The four co-founders of The Pirate Bay, the world's most popular torrent website, have been cleared of charges alleging criminal copyright infringement and abuse of electronic communications in a Belgian court.





The Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström were acquitted by a Belgian court located in Mechelse after it was found that they could not be held responsible for the file-sharing website after selling it in 2006.





The Pirate Bay's founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, the website representative Peter Sunde and the website investor Carl Lundström were facing criminal charges related to their involvement with the torrenting site that has proven to be an elusive hub for illegal copyrighted content.

The Pirate Bay was Sold to other Investors in 2006





However, the case fell apart when the Pirate Bay's co-founders said that they were not involved in any activity related to the website after they sold it to Reservella, a Seychelles-based company, in 2006, as reported on Friday.

Providing more details about the case Torrent Freak report, "All four defendants deny having had anything to do with the site since it reported the sale to a Seychelles-based company called Reservella in 2006. That has proven problematic since the period in which the four allegedly committed the crimes details in the Belgian case spans September 2011 and November 2013."





Though the foursome is likely to face criminal charges in other courts of law, the Belgian court victory represented a little of good news for the cyber crew.





Prosecution Agreed to Court Decision





After the verdict was dropped, the complainants, which is the Belgian Entertainment Association, agreed with the court decision. "Technically speaking, we agree with the court," said Olivier Maeterlinck, the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) director.









The Pirate Bay, founded in 2003, is one of the most popular file-sharing websites in the world predominantly used to share copyrighted material free of charge. Despite the criminal convictions, the site remains functioning today , although it has moved to different Web domains several times.



