Peter Sunde

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Peter Sunde
Peter sunde close up.jpg
Sunde in 2009
Born
Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi

(1978-09-13) 13 September 1978 (age 45)
Uddevalla, Sweden
Other namesbrokep
Occupation(s)Politician, spokesperson
Known forCo-founder of The Pirate Bay
Founder of Flattr
Co-founder of Kvittar
Co-founder of IPredator
Founder of Njalla
Political party Pirate

Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (born 13 September 1978), alias brokep, is a Swedish entrepreneur and politician. He is best known for being a co-founder and ex-spokesperson of The Pirate Bay, an illegal BitTorrent search engine. [1] He is an equality advocate and has expressed concerns over issues of centralization of power to the European Union in his blog. [2] Sunde also participates in the Pirate Party of Finland and describes himself as a socialist. [3] In April 2017, Sunde founded Njalla, a privacy oriented domain name registrar, hosting provider and VPN provider. [4]

Contents

Personal life

Sunde is of Norwegian and Finnish ancestry. [5] [6] Before the founding of the Pirate Bay, Sunde worked for Siemens. In 2003, he became a member of Sweden's Piratbyrån (The Pirate Bureau) and a few months later Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm started The Pirate Bay with Sunde as the spokesperson. [7] He remained The Pirate Bay's spokesperson until late 2009 (three years after the ownership of the site transferred to Reservella). In August 2011, Sunde and fellow Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij launched file-sharing site BayFiles, that aims to legally share. [8] Sunde is vegan [9] and speaks Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, English and German.

Peter Sunde ran for European Parliament in 2014 election with the Pirate Party of Finland. [10]

On 31 May 2014, just days after the EU elections and exactly eight years after the police raided The Pirate Bay servers, Sunde was arrested at a farm in Oxie, Malmö to serve his prison sentence for the Pirate Bay case. [11] He was released five months later after having served two-thirds of his eight-month sentence. [12]

The Pirate Bay trial

On 31 January 2008, The Pirate Bay operators – Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström (CEO of The Pirate Bay's former ISP) – were charged with "assisting [others in] copyright infringement". [13] The trial began on 16 February 2009. On 17 April 2009, Sunde and his co-defendants were found to be guilty of "assisting in making copyright content available" in the Stockholm District Court. Each defendant was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay damages of 30 million SEK (approximately €2,740,900 or US$3,620,000), to be apportioned among the four defendants. [14] After the verdict a press conference was held where Sunde held up a handwritten IOU statement claiming that is all the damages he will pay, adding "Even if I had any money I would rather burn everything I own and not even give them the ashes. They could have the job of picking them up. That's how much I hate the media industry." [15]

The defendants' lawyers appealed to the Svea Court of Appeal together with a request for a retrial in the district court claiming bias on the part of judge Tomas Norström. [16] The district court ruled there was no bias and denied the request for a retrial. On appeal, the jail sentences were reduced, but the damages increased. The supreme court of Sweden subsequently refused to hear any further appeal. The European Court of Human Rights also later rejected an appeal. [17]

Segments of an interview with Sunde talking about copyright, the Internet, and culture are featured in the 2007 documentary Steal This Film and 2013 documentary TPB AFK .

Flattr

Flattr is a micropayments system started by Sunde and Linus Olsson, which enables viewers of websites to make small donations to the developer by clicking a "Flattr this" button. At the time of the projects's announcement in February 2010, Sunde explained that "the money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month. We want to encourage people to share money as well as content." [18] Flattr itself takes a 10% administration fee. [18]

After WikiLeaks' initial publication of the U.S. Diplomatic Cables, companies including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Moneybookers blocked donations and money transfers to the site. Flattr, however, continued allowing donations to WikiLeaks. [19] Sunde commented "We [Flattr] think their work is exactly what is needed and if we can help just a little bit, we will." [20]

On 5 April 2017, Adblock Plus publisher Eyeo GmbH announced that it had acquired Flattr for an undisclosed amount. [21]

Hemlis

On 9 July 2013, Peter Sunde, together with Leif Högberg and Linus Olsson, announced a fundraising campaign for Hemlis. [22] Their goal was to launch a mass market messenger that was secure and private. [23]

On 22 April 2015, the Hemlis team announced that they were discontinuing the development of the Hemlis messaging platform. [24]

Kopimashin

On 14 December 2015, Sunde released a video [25] on his Vimeo account of a device called "Kopimashin", a machine made with a Raspberry Pi running a Python routine to produce 100 copies per second of Gnarls Barkley's single "Crazy", redirecting the copies to /dev/null (where the data is discarded), surpassing eight million copies per day.

The following day, Sunde published the full description of the device and project at Konsthack as the first art project of the site's portfolio. [26]

The machine has an LCD screen (as shown in the video) that calculates a running tally of the damages it has supposedly inflicted upon the record industry through its use, accordingly to what RIAA claims on their website. [27] If RIAA's claims were valid, it also meant that the record industry would soon become bankrupt as a result of Kopimashin, [28] a claim the project seeks to disprove with a physical example.

A few days later, Sunde told news site TorrentFreak that Kopimashin was created to "show the absurdity on the process of putting a value to a copy", and that "putting a price to a copy is futile." [29]

A similar project called "Strata Kazika" was already launched by Polish activists in 2012. [30] [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

In computer networks, download means to receive data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is sent to a remote server.

Piratbyrån was a Swedish think tank established to support the free sharing of information, culture, and intellectual property. Piratbyrån provided a counterpoint to lobby groups such as the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BREIN</span> Dutch recording and movie industry organization

The Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland is a stichting in which the recording industry and movie studios of the Netherlands participate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pirate Bay</span> Website providing torrent files and magnet links

The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer, file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.

This is a timeline of events in the history of networked file sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fredrik Neij</span> Swedish activist

Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij, alias TiAMO, is the co-founder of The Pirate Bay, and the Swedish Internet service provider and web hosting company PRQ. Neij was one of the defendants in The Pirate Bay Trial which began on 16 February 2009. He and other operators of The Pirate Bay were charged with assisting users in copyright infringing practices. His time during the aforementioned trial has been captured in the documentary film TPB AFK by Simon Klose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gottfrid Svartholm</span> Swedish computer specialist

Per Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, alias anakata, is a Swedish computer specialist, known as the former co-owner of the web hosting company PRQ and co-founder of the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay together with Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde.

isoHunt Torrent index site closed 2013

isoHunt was an online torrent files index and repository, where visitors could browse, search, download or upload torrents of various digital content of mostly entertainment nature. The website was taken down in October 2013 as a result of a legal action from the MPAA; by the end of October 2013 however, two sites with content presumably mirrored from isohunt.com were reported in media. One of them – isohunt.to – became a de facto replacement of the original site. It is not associated in any way with the old staff or owners of the site, and is to be understood as a separate continuation.

<i>Steal This Film</i> 2006 short film

Steal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property directed by Jamie King, produced by The League of Noble Peers and released via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol.

Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer-to-peer software. Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic, widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated.

<i>Good Copy Bad Copy</i> 2007 film

Good Copy Bad Copy is a 2007 documentary film about copyright and culture in the context of Internet, peer-to-peer file sharing and other technological advances, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. It features interviews with many people with various perspectives on copyright, including copyright lawyers, producers, artists and filesharing service providers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal issues with BitTorrent</span>

The use of the BitTorrent protocol for the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content generated a variety of novel legal issues. While the technology and related platforms are legal in many jurisdictions, law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies are attempting to address this avenue of copyright infringement. Notably, the use of BitTorrent in connection with copyrighted material may make the issuers of the BitTorrent file, link or metadata liable as an infringing party under some copyright laws. Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pirate Bay raid</span>

The Pirate Bay raid took place on 31 May 2006 in Stockholm, when The Pirate Bay, a Swedish website that indexes torrent files, was raided by Swedish police, causing it to go offline for three days. Upon reopening, the site's number of visitors more than doubled, the increased popularity attributed to greater exposure through the media coverage, which is an example of the Streisand effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pirate Bay trial</span> Copyright infringement trial of torrent tracker

The Pirate Bay trial was a joint criminal and civil prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the copyright infringement of others with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay. The criminal charges were supported by a consortium of intellectual rights holders led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who filed individual civil compensation claims against the owners of The Pirate Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Lundström</span> Swedish far-right political activist

Carl Ulf Sture Lundström is a Swedish businessman.

OpenBitTorrent is an open BitTorrent tracker project for the BitTorrent protocol.

<i>TPB AFK</i> 2013 film

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard is a 2013 Swedish documentary film directed and produced by Simon Klose. It focuses on the lives of the three founders of The Pirate Bay – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm – and the Pirate Bay trial. Filming began sometime in 2008, and concluded on 28 February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countries blocking access to The Pirate Bay</span>

This is a list on countries where at least one internet service provider (ISP) formerly or currently censors the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB).

FMovies is a series of file streaming websites that host links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies for free. The sites have been subject to legal action in various jurisdictions on grounds of copyright infringement and piracy.

Njalla is an anonymous domain name registrar, hosting provider and VPN provider, established by The Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde.

References

  1. ↑ Thorkildsen, Joakim (31 January 2008). "Norske Peter tiltalt i The Pirate Bay-saken". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 29 June 2008.
  2. ↑ "EUP 2014 – Copy me happy". blog.brokep.com. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  3. ↑ Mollen, Joost (11 December 2015). "Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde: I have given up". Motherboard .
  4. ↑ "Pirate Bay Founder Launches Anonymous Domain Registration Service – TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  5. ↑ Kuprijanko, Alexander (7 February 2009). "Jag känner inte att jag gör något fel". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 10 April 2009.
  6. ↑ Waters, Darren (16 April 2009). "Countdown to Pirate Bay verdict". BBC . Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  7. ↑ "Pirate Bay's Founding Group 'Piratbyrån' Disbands". TorrentFreak. 23 June 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  8. ↑ "Pirate Bay Founders Launch "Legal" File-Sharing Site". Tomsguide.com. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Pirate Bay Crew Chums Up to Foes Over Lunch". WIRED. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  10. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (14 May 2013). "Pirate Bay Co-Founder to Run For European Parliament". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Baker, Jennifer (31 May 2014). "The Pirate Bay Spokesperson Peter Sunde Arrested in Sweden". Revolution News. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  12. ↑ Farivar, Cyrus (10 November 2014). "Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde freed after 5 months in prison". Ars Technica. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  13. ↑ Kravets, David. "Pirate Bay Future Uncertain After Operators Busted". Wired. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  14. ↑ "The Pirate Bay Trial: The Official Verdict – Guilty – TorrentFreak". 17 April 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  15. ↑ Kiss, Jemima (17 April 2009). "Pirate Bay defendant: we can't and won't pay". The Guardian. London.
  16. ↑ "Pirate Bay lawyer calls for retrial". The Local. 23 April 2009.
  17. ↑ "The European Court of Human Rights rejects Pirate Bay file-sharing appeal" Archived 14 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  18. 1 2 "Pirate boss to make the web pay". BBC News. 12 February 2010. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  19. ↑ Jackson, Nicholas (8 December 2010). "Small Startup Keeps Cash Flowing to WikiLeaks". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  20. ↑ "Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi : Kevin Trudeau Show". Ktradionetwork.com. 23 August 2010. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  21. ↑ Ha, Anthony (5 April 2017). "The company behind Adblock Plus is acquiring micropayment service Flattr". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  22. ↑ "Hello world! We are fundraising!". Hemlis blog. Archived from the original on 22 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  23. ↑ "Pirate Bay Founder to Launch NSA-proof Messenger App – TorrentFreak". 10 July 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  24. ↑ "Sometimes you understand". Hemlis blog. Archived from the original on 22 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  25. ↑ "KH000//Kopimashin". 14 December 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  26. ↑ "Konsthack > Portfolio > KH000 // Kopimashin". 15 December 2015. Archived from the original on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  27. ↑ "RIAA > Piracy Online > Who Music Theft Hurts". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  28. ↑ "RIAA > Piracy Online > Scope of the Problem". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  29. ↑ "Pirate Bay Founder Builds the Ultimate Piracy Machine". 19 December 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  30. ↑ S.A, Wirtualna Polska Media (28 August 2012). "Strata Kazika, czyli jak ukraść 86 milionów złotych". tech.wp.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  31. ↑ "Twórca "Straty Kazika": Dość szantażu moralnego w przemyśle muzycznym, piractwo to zdrowa kultura". naTemat.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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