April 23, 2009

By By Andre Paine, London

Peter Althin, the lawyer representing Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, says he intends to demand a retrial following Swedish reports that the judge presiding over the recent trial of four men behind the BitTorrent tracker is a member of the same copyright protection bodies as representatives from the entertainment industry.

Sveriges Radio's P3 news reported that the judge, Tomas Norstr?m, has been a member of copyright protection organizations.

"I will point that out in my appeal, then the Court of Appeal will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited," Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin is quoted by Swedish Web site the Local.

The four defendants were sentenced to a year in prison and damages of 30 million kronor ($3.58 million). They have said they will appeal.

"In the autumn I received information that a lay judge could have similar connections," Althin added. "I sent these to the court and the judge was excluded in order to prevent a conflict of interest. It would have been reasonable to then review this situation as well."

Norstr?m is a member is Svenska F?reningen f?r Upphovsr?tt (the Swedish Copyright Association), along with Henrik Pont?n, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, lawyers who represented the entertainment industry in the case. The judge is also on the board of Svenska F?reningen f?r Industriellt R?ttsskydd (Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property).

Norstr?m argues that he was not swayed in his judgement by his membership of copyright protection groups. "My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest," Norstr?m told Sveriges Radio.

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