Internet News South Africa

Pirate Bay co-founder released from prison

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: A Swedish founder of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay was freed from prison yesterday, a week after his colleague was arrested in Thailand after years on the run...
Stockholm, Sweden... Peter Sunde was hiding out in the southern part of the country when police finally caught him. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Stockholm, Sweden... Peter Sunde was hiding out in the southern part of the country when police finally caught him. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

"My body just got reunited with my soul and mind, the parts of me that matter and that never can be held hostage," Peter Sunde wrote on Twitter.

Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin confirmed his client's release after serving two-thirds of an eight-month sentence imposed on appeal in 2010.

Sunde, 36, had been living under a false identity in southern Sweden when police finally caught up with him in May after a two-year hunt.

Prison, fines

He and the site's other founders Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg had been sentenced on appeal to various prison terms and order to pay a fine of 46m kronor (€5m, $6.9m) for copyright infringement.

Site financier Carl Lundstroem was also sentenced to four months in prison.

Neij, the last original founder of the site at large, was arrested last Monday on Thailand's border with Laos.

His capture came just days after Warg was sentenced by a Danish court to three years and six months in jail for "hacking and aggravated vandalism" in the largest such case in the country's history.

The judicial action against The Pirate Bay has dealt a symbolic blow to a global community of online sharers of films and music, which the movie and music industry decries as systemic theft that costs billions in lost revenue each year.

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay allows users to dodge copyright fees and share music, film and other files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.

Source: AFP, via I-Net Bridge

Source: I-Net Bridge

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