Late November, the Swedish Appeal Court found three people behind The Pirate Bay guilty of copyright infringement offenses. They were handed prison sentences and ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages. One of the defendants, Carl Lundström, has just filed his appeal and says that among other things, the Supreme Court should consider ISP liability.

Last month, businessman Carl Lundström – along with Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij – was found guilty of contributory copyright infringement by the Appeal Court and sentenced to 4 months in prison and a share of a $6.5 million damages order.

“We do not accept the Appeal Court’s ruling,” Lundström’s lawyer Per E. Samuelsson told Swedish radio when confirming his client would take his case to the Supreme Court.

It is claimed that Lundström, who is the millionaire heir to the Wasabröd crispbread empire, provided computers, bandwidth and server rackspace for The Pirate Bay in its early days through his company Rix Telecom. He rejects the decision of the Appeal Court on a number of grounds.

Firstly, Lundström questions why The Pirate Bay should be held liable for promoting infringements when other Internet services, such as Google, can be viewed as doing the same.

Lundström also writes that the prosecutor has failed to prove that he operated “jointly and in concert” with others in respect of any crimes potentially carried out via The Pirate Bay.

According to Realtid, Lundström says the Court of Appeal’s conclusion, that he must’ve known that his company had provided equipment free of charge to The Pirate Bay, is wrong. He insists he had no knowledge of any such arrangement.

But above all, Lundström insists that since he was a provider of bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, he must therefore have been their Internet service provider.

“Assessing the criminal responsibility of ISPs should be the target key precedent in this case,” he explains.

Lundström wants the Supreme Court to consider if an ISP should be held liable for assisting in crimes committed by their customers. His lawyer, Per E Samuelson, says that to his knowledge no one has ever been found guilty on this basis before.

The appeal lodged by Lundström also questions the huge damages awarded by the Appeal Court against him. As an ISP with no knowledge of the alleged infringements, he feels a share of $6.5 million in damages is excessive.

It is believed that Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde will also file appeals with the Supreme Court in due course.

The fourth defendant, Gottfrid Svartholm, is behind in the process due to illness. His case will be handled by the Appeal Court at a later date.