After ruling that the judge overseeing The Pirate Bay trial earlier this year was not biased despite his affiliation with various copyright organizations, a Swedish court voted unanimously to deny the defendants a retrial. They will now have to hope for an appeal.
"The Court of Appeal has come to the conclusion that none of the circumstances set out, individually or taken together, means that there are legitimate doubts about the judge's impartiality in this case. There has not been any bias," the court stated.
Each of the four defendants in The Pirate Bay trial were found guilty of assisting copyright infringement and sentenced to one year in prison along with $3.6 million in fines to be split among the founders. But the verdict and sentence weren't without controversy, as it was later learned that Judge Thomas Norström is a member of the same copyright protection organizations as some of the main entertainment industry representatives.
"The Pirate Bay will now file charges against Sweden for violation for Human Rights. More info later. (The bias-judge is himself biased...)," Peter Sunde posted on his Twitter account.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/paul_lilly
[2] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/pirate-bay-retrial-denied-judge-declared-unbiased.ars
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/the_pirate_bay_verdict_guilty_with_jail_time_and_36m_fines
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/pirate_bay_lawyer_requests_retrial
[5] http://twitter.com/brokep
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/closing_arguments_presented_pirate_bay_trial
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/half_charges_dropped_pirate_bay_case
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/court
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/legal
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/pirate_bay
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/retrial
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/login?&commentfragment=comments_top_anchor
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