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Adam Peck/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Pirate Bay co-founder arrested

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is being detained in Cambodia. He and the site’s other founders were convicted in 2009 by a Swedish court of assisting copyright infringement.

A CO-FOUNDER of the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay was arrested in Cambodia at the request of Sweden, where he faces a one-year prison term for violating copyright laws, authorities said Monday.

Cambodian authorities arrested Gottfrid Svartholm Warg on Thursday at a home he had rented in the capital, Phnom Penh, said national police spokesman Kirth Chantharith.

He is being detained in Cambodia and we are waiting to expel him.

Cambodia has no extradition treaty with Sweden but has requested details of Svartholm Warg’s crime in order to process his handover, he said.

Svartholm Warg and the site’s three other founders were convicted in 2009 by a Swedish court of assisting copyright infringement by helping millions of the site’s users to illegally download music, movies and computer games.

All were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

Svartholm Warg failed to show up at an appeal hearing in 2010. At the time, his defence attorney told the court he had received text messages from Svartholm Warg’s mother saying her son had fallen ill in Cambodia and would not appear in court.

The appeals court reduced prison sentences for the other three co-founders from one year each to between four and 10 months and raised the amount they have to pay in damages to the entertainment industry to 46 million kronor ($6.5 million).

All four defendants denied the charges, arguing that The Pirate Bay doesn’t actually host any copyright-protected material itself. Instead, it provides a forum for its users to download content through so-called torrent files.

The technology allows users to transfer parts of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.

Read: European court makes it illegal for ISPs to block blanket file-sharing>

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9 Comments
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    Mute Stephen Church
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 1:15 PM

    This wont kill the pirate bay , no point in even trying to imprison them.

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    Mute Ed Kavanagh
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 1:59 PM

    And Bush & Blair are still on the loose. Justice is only for us mere mortals

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    Mute Darran Crowley
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 1:26 PM

    wow! This happened 2 days ago! #oldnews

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    Mute Cpm
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 12:37 PM

    arrrrrrested

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 11:12 PM

    Haaaaaaaa, excellent. Yoink!

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    Mute Daniel R
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 6:38 PM

    I download so much of that site its unreal. First it was music then DVR’s and now 16GB Blu Ray movies.it’s like a drug where better quality is the next fix.

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    Mute feargalgarvin
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 7:02 PM

    You didn’t. The pirate bay does not host those files.

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    Mute Daniel R
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 10:06 PM

    But it makes it easier to find them.

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    Mute Daisy Chainsaw
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    Sep 3rd 2012, 5:06 PM

    I wonder will the Americans ask Sweden for his extradition?

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