[Infowarrior] - Italian Pirate Bay Trial in the Making

[Richard Forno]

Italian Pirate Bay Trial in the Making
Written by Ernesto on May 02, 2009

http://torrentfreak.com/italian-pirate-bay-trial-in-the-making-090502/

Following the Swedish verdict, Italy is now considering starting its  
own trial against the people involved with The Pirate Bay. This would  
be the first criminal prosecution against the Pirate Bay ‘founders’  
outside their home country.

tpbDuring August last year, The Pirate Bay was “censored” in Italy  
when ISPs were ordered to block access to the worlds largest  
BitTorrent tracker. The Pirate Bay appealed the block and eventually  
won the court case. In October the Court of Bergamo ruled that no  
foreign website can be censored for alleged copyright infringement.

However, with the Swedish verdict against The Pirate Bay in hand, the  
Italian justice authority is now looking into the possibility of  
starting their very own trial against the Pirate Bay ‘operators’.  
Interesting to say the least, because The Pirate Bay and those  
involved with the site have no direct link to Italy.

Nevertheless, anti-piracy lobbyists are already claiming a victory.  
“The charge is the same as the one in Sweden, so one can be optimistic  
about obtaining a similar verdict in Italy,” Enzo Mazza, president of  
the Italian Music Industry Federation (FIMI) told IDG.

The defense lawyers seem to be a little more down to earth. Francesco  
Paolo Micozzi and Giovanni Battista Gallus, the lawyers for Pirate Bay  
spokesman Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that the music industry boss  
might be a little too optimistic.

“I absolutely disagree with the fact that the Swedish decision would  
in any way clear the way for the Italian prosecution,” they told  
TorrentFreak. “First of all, it’s a first instance decision, which  
means that it is not relevant at the moment.”

“Secondly, the Italian case has many different peculiarities, starting  
with jurisdiction issues, which make the Swedish decision much less  
relevant than it could seem at first glance. Thirdly, every decision  
is based on its own evidence, and in the Italian case the trial is yet  
to start,” they explained.

According to Sunde’s lawyers, one of the issues still under discussion  
is whether the evidence collected by the Swedish authorities is legal  
or not. Thus far, the only binding jurisdiction with regard to The  
Pirate Bay is that the Italian blocking order was absolutely unlawful  
under criminal law.

Nevertheless, the entertainment industry is one step ahead and already  
thinking about how they will divide the booty. Simona Lavagnini, one  
of the lawyers representing the Italian music industry said that it is  
not very realistic to expect the defendants to be extradited to Italy,  
but she believes that fines and a seizure of assets belong to the  
possibilities.

The Italian prosecutor will decide in a few months whether there will  
be an Italian Pirate Bay trial or not. The order for ISPs to block  
access to TPB is currently under appeal and the decision in that case  
will come some time in September.