Continually blogging about the courtcase, partying, inviting livebloggers and sending live feeds from the court is an excellent PR strategy for Thepiratebay.<p>If they're found guilty there'll be an uproar, and the Swedish authorities and judges know they're being watched closely by an international community.
Here's my bet: they are found guilty for <i>something</i>, don't get jail time or much of a fine, but are required to shut down or modify their operations. If I were a judge, I would see the prosecution's claims as exaggerated, but would probably look askance at the fact that these guys have done nothing at all to remove trackers pointing to copyrighted material, and have actually made fun of those requests.
Could anyone estimate the costs of running The Pirate Bay? I've heard that the site could be grossing millions a year from advertising, but I'm also assuming that the costs are extremely high. I was interested in finding out financial information for the site, but it looks like it won't be released.
I think the Pirate Bay is a shady operation. They probably earn millions on giving other peoples work for free. I don't understand the model of "free copying" - if everyone is leeching and nobody is paying how will we get movies like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or a game like Halo (they cost millions of $ to produce)?<p>I hope an alternative comes where you actually pay for the stuff you leech (especially for movies). And the argument with "trying stuff out", does not really hold - you don't go and try an ice cream for free, you buy it and if it's bad you don't buy ice creams from that store any longer.
They are almost sure to get nailed for it now I think - and a good thing too.<p>Neither side winning is a good outcome for the rest of us but I prefer to see the idiots dealt some of their own punishment for once ;D