The four people involved in running The Pirate Bay, one of the most widely used BitTorrent trackers for music, movies and software, have been found guilty by the Stockholm district court of being accessories to crimes against copyright law. The court handed down its verdict on Friday morning.
The four, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were each sentenced to one year in prison, as the prosecutor had asked. The court also ordered them to pay around 30 million Swedish kronor (US$3.6 million) in damages, less than the 117 million kronor that movie, music and gaming companies had asked for.
Most experts had predicted a guilty verdict, and also that the punishment would not be as harsh as the prosecutor had wanted. They also expect that the verdict won’t affect The Pirate Bay site, which has been moved abroad.
The four are jointly liable for paying the damages, which, for example, include about 11 million Swedish kronor to Twentieth Century Fox and
