PIRATE
BOOTY
HUFFINGTON
07.15.12
AP PHOTO/FREDRIK PERSSON
Judge Tomas Norstrom answers questions in a press conference after presiding over the Pirate Bay trial in 2009. A defense
lawyer said he would demand a retrial after Norstrom admitted he was a member of copyright protection organizations.
knowledge and culture, 24/7, by being a
connected human being on the planet,”
says Falkvinge. “That is such a huge leap
ahead for civilization that if it means
that some business models will cease to
be successful, then, frankly, those businesses will have to start selling mustard,
or doing something else to make money,
because there’s no place for them.”
The Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) and its allies in the
content industry see the attacks on
copyright as a threat to the livelihoods
of those who work in the music and film
industries. For them, piracy is nothing
more than theft.
“What that analogy misses is that it
takes hundreds of people to create a
film,” MPAA spokesperson Kate Bedingfield says of Falkvinge’s point of view.
“And when it’s stolen, and that product doesn’t come back to the people
who created the film, that’s lost wages,
that’s lost revenue.”
Ted Shapiro, the MPAA’s general counsel in Europe added that he believes that
the most ardent philosophical defenders of
piracy have also profited off the practice.
“It’s very clever,” he says. “It’s a cynical attempt to make this all about free
speech and piracy… but I find that normally, these are only cynical moneymakers who want to trade on other people’s
content, and they will use excuses like
this in order to protect their sites.”