Pirate Bay Lawyer Seeks Retrial Due to Judge Snafu

A defense lawyer in the Pirate Bay case is seeking a retrial after it emerged that the judge who sentenced his clients sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and is also a member of the Swedish Copyright Association.

“My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest,” said jJudge Tomas Norström on Swedish radio, but according to defense lawyer Peter Althin, a judge found to have similar connections to Norström was excluded by the court last autumn.

The four men behind file-sharing website Pirate Bay were sentenced last week to one year in prison and ordered to pay $4.5m/£3m in damages.