Those Other Pirates

Can you say appeals galore?

Last week, four administrators from The Pirate Bay, one of the world's largest file-sharing (and illegal downloading) sites, were found guilty of violating copyright / intellectual property laws and sentenced to a year in prison and $3 million in punitive damages. It appeared to be a slam dunk case, and the end of one of the major players in internet piracy.

Except that the judge failed to mention that he had a teeny, tiny conflict of interest. Turns out he belongs to two copyright protection groups. So now the motions for appeal and retrials are flying. 22 million users of the site are watching and waiting.

Here's the full story.