008 when he learned of compensation claims against The Pirate Bay.
Svartholm Warg has spoken publicly of his belief that file-sharing is not stealing and that The Pirate Bay will continue even if he is sent to jail.
He co-owned PRQ with fellow defendant Fredrik Neij and is reported to have invented the tracker software used on The Pirate Bay.
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Peter Sunde
Typically The Pirate Bay spokesman, 30-year-old Peter Sunde is of Finnish and Norwegian heritage.
He describes himself on his blog as an entrepreneur and that he works "with (or rather against) intellectual property".
A high school drop-out, Sunde went back and finished his exams later and started a career as an IT consultant.
As for The Pirate Bay, “the idea is to enable anyone and everyone to share information, no matter what type of information, to whomever they want without being censored or moralized over,” Sunde told The Local in October 2008.
Carl Lundström
Alleged financial supporter of The Pirate Bay, Carl Lundström is also facing charges of tax evasion, as reported by The Local in December 2008.
In his forties, Lundström is the oldest of the defendants and the most public. He made his fortune when the Wasabröd family business was sold. He then owned the telecom company Rix Port80, which was subsequently sold to Phonera.
Never far from controversy, it has been reported that Lundström has supported political parties on the far right.
Fredrik Neij
Thirty-year-old high school drop-out Fredrik Neij formed PRQ, the web-hosting company which first hosted The Pirate Bay.
Now owned by foreign investors, PRQ has, according to the New York Times "gone out of its way to host sites that other companies would not touch. It is perhaps the world's least lawyer-friendly hosting company."
In addition to taking care of the server maintenance, upgrading, and hardware on The Pirate Bay, Neij has become an important voice on file-sharing and copyright issues.
He was interviewed on the subject in the documentaries “Good Copy Bad Copy” and “Steal This Film.”
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg
“The record companies can go screw themselves,” outspoken 24-year-old Gottfrid Svartholm Warg told The Local in March 2008 when he learned of compensation claims against The Pirate Bay.
Svartholm Warg has spoken publicly of his belief that file-sharing is not stealing and that The Pirate Bay will continue even if he is sent to jail.
He co-owned PRQ with fellow defendant Fredrik Neij and is reported to have invented the tracker software used on The Pirate Bay.
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