The Swedish lawsuit against four of The Pirate Bay's previous administrators concluded today as the country's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. Jail sentences and fines against the group now become final.

Back in April 2009, the District Court found Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, and their financial backer Carl Lundstrom guilty of aiding copyright infringement. Each man was sentenced to year in prison, and the four shared a 30 million kroner (US$4.5 million) fine.

The defendants first asked for a retrial, pointing out that a judge in their initial one had been a member of several pro-copyright organizations. The request was denied on the grounds that simply endorsing the principles of copyright law was no grounds for judicial disqualification.

The defendants then appealed their case. In 2010, an appellate court reduced the prison sentences to between 4 and 10 months each, but it increased the shared fine to SKR46 million (US$6.8 million).

The defendants then pushed to have their case heard by the Swedish Supreme Court. Today, the court declined to hear the case.

Nobel Prize, here we come

Peter "brokep" Sunde took to his blog to allege corruption. "It was clear to us that the supreme court—where many of the judges make a lot of money on their own copyrights—would be hard to persuade to take the case. Even though most of the public would want the case tested there. Even though it’s one of the most important cases for all of the EU."

The Pirate Bay, ostensibly controlled by a totally unrelated set of people now (see our 2009 investigation into just who purchased the site), used its site blog to call 2012 "the year of the storm."

What binds us all together is a strong belief that what we do is good. That it is something we one day can tell our grandchildren about with pride. People from all over the world confirm this. We read testimonials from people in Syria longing for freedom, thanking us for what we provide. We receive more than 100 visits daily from North Korea and we sure know that they need it. If there's something that will bring peace to this world it is the understanding and appreciation of your fellow man. What better way to do that than with this vast library of culture?...

(As TorrentFreak notes, the site operators have also moved their main domain to .se, a top-level domain not subject to unilateral US seizure as are .com and .org.)

Sunde likewise made some of the same points in his own statement.

TPB [The Pirate Bay] has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship. All of the people involved in TPB at some time have been involved in everything from famous leaks projects to aiding people in the arab spring. We’ve fought corruption all over the world. We’ve promoted equal opportunities to poor nations around the globe. We’ve crushed the monopoly on information. Our close ones, many who have helped building TPB, have been mentioned as possible winners of the nobel peace prize.

But Sunde and the current Pirate Bay admins sounded different notes when it came to the way forward. For Sunde, the future is about alternative culture, new ways of paying artists, and boycotting the establishment.

Stop seeing their movies. Stop listening to their music. Make sure that you find alternative ways to culture. I’ve founded Flattr.com, which allows you to support people that create directly instead of going through the corrupt entertainment industry. Use it in solidarity to the creators, and to your fellow citizen. Or start a competitor. Spread and participate in culture. Remix, reuse, use, abuse.

That all sounds surprisingly... legal and useful. The Pirate Bay's response was more traditionally combative.