Petition For Pirate Bay To Be Filed Again

Representatives for four major record labels have filed a petition to fine two of The Pirate Bay's founders again.

EMI, Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music chiefs have asked Stockholm District Court to fine two of the site’s founders, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 500,000 kronor (£88,000) each because they supposedly did not comply with a ruling in October 2009 saying they must stop operating the torrent site.

The two founders, who were sentenced to a year in jail term for their involvement in the site, removed the tracking system from the site following the October 2009 ruling. However, the major label bosses say this failed to stop the service acting as a file-sharing portal, reports Thelocal.se.

"The changes in the tracker function haven't changed the file-sharing services function," the court petition stated. "Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg have seen to it that users can use the new tracker by making sure that TPB's web site automatically provides links to the trackers to all the torrent files which are on or are uploaded to TPB."

Both Neij and Svartholm Warg state that they are no longer involved in the site, which they say is operated by a company called Reservella.

Thanks for the report to Nme.com.

Comments

[Cerelil]

The major labels are scum, hope they lose the case.

[hawk_kst]

Even though I hate major labels, downloading is still stealing which also hurts the artists who I actually do care about.

[syngates777]

Personally, I just think artists should care more about their music getting heard, regardless of method, instead of getting profit off of their music, because isn't being a musician all about making music and doing what you love? Sure, just about every artist or band out there would rather have their music discovered through the radio, not discovered through torrents, but that's just it: Your music is still being discovered by people. Sure someone could download your entire discography in one convenient torrent, but when you come to their town for a show, there's a good chance they'll want to buy a ticket to your show, maybe a t-shirt or two, and I think that in the long run, concerts and merch are going to be more profitable than cd commission, since record labels take most of the money anyway.

But that's just my two cents.

[Zeppelin Addict]

syngates777 wrote:

Personally, I just think artists should care more about their music getting heard, regardless of method, instead of getting profit off of their music, because isn't being a musician all about making music and doing what you love? Sure, just about every artist or band out there would rather have their music discovered through the radio, not discovered through torrents, but that's just it: Your music is still being discovered by people. Sure someone could download your entire discography in one convenient torrent, but when you come to their town for a show, there's a good chance they'll want to buy a ticket to your show, maybe a t-shirt or two, and I think that in the long run, concerts and merch are going to be more profitable than cd commission, since record labels take most of the money anyway.

But that's just my two cents.

+1 this

its about shows and being heard now, no band makes much of a profit on cds just like they dont lose much on downloads

[deadlyMETAL]

hawk_kst wrote:

Even though I hate major labels, downloading is still stealing which also hurts the artists who I actually do care about.

From what I've heard, bands make money more on merch and non-music sales than the actual music sales. This is probably just hearsay, but from my experience of being in a band, merchandise like shirts and posters nets you more money than CD and digital track sales.

[Cerelil]

In recent years, studies show downloading has actually increased bands revenue, and damaged that of labels.

[everlasting]

the artists get such a small amount from music sales anyway. if people care about the artits that much probably best of downloading the album and sending £10 in the post to the band

[UnaLaguna]

If I didn't consume music illegally (e.g. unofficial YouTube videos), I wouldn't have spent a third as much on music and music-related products as I did in the past year. I simply wouldn't have known about two-thirds of the bands otherwise.

Regarding the points mentioned above about most bands getting most money through touring/merch and not through sales - it very much depends on the artist. If the artist is on a major label and regularly tours then this is true, but for many many bands who are on smaller independent labels and/or don't tour regularly the main source of income is album sales.

If you only pirate the music of big, well-known acts on large labels (like Coldplay, U2, Metallica etc) then the artist isn't really suffering - it's the label. The opposite is true for lesser known bands who don't tour so much (the long tail - there are many many many of these bands).

If you're willing to support the artist then I think downloading can be beneficial, providing you support any future releases and tours. The "try before you buy" mentality. And with services like Spotify and Last.fm becoming increasingly popular (and earning the artists some - but very little money), album sales aren't going to go up even if file sharing is stopped altogether.

Regarding the Pirate Bay chaps - when the bailiffs came round to collect money for the first fine, they found that they were completely broke anyway. Simply fining them more won't make any difference, so I'm not sure what the record labels are trying to get out of this.

[luvmygibby]

In recent years, studies show downloading has actually increased bands revenue, and damaged that of labels

And we all know that damaging the Labels is a good thing (sarcasm). Maybe they have and always take a bigger share of the pie than many feel they deserve, but you forget that the major labels are the ones who brought us popular music! You want to destroy the very foundation of how music was delivered to the listener just so you can hear it for free. Times have changed, but that doesn't mean that all the people behind the seens in producing the music you love to steal don't deserve to be paid. You think that "the label" is the only one losing money, but you have forgetten about the countless men and women who worked to produce and publish this music, the manufactures who have brought the cd's to the store, the ups guy that has delivered it to your front door from amazon. Everyone who says this is ok has not consumed the bigger picture of who all is losing money on this. Maybe the artist profits are up from downlowding, but many, many more lose.

[jackofclubs]

luvmygibby wrote:

In recent years, studies show downloading has actually increased bands revenue, and damaged that of labels

And we all know that damaging the Labels is a good thing (sarcasm). Maybe they have and always take a bigger share of the pie than many feel they deserve, but you forget that the major labels are the ones who brought us popular music! You want to destroy the very foundation of how music was delivered to the listener just so you can hear it for free. Times have changed, but that doesn't mean that all the people behind the seens in producing the music you love to steal don't deserve to be paid. You think that "the label" is the only one losing money, but you have forgetten about the countless men and women who worked to produce and publish this music, the manufactures who have brought the cd's to the store, the ups guy that has delivered it to your front door from amazon. Everyone who says this is ok has not consumed the bigger picture of who all is losing money on this. Maybe the artist profits are up from downlowding, but many, many more lose.

Does anyone on this site actually listen to "popular" music?

[mekani]

Any honest artist will tell you they get almost nothing from record labels. So, why the hell would an artist give a **** how his music got to his fans?

[JohnnyNutman]

if it wasnt for illegal downloads i wouldve never had the chance to follow most of the bands i like. they would have therefore never made any money off of me from merch/gigs.

music labels are dying out anyway. they dont have a business model than can work with the changing industrial landscape.

even if labels do die out completely, the internet will pick up the slack and continue to promote music ads - which it has done way more effectively in recent years than record labels have.

[guitarnoob_100]

Bands make a lot more money from touring and merch sales rather than CD's and digital downloads. Most of the money made of CD's go to the record label.

[ZeGuitarist]

Checked.

[OctoberWind]

This technically isn't illegal because the site is based in Sweden which has much looser copyright laws. It's like if the German government tried to shutdown an American website for having Nazi imagery.

[icooksauce]

Change is inevitable!