The Pirate Bay has asked the Economic Crime unit of the Finnish police to investigate the alleged criminal actions of anti-piracy group CIAPC. Last week the group copied The Pirate Bay's design, violating the site's usage policy. In their complaint TPB cite a similar case where the owner of a parody site was prosecuted recently. "We will not stand by and watch copyright enforcing organizations disrespect copyright," TPB comments.

When The Pirate Bay had its website ripped off by the Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC last week, the site already announced that this would not be without repercussions. While many assumed this threat wasn’t all too serious, today The Pirate Bay reported CIAPC to the police.

Pirate Bay representatives took the case to the Economic Crime unit and asked them to investigate the wrongdoings of the group.

The main complaint is that CIAPC copied the site’s homepage and the CSS file. This is a direct violation of The Pirate Bay’s usage policy which specifically prohibits organizations’ use of any site material without permission.

The “parody” defense doesn’t apply under Finnish law, TPB argues, citing a recent case in Finland.

“In a similar case, the prosecution and the Helsinki Court of Appeals have found that a parody site can violate the moral rights of the original author. Changing the logo or making slight edits to the text are not enough to remove this liability,” they informed the police.

Pirate Bay parody?

While The Pirate Bay recognizes the irony of the case, they feel that they have to pursue this matter.

TPB points out that CIAPC themselves are no strangers to using police resources for trivial copyright claims. Just a few months ago they called in the authorities to track down a 9 year-old “pirate girl” and had her Winnie The Pooh laptop confiscated.

“While The Pirate Bay may have a positive view on copying, it will not stand by and watch copyright enforcing organizations disrespect copyright,” Pirate Bay’s Winston says in a comment.

“CIAPC is like an ugly high school bully without friends. It’s time to take a stand. Cyber bullying is a serious matter to us all,” Winston continues.

Should The Pirate Bay be awarded damages they won’t keep that money for themselves. Instead, the money will go to the 9-year old girl who was “harassed” last year.

But, even if they “lose” it wouldn’t be a big deal, as that’s a win for the right to parody.

This right to parody is part of a new copyright law proposal in Finland, crowd-sourced by the public. Besides parody exceptions the Common Sense in Copyright campaign also aims to get rid of harsh punishments for non-commercial file-sharers.

The petition has been the most successful citizens initiative in Finland to date, but needs more support before it reaches 50,000 signatures. When this happens, the Finnish Parliament will have to bring it into vote under the new crowd-sourcing law.

Ville Oksanen of the Finnish EFF told TorrentFreak that it’s a case worth watching in this regard.

“It’s interesting to see, how the police reacts to Pirate Bay’s demands. On facts the case is indeed very similar to Matti Nikki’s case, in which the prosecutor decided to bring the charges on behalf of Save the Children.

“The law should be the same for everyone so now the objectivity of the Finnish police is going to be tested. Anyway as others have already pointed out, even if Pirate Bay loses the case, it’s a victory for their cause.”

All eyes are now on the Finnish police to see if they will take on the case.