TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard

---

Three Swedes were arrested today

suspected of running-

-one of the world's biggest websites

for illegal downloading...

Good evening. The US government

threatened with trade sanctions-

-unless file sharing sites, like

the Pirate Bay, are shut down.

Illegal downloading has upset

big organizations in Hollywood...

The motion picture studios lost

The White House forced the

Swedish government to intervene.

We applaud the Swedish authorities.

It was an important site to stop.

The police website was attacked

on Friday-

-and last night

the government website.

The trial against the founders of

the Pirate Bay begins tomorrow.

Today they met the press.

What will happen to the Pirate Bay

if you're found guilty?

Nothing.

What are they going to do about it?

They've failed shutting it down once.

They're welcome

to come and fail again.

It's not the Pirate Bay

that's going to court tomorrow.

It is about getting us

who are connected to the Pirate Bay-

-into a political trial.

The trial tomorrow is not

about the law, it's about politics.

Half of all BitTorrent traffic

is coordinated by the Pirate Bay.

It's extreme amounts of traffic.

There are 22-25 million users

at this very moment.

A user is defined

as one ongoing upload or download.

Any questions? Please.

Where is Fredrik?

Where is Fredrik?

We don't know.

He was supposed to be here

but he's probably hungover.

The first question: Where is Fredrik?

I said that Fredrik likes to party.

I didn't want to lie and tell them

I knew where he was.

I tried to get hold of Fredrik

all day yesterday.

I called him a couple of times

and finally he answered.

He says:
"Do you know where I am?"

I go:
"No."

"I'm at Arlanda Airport."

"Why is that?"

"I'm leaving."

What?

He said that he had bought a ticket-

-to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. What

a great name for an escape plan.

So his plan was to head home

to his girlfriend in Laos.

Live with her and not give a sh*t

about anything.

Then suddenly he texted me:

"I think it's the Security Service.

The plane is broken."

"So where are you now?"

"On my way back to the hotel."

Phew!

The interest for the file-sharing

trial in Stockholm is massive.

You can't seriously think

that you can stop our world-

-our everyday, our reality.

This is so gay.

Monique Wadsted.

I also represent

the gaming industry. But not music.

We have the biggest damage claim.

I represent some of the

big film studios in Hollywood.

Warner Bros., Columbia,

We're demanding compensations

of $13 million.

It might seem insanely high.

That should be seen as an indicator

of how big this business is.

Because this is about

"The Pink Panther", "Syriana",

one "Harry Potter"-

-"Prison Break" and "Walk The Line".

There is no doubt about

what they have done.

They have run a commercial

business and making a profit.

The penalty for this type

of activity is prison.

Not fines.

Fredrik would like to tell his

version before the prosecutor starts.

Is that accepted by the prosecutor?

You may begin, Fredrik Neij.

I want to start by saying that I have

a great interest in computers and IT.

And especially for internet

and networks.

And that I... Well...

...I've lost my train of thought.

You forgot what you were saying.

You had a long interest in IT.

I got involved in the Pirate Bay

because of my interest in IT.

I think it's great fun

to work with technology.

For me, the Pirate Bay

is a technical challenge.

To run such a large website

and such a large tracker technically.

Play with computers that I could

never afford to play with on my own.

First I want to ask you...

The media often describes you

as a computer genius.

How would you describe

your competence yourself?

I do have a certain

technical competence, yes.

What does "a certain" mean,

compared to others?

I'm not sure this is the right time,

place or medium to post my CV.

But I am asking you.

Please answer politely.

I decline to answer that question.

It's too much of an estimation.

-It's what?

-Too hard to estimate.

-Too hard to estimate?

- It's a very difficult question.

How did you meet

Fredrik and Gottfrid?

I don't remember, but I assume

it was in a chat room on the internet.

When was the first time

you met IRL?

We don't use the expression IRL.

We say AFK. But that's another issue.

I don't remember that either.

Got to know each other IRL?

What is that?

In Real Life.

We don't like that expression.

We say AFK - Away From Keyboard.

We think that the internet

is for real.

This is what our office looks like.

Is this inside the Pirate Bay?

Yes. Here are some of

the people working on it.

-Are they working on it now?

-Yes.

Where are they based? In Sweden?

Let's see. USA, USA,

USA or England, England.

Finland, I think.

The Pirate Bay.

This is the web server.

Data base and search function.

The trackers are over there.

This little piece is the tracker.

It's the world's biggest tracker.

It coordinates 50%

of the world's BitTorrent traffic.

Not so many computers,

but powerful and well-configured.

Half the day has gone.

How did it feel in court?

So far it's been boring.

The prosecutors' strategy is to lie

as much as possible in the most boring possible way -

-so you fall asleep in court and become

physically undable to defend yourself.

Some say that you've made a lot of

money by spreading illegal material.

We've probably made a lot of money,

but the site costs a lot, too.

Hi. Okay, we're coming down. Bye.

-Let's eat.

-Okay. Nothing vegetarian.

Aren't you working on the site

we're on trial for while in court?

The pirated Depeche Mode CD

I have in my laptop is even funnier.

He'll open in 5 minutes.

How the hell can prosecutor Roswall

mix up megabit and megabyte?

Generally speaking, for storage you use byte and

when you measure speed you use bit.

It all started with Gottfrid's site

"America's Dumbest Soldiers".

It was a site

where you could rate from 1 to 10.

It was American soldiers

who died in the first Iraq war.

Then you could rate

how stupid they were-

-depending on

how silly their deaths were.

Neither the American government nor

anybody else appreciated the site.

I had a spare line

which I let him use for the site.

It was from British Telecom.

Someone at the US State Department

called the head of British Telecom.

He called the head of the operator

in Sweden where I worked.

So the US government ordered us

to remove the site.

We fought them for a long time

before we removed it.

We argued that it was

freedom of speech and parody.

After a while we closed it down,

when it became too much of a fuss.

Two months later Gottfrid needed

more bandwidth for the Pirate Bay.

I still had that line available.

We used it for the Pirate Bay.

Hearing with the defendant Peter

Sunde. The prosecution may begin.

Is it true that among

the Pirate Bay computers-

-you stored one that you owned?

I bought a computer

that I gave to the Pirate Bureau.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes