michiexile | On Request: A Swedish Layman on the Swedish Judicial System

There was an email recently on one discussion list I'm on, discussing the Pirate Bay verdict.

They were indeed the founders. (2 of them at least, I think the other 2 were support and financial)

They also have to pay nearly 900k each in fines.

I will be interested to see if they appeal and get a higher court (don't know how their court system works), this outcome is honestly and obviously a "message".

And I felt obliged to offer what I know of Swedish law and judicial stuff. It's not much - I have friends who are infinitely more knowledgeable than I am - but it at least keeps track of some of the more salient and potentially surprising details:

Knowing a tad more about the Swedish judicial system:
* They have already declared that they will appeal. Their lawyers have until May 8 to get their paperwork together.
* There are three levels of public courts in Sweden: Tingsrätt, Hovrätt and Högsta Domstolen (county jurisdiction, courtly jurisdiction and the Highest Court - vague attempts at literal translations). This was tried in the Stockholm Tingsrätt, and thus the appeal will go to the corresponding Svea Hovrätt.

And regardless of outcome there - several of my juristically inclined friends tend to describe Hovrätten as a source of incomprehensible randomness at times - it will get appealed to Högsta Domstolen, which should end up hearing the case, since there is a lack of precedent and a high level of disagreement as to what the code of law actually says.

It's worth pointing out at this point that Swedish law is codified as opposed to precedent based - the mission of the courts is to interpret existing law texts and find basis for judgement in those. When doing this, they are certainly expected to take existing precedents into account in shaping their decisions; but as opposed to, say, US and UK law, the rulings do not acquire full force of law.

The central issue HERE really is how to interpret the actions of the Pirate Bay crowd with respect to the letter of Swedish copyright law; and this is essentially what the courts have to decide on...