3 Count: UnAppealing

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1: Pirate Bay Founders’ Prison Sentences Final, Supreme Court Appeal Rejected

First off today, the four founders of The Pirate Bay, convicted in their native Sweden in 2009, have lost their last appeal to have their sentences overturned. The founders were sentenced to prison sentences between 4 months to a year and ordered to pay some 46 million kronor ($6.8 million) in damages. The group had filed a petition to have their case appealed to the country’s Supreme Court but that request has been denied, letting the appellate court rulings stand. However, due to a quirk in Swedish law that often reduces sentences by 12 months in old cases, it’s still possible that the four men will not see the inside of a prison. Even if they don’t get their sentences reduced, it will likely be many months before the men submit themselves to custody.

2: Megaupload Server Purge Delayed

Next up today, the planned purge of Megaupload’s user data has been delayed at least two weeks as the Electronic Frontier Foundation is attempting to work with the hosts of the data to re-enable legitimate users to download their lost content. The content was scheduled to be deleted as early as tomorrow as hosting providers, dealing with unpaid bills after Megaupload’s assets were frozen, want to free up the servers for new customers. To help with the process of retrieving data, the EFF and Carpathia Hosting, one of the providers involved, have established megaretrieval.com, a site where users can submit requests for assistance though the EFF warns they may not be able to help everyone.

3: Ukraine Shuts Down Leading File-Sharing Site

Finally today, in Ukraine, authorities there have shut down the well-known piracy site ex.ua and seized some 200 servers. The site, which was on the RIAA’s list as one of the worst piracy sites, is now offline and 16 of its employees are being interrogated. The site was founded in 2009 and was one of the largest piracy sites in the Ukraine. Following the closure, various government-related sites were also taken offline though officials blamed the downtime on “hackers”.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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