After half the charges against Pirate Bay were dropped yesterday, the prosecution has regrouped and presented amended charges. That's when Carl Lundström's lawyer busted out the King Kong defense—and a legend was born.


The action today revolved around several issues:

•IFPI's Peter Danowsky noted that the damages levied against the Pirate Bay are the equivalent of legally obtained licenses to distribute the music world-wide. In the case of artists like the Beatles who do not distribute music online, the damages are 10x the amount of other artists. Danowsky refutes claims that The Pirate Bay does not have any money to pay these damages. Once again, the defense claimed the money isn't there.


•Sony claimed that TPB never removes torrents at the copyright holder's request (even though they have the ability to do so) and they even go so far as to mock the companies for complaining.

•Damages for infringements that occurred before the official launch of the media (as it did with Prison Break) should be calculated as the cost of a special "global preview license."

•The defense called for an acquittal for their clients on all charges.

•The defense claims that the users have control of the content on TBP, not their clients. That's when Carl Lundström's lawyer, Per E Samuelsson laid down the King Kong defense:

"EU directive 2000/31/EG says that he who provides an information service is not responsible for the information that is being transferred. In order to be responsible, the service provider must initiate the transfer. But the admins of The Pirate Bay don't initiate transfers. It's the users that do and they are physically identifiable people. They call themselves names like King Kong," Samuelsson told the court. "According to legal procedure, the accusations must be against an individual and there must be a close tie between the perpetrators of a crime and those who are assisting. This tie has not been shown. The prosecutor must show that Carl Lundström personally has interacted with the user King Kong, who may very well be found in the jungles of Cambodia," the lawyer added.


• By accident, both the Pirate Bay defendants and the prosecution ended up dining at the same Italian restaurant at lunch.

Will the King Kong defense have an impact? Stay tuned—there are still 10 days left in the trial. [Torrentfreak, Wired]