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Dutch Pirate Bay judge is corrupt, claims Pirate Party founder

  Submitted by Modafinil Legal 8 Comments

“This week yet another court order was handed down in Europe with the aim of censoring The Pirate Bay. The ruling forbids the Dutch Pirate Party from not only running a direct proxy, but also telling people how to circumvent an earlier court ordered blockade. However, according to Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, the judge in the case has a history of corruption relating to another file-sharing case he presided over in the Netherlands.” This news has knocked me off my chair in disbelief that something like this could happen in The Netherlands. Yes, that was quite obviously sarcasm.

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Thom Holwerda

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8 Comments

  1. 2012-05-14 5:33 pm
    hyriand

    Please read this blog post by Engelfriet to add some perspective on the matter (in Dutch, sorry): http://blog.iusmentis.com/2012/05/14/een-cynisch-stukje-piratenbaai…

  • 2012-05-14 8:04 pm
    tanishaj

    Very recently, in the Oracle case, Thom was criticizing the US approach of using a jury in technology cases. I believe he called it “insanity” and held up the Dutch reliance on judges as a shining example of a superior system.

    Today, we have an article alleging corruption with Dutch judges. This is exactly the kind of scenario that the jury system was designed to prevent.

    I cannot help but chuckle a little even though these are serious matters.

    PS.

    I do not live, work, or have any allegiance to the United States.

    • 2012-05-14 10:57 pm
      Thom Holwerda

      I never said our system was superior.

    • 2012-05-15 10:35 pm
      Soulbender

      This is exactly the kind of scenario that the jury system was designed to prevent.

      Yeah, so instead we can get judged by people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty….

  • 2012-05-15 1:19 am
    judgen

    Falkvinge is a very sensible and well educated person, and i personally think he is very nice person as well (atleast that is the impression of the times i have met him) and i do agree with his points on this one.

  • 2012-05-15 9:20 am
    nej_simon

    During the Pirate Bay trial in Sweden the judge turned out to be a member of a pro-copyright organization together with the plaitiff’s attorneys.

  • 2012-05-15 2:24 pm
    cyrilleberger

    “OMG the judge took a decision that I disagree with, and he already did the same, so obviously, he is corrupt”

    Did it occurs to anyone that maybe the Dutch law says:

    * unauthorized file sharing is illegal

    * illegal websites can be blocked

    Since the pirate bay is a website about unauthorized file sharing, it is considered illegal by the judge which take the decision to block it (and he repeatedly take the same decision because that is what the law tell him to do). Where is the corruption on that ?

    You might go and say, ok the judge is not corrupt, he applies laws passed by corrupt politicians.

    However, when it comes to politicians, when defining the laws, they are presented with the argument from both side:

    1) Music Industry that claim that free downloading of music does not bring money to artists

    2) We should be allowed to do whatever we want with the piece of music we bought at the cost of 1€, even share it with the millions of friends we have on the internet.

    I admit it is a gross simplification, but it really is how it sounds from The Pirate Bay people. And frankly, it does not take a corrupt politician to side with 1).

    This is basically the problem I have with the Pirate Bay and the associated party. They have taken such an extremist and unreasonable position that they are hurting the cause of the very much needed changes in IP laws.

    Yes it is reasonable to want to buy DRM-free music, that you can listen on any device you own, and pass a long to your real friends a few songs. And no, the activities promoted by the Pirate Bay are not reasonable. And they are actually harming the cause of the reasonable demands by scaring the music industry and the politicians. Especially by screaming like little babies when a judge make a ruling they do not like.