Singing a different tune..

The Pirate Bay defendants are all convicted - of 'assisting crimes against copyright law'... a year in prison and joint damages of 30M kronor. Except of course that it will go to appeal... There's sure to be a lot of words written on it in the coming days.

It's worth bearing mind though - with the current inevitable focus on The Pirate Bay's use for sharing copyrighted material - that BitTorrent and peer to peer technology is in it's own right a valuable distribution medium for artists working outside the monopolistic framework of the large media companies and 'collective rights' societies. (Which means there's a financial and competitive motive for those interests in shutting it down over and above any copyright infringement). Any verdict which attacks the use or availability of the technology has clear and negative implications for the many legitimate users.

The excellent Jamendo for instance has all it's material available through BitTorrent - over 18 000 albums - more than 100 000 tracks. Go there.. and support Creative Commons artists that want you to download their music.

One I liked to start you off...