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Special correspondent Oscar Swartz reports.*

STOCKHOLM – Today I bought a scalped seat in a court of justice for the first time in my life. The Pirate Bay courtroom was full. But locally famous Swedish author Sigge Eklund whispered in my ear that he had an offer for three seats after the intermission. The price would be about $60 each. We met in a corner of the hallway and finalized the transaction with three young men who were leaving. I was in! This pretty much captures the rock-star quality of The Pirate Bay trial.

To convict the four defendants, the prosecutor has to prove that copyright infringements have actually been committed in the first place – not just as conjecture, but in real cases where the proof will hold up in a court of justice. So he had instructed the plaintiffs, i.e. representatives of record, film and computer-game companies, to participate in file-sharing activities and collect and store information about the whole process in order to prove that crimes were committed.

Half the first day of the trial was used in such exercises, as opening arguments commenced Monday. But few in the audience seemed to display much sympathy for the plaintiffs as they heard stories like: "eleven users were simultaneously involved in producing illegal copies of Let it Be by The Beatles, hence infringing on the exclusive right of EMI to produce such."

Few believe that the defendants in The Pirate Bay case will face particularly harsh penalties in the criminal lawsuit even if they are convicted. Theoretically they could end up in jail, but they are not accused of committing copyright infringement. Instead their criminality is alleged to be indirect: "Assisting in and preparing to committing copyright infringement." But it is more difficult, both legally and politically, to go after the "real" infringers: the Pirate Bay’s claimed 22 million strong users.

In the defendants' opening statements, they denied any criminal acts, though Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg conceded responsibility for certain functions in running The Pirate Bay. Peter Sunde claimed he had no overall responsibility, while the older Carl Lundstrom claimed he only sold co-location and bandwidth to the operation at market prices.

Media interest is intense. The largest Swedish newspapers have bloggers covering the trial live as the top front page story. Public radio and TV have special sites and have broadcast the audio from the courtroom in its entirety. Crowds of Pirate Party and Pirate Bureau members were circling the court, inside and outside. Your correspondent was served homemade "Creative Commons cookies" by teenage girls in fantasy genre garb. They said they wanted to support the good forces of the world and convert bad ones to their cause.

Perhaps recognizing that public opinion was against him, the prosecutor painted a somewhat benevolent picture of the Defendants during his opening statement, telling a story about some very gifted computer nerds who started an ideologically-based project that grew larger, and began needing more resources to keep up with its popularity. Hence, The Pirate Bay started selling ads on the site, and became more organized. The defendants didn't deny any of this, but claimed that the advertising income just covered part of their expenses for running and developing their heavily trafficked site.

The prosecutor claimed the gross revenue to their operations amounted to the equivalent of $150,000 before the raid in May 2006. He asks that this amount, as well as a lot of servers and equipment, be forfeited, in addition to sentencing the defendants to fines and jail time. Most in the crowd seemed to disagree.

Marten Schultz, a professor of tort law at Stockholm University was present and called it "a formative legal policy event". He considers the sought damages grossly inflated. Record companies are seeking some damages but the Hollywood studios are going for the big kill and asking for about $10 million for five movies that has been shared. Schultz would have liked to see a separate civil lawsuit in which such claims would be scrutinized in greater detail. Such a separate trial was however denied.

The crowd was diverse Monday. Social science researchers who study resistance movements and civil disobedience came from Gothenburg University. Internationally recognized artists Palle Torsson and Tobias Bernstrup – who have faced censorship and copyright lawsuits in the course of their careers – contributed work to the street protests outside the court and sat in on the proceedings as well.

Photo courtesy Rick Falkvinge