Digitalwerks

Clearly not taking to heart the Leia maxim I pointed out recently, another content owner organization is taking to the legal system to solve their piracy problems.  In this case, though, it is the Swedish government, on behalf of Hollywood et al., that is trying to eliminate a pesky business model upsetting technology, The Pirate Bay.  Janko has the all the important information over at NewTeeVee, but to really get a flavor of events in Stockholm, everyone should check out the trial site maintained by the legendary Pirate Bureau themselves.  It gives a great flavor of the intelligence, humor and overall snottiness of the Pirate Bay crew that has endeared them to millions of pirates (and others) over the last few years.

I predict two things to come from this trial.  

First, Hans Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde (the three main admins behind the site) will from a media relations standpoint run rhetorical rings around their opponents.  They are experts at it and the spectacle will actually be the most entertaining element of the trial, without a doubt.  

Second, and more important in the long run, nothing that happens legally at the trial will make any difference in the real world.  Guilty, not guilty, it won’t matter.  If the Pirate Bay site is taken down, if the admins are put in jail, if they receive a huge fine, etc., it will have no material impact on the availability or speed at which illegitimate content gets shared via Bittorrent or other networks.  Other sites will just pick up the slack.  Nothing will be achieved, other than to create far more publicity for the site and to engender more sympathy for the admins themselves.