Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol has criticized the sentences received by the crew of The Pirate Bay, branding them as “way over the top”. The band's frontman also says if you're a file-sharer and you know how to get music for free, "f**king go for it." Meet you at The Pirate Bay then?

Ever since the whiter-than-white judge threw the book at The Pirate Bay Four in their recent trial, many in the music industry have been most vocal and, it has to be said, most jubilant at the news of this historic victory. There haven’t been that many words of support for The Pirate Bay from the music world, so it’s interesting to read some comments today printed in Scotland’s Big Issue.

The court in The Pirate Bay case decided that for assisting others to commit copyright infringement, the four defendants would receive fines of around $905,000 each plus one year in jail. Gary Lightbody of the alternative rock band Snow Patrol doesn’t agree with this punishment, and has criticized the sentences handed out to the four as “way over the top”.

“They shouldn’t have been jailed. A year in jail for someone doing that is crazy,” Lightbody said. “The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”

Arrr, Snow Patrol

Lightbody went on to say that he wasn’t against file-sharing at all. “This is the modern way,” he added. Indeed it is and you can go around sueing everyone, be pragmatic as Lightbody appears to be, or you can do something about it and try and turn it to your advantage, like the band Trivium are attempting.

“Let’s recreate the tape trade virally and all that sh*t. This is today and this is the Internet, so get out there, grab those CD’s, rip them, copy them, compile them, cut out the shit you don’t like,” says Trivium frontman Matt Heafy. Interesting, since Trivium are signed to Roadrunner Records, along with likes of Slipknot and Nickelback.

“Make your own Trivium CD, hand it out, mail it out, upload it, zip it, FTP it… do it. With today’s fast flowing lives with the Internet and quick paced progress, now is the time for music to match that and evolve to the next level, get it out let people know what your all about, let people know what type of fan you are!”

We’ll let Gary Lightbody have the last word, “This is what we’ve brought on ourselves and you have to live in the society you created. Music is available to everyone if they know how to get it and I say f**king go for it.”

Let’s waste no more time then. You can download (and upload) lots of Trivium’s music – with their blessing – from The Pirate Bay.