Pirate Bay reports pirating anti-piracy group to police
'Bring it on,' say the accused
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The Pirate Bay has lodged an official police complaint against the anti-piracy group that copied its famous pirate ship logo.
Last week the Pirate crew warned that they were considering action against the Finnish Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) after that organization copied the CSS style sheet to get the logo image and then twisted it to show the ship sinking.
Under The Pirate Bay's terms and conditions, using its content in this way is fine, so long as people ask permission first. Since no permission was sought, the site can now charge CIAPC a fee of €5,000, and on Monday it reported the organization to the local police.
"While The Pirate Bay may have a positive view on copying, it will not stand by and watch copyright enforcing organizations disrespect copyright," said Winston Bay in a statement. "It's funny that we have to teach the copyright lobby the meaning of the law. The fact that they wrote it doesn't mean that they are above it."
In a canny PR move, The Pirate Bay site has said it will not seek to profit from the case, and has vowed to use any money it gets from CIAPC to compensate one of the anti-piracy groups other victims, a nine-year-old girl who had her Winnie-the-Pooh laptop confiscated by police after she tried and failed to download a single track illegally.
The early-morning police raid garnered CIAPC a lot of unwelcome attention after it was revealed that it had tipped off the police about the pint-sized pirate. After being vilified around the world, CIAPC backtracked, dropped all charges, and had the little girl's laptop returned, but The Pirate Bay would like to offer her an upgrade.
"CIAPC is like an ugly high school bully without friends. It's time to take a stand. Cyber bullying is a serious matter to us all," Winston Bay continues. "Our hearts are with the victimized 9 year old Finnish girl. Any money that might come out of this will fund a new computer for the girl."
But it looks as though CIAPC might actually welcome a legal challenge. When El Reg contracted them last week about the original threat of action, its communications director Juha Rislakki said that the group would be keen to take up the legal fight.
"CIAPC has not yet been contacted by Pirate Bay but we do hope that the site's operators come out publicly with their real identities and get in touch with us," she said. ®
COMMENTS
Genius
This is actually quite ingenious. The way I see it, there are only two ways this can reasonably go:
1) PB loses - it sets an interesting precedent on validity of copyright enforcement.
2) PB wins - another huge own-goal PR disaster for the CIAPC.
Re: Karma's a bitch
"'Good cause' alteration of a logo of a non-commercial organisation (TPB), where there's no chance of confusion in the minds of consumers between the two orgs, and where the pro-copyright org is clearly fighting a bunch of thieves and vandals trying to destroy others' property rights for nothing other than the titillation of getting others' efforts for free, comes under many legal labels of "allowable"."
Ah yes. The you have to follow the law, but I don't sort of response. The you broke the law (allegedly) first, therefore I can break the law argument. All completely without merit and with much case law showing the argument is total b**locks. If the anti-piracy group has broken copyright (and we'll await the court case to find out), they're guilty. Whether the victims are convicted criminals or not is irrelevant. Even criminals are allowed the use the legal system against others. Terrible, but true. When you get into power, you can correct this gross injustice of criminals having access to the law.........................
Re: Petty or dense?
I think you missed the point. They are well aware that they're being a bit hypocritical by proceeding with a copyright suit here. They seem to recognize and acknowledge this -- but the goal, insofar as I understand their motives, is to teach copyright organizations that if they are to be respected they must follow their own laws.
I bet if they just admitted they filched it and fessed up that they were wrong, the Pirate Bay would probably drop it entirely. Although there might need to be an apology to the little girl first too. ;)
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