SESSION 17: TEXT FOR WEDNESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY

SESSION 17: TEXT FOR WEDNESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY

COURT JAILS PIRATE BAY FILE-SHARERS

Text taken and adapted from:
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

The text:

The four founders of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay have been sent to prison. A court in Sweden sentenced the four men to a year behind bars. Their crime was to help millions of people around the world break international copyright laws. The court also ordered them to pay nearly one million dollars each in damages to major music companies and film studios. This falls far short of the $17 million demanded by the entertainment industry. The site Pirate Bay is the world’s most popular file-sharing site. Over 20 million people use it to download music, movies and computer games for free. Pirate Bay does not have any copyrighted material on its web servers; instead it acts as a search engine so visitors can find files on other computers.

The court’s decision may be the beginning of many more file-sharing sites being closed. The ruling has divided people. The entertainment industry praised the court for protecting the rights of singers, actors and other artists who made their living from their creativity. Industry spokesman John Kennedy said the decision sent a clear message to pirates. "The Pirate Bay did immense harm….There has been a perception that piracy is OK…This verdict will change that," he said. Swedish people are angry over the verdict. There is even a political party that supports The Pirate Bay. Its chairman Rickard Falkvinge said the courts and politicians “have declared war against our whole generation". He called for "file-sharing for the people”.

'Court jails Pirate Bay file-sharers' - 19th April, 2009
www.BreakingNewsEnglish.com