Pirate Bay to Sue IFPI
Popular BitTorrent tracker Pirate Bay thretens to sue the music industry asking for compensation for the months the web site is blocked by Danish ISP Tele2.
The Pirate Bay is currently blocked by the Danish ISP Tele2 after The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) convinced a court that Tele2 where helping with copyright infringement by letting people access a site which could link to copyrighted material.
Tele2 appealed the verdict but still had to block until the appeal is won by the Pirate Bay's side. "It?s a fight between Tele2 and Ifpi but with The Pirate Bay and ultimately it?s users as the only affected parties," a Pirate Bay's administrator wrote in his blog.
The Pirate Bay suggests the organisation will seek damages for the blocking.
"I?m thinking that we will need to ask the court for compensation for the months that we have been blocked," said Brokep one of Pirate Bay's administrators.
He added that the block had actually limited effect, since the Pirate Bay website posted significany popularity in Denmark since the block. However, "it?s still fair to say that we?ve had to do a lot to defend ourselves and that we need compensation for the users that lost access to the site and for the people who are spreading their works using The Pirate Bay," Brokep said.
The amount demanded is not revealed but Brokep writes: "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more)." With the money, the Pirate Bay plans to start a Danish grant. The grant will give out money to Danish aspiring artists for making music and releasing it for free.
On 1 April the IFPI demanded $2.5m from Pirate Bay in damages for compensation for downloads of 24 music albums.
Tele2 appealed the verdict but still had to block until the appeal is won by the Pirate Bay's side. "It?s a fight between Tele2 and Ifpi but with The Pirate Bay and ultimately it?s users as the only affected parties," a Pirate Bay's administrator wrote in his blog.
The Pirate Bay suggests the organisation will seek damages for the blocking.
"I?m thinking that we will need to ask the court for compensation for the months that we have been blocked," said Brokep one of Pirate Bay's administrators.
He added that the block had actually limited effect, since the Pirate Bay website posted significany popularity in Denmark since the block. However, "it?s still fair to say that we?ve had to do a lot to defend ourselves and that we need compensation for the users that lost access to the site and for the people who are spreading their works using The Pirate Bay," Brokep said.
The amount demanded is not revealed but Brokep writes: "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more)." With the money, the Pirate Bay plans to start a Danish grant. The grant will give out money to Danish aspiring artists for making music and releasing it for free.
On 1 April the IFPI demanded $2.5m from Pirate Bay in damages for compensation for downloads of 24 music albums.
