Peter Sunde
Encyclopedia
Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (born 13 September 1978 Uddevalla
, Sweden
) is an IT expert with Norwegian
and Finnish
roots. He is best known for being a co-founder and the spokesperson of The Pirate Bay
, a BitTorrent tracker
site.
(The Pirate Bureau) and a few months later Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm started The Pirate Bay
with Sunde as the spokesperson. He remained The Pirate Bay's spokesperson until late 2009 (three years after the ownership of the site transferred to Reservella). In August 2011 Sunde and, fellow Pirate Bay co-founder, Fredrik Neij launched file-sharing site Bayfiles, that aims to "legally" share. Sunde speaks Swedish, Norwegian, English, Finnish and German. He is a vegan.
operators - Sunde, Fredrik Neij
, Gottfrid Svartholm
and Carl Lundström
(CEO of The Pirate Bay's former ISP) - were charged with "assisting [others in] copyright infringement". The trial
began on 16 February 2009. On 17 April 2009, Sunde and his co-defendants were found to be guilty of "assisting in making copyright content available" in the Stockholm
district court (tingsrätt
). Each defendant was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay damages of 30 million SEK
(approximately €2,740,900 or US$
3,620,000), to be apportioned between the four defendants. After the verdict a press conference was held where Sunde held up a handwritten IOU statement claiming that is all the damages he will pay, adding "Even if I had any money I would rather burn everything I own and not even give them the ashes. They could have the job of picking them up. That's how much I hate the media industry." The defendants lawyers have appealed to the Svea Court of Appeal
together with a request for a retrial in the district court because of the recent suspicion of bias on behalf of judge Tomas Norström. Under Swedish law, the verdict is not effective until all appeals have been processed.
Segments of an interview with Sunde talking about copyright
, the Internet
, and culture
are featured in the 2007 documentary Steal This Film
.
is a micropayment
s system started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson, which enables viewers of websites to make small donations by clicking a "Flattr this" button. At the time of the projects's announcement in February 2010, Sunde explained that "the money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month. We want to encourage people to share money as well as content." Flattr itself takes a 10 percent fee from the user's monthly flatrate.
After Wikileaks initial publication of the U.S. Diplomatic Cables companies like Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and Moneybookers blocked donations and money transfer to the site. Flattr, however, continued allowing donations to Wikileaks. Sunde commented "We [Flattr] think their work is exactly what is needed and if we can help just a little bit, we will."
Uddevalla
Uddevalla is a city and the seat of Uddevalla Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 30,513 inhabitants in 2005.It is located at the bay Byfjorden, of the south-eastern part of the sea known as Skagerrak...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
) is an IT expert with Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
roots. He is best known for being a co-founder and the spokesperson of The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, a BitTorrent tracker
BitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
site.
Personal life
Before the founding of the Pirate Bay Sunde worked for a large German medical company. In 2003 he became a member of Sweden's PiratbyrånPiratbyrån
Piratbyrån was a Swedish organization established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property — by freely sharing information and culture...
(The Pirate Bureau) and a few months later Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm started The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
with Sunde as the spokesperson. He remained The Pirate Bay's spokesperson until late 2009 (three years after the ownership of the site transferred to Reservella). In August 2011 Sunde and, fellow Pirate Bay co-founder, Fredrik Neij launched file-sharing site Bayfiles, that aims to "legally" share. Sunde speaks Swedish, Norwegian, English, Finnish and German. He is a vegan.
The Pirate Bay Trial
On 31 January 2008, The Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
operators - Sunde, Fredrik Neij
Fredrik Neij
Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij , a.k.a. TiAMO, is a co-founder of The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent index site and tracker. He also owned the web host PRQ, which previously hosted The Pirate Bay....
, Gottfrid Svartholm
Gottfrid Svartholm
Per Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , alias anakata, is a Swedish computer specialist, known as the co-owner of the web hosting company PRQ and co-founder of the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay together with Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde...
and Carl Lundström
Carl Lundström
Carl Ulf Sture Lundström is a Swedish businessman.Carl Lundström is the son of Ulf Lundström and the grandson of Karl Edvard Lundström, founder of the world's largest crisp bread producer Wasabröd. When his father Ulf Lundström died in 1973, Carl Lundström was one of five heirs to Wasabröd and its...
(CEO of The Pirate Bay's former ISP) - were charged with "assisting [others in] copyright infringement". The trial
The Pirate Bay trial
The Pirate Bay trial is a joint criminal and civil prosecution in Sweden of four individuals charged for promoting the copyright infringement of others with the torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay...
began on 16 February 2009. On 17 April 2009, Sunde and his co-defendants were found to be guilty of "assisting in making copyright content available" in the Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
district court (tingsrätt
Tingsrätt
Tingsrätt , käräjäoikeus or tingrett is a term used for district courts in Sweden, Finland and Norway...
). Each defendant was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay damages of 30 million SEK
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
(approximately €2,740,900 or US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
3,620,000), to be apportioned between the four defendants. After the verdict a press conference was held where Sunde held up a handwritten IOU statement claiming that is all the damages he will pay, adding "Even if I had any money I would rather burn everything I own and not even give them the ashes. They could have the job of picking them up. That's how much I hate the media industry." The defendants lawyers have appealed to the Svea Court of Appeal
Svea Court of Appeal
The Svea Court of Appeal , located in Stockholm, is one of six appellate courts in the Swedish legal system. It was founded in 1614 and was the highest court in Sweden until 1789, when the Supreme Court of Sweden was established....
together with a request for a retrial in the district court because of the recent suspicion of bias on behalf of judge Tomas Norström. Under Swedish law, the verdict is not effective until all appeals have been processed.
Segments of an interview with Sunde talking about copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
are featured in the 2007 documentary Steal This Film
Steal This Film
Steal This Film is a film series documenting the movement against intellectual property produced by The League of Noble Peers and released via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol....
.
Flattr
FlattrFlattr
Flattr is a microdonation system that launched in March 2010 on an invite-only basis and then opened to the public on 12 August of the same year.Flattr is a project started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson...
is a micropayment
Micropayment
A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. PayPal defines a micropayment as a transaction of less than 12 USD while Visa prefers transactions under 20 Australian dollars, and though micropayments were originally envisioned to...
s system started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson, which enables viewers of websites to make small donations by clicking a "Flattr this" button. At the time of the projects's announcement in February 2010, Sunde explained that "the money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month. We want to encourage people to share money as well as content." Flattr itself takes a 10 percent fee from the user's monthly flatrate.
After Wikileaks initial publication of the U.S. Diplomatic Cables companies like Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and Moneybookers blocked donations and money transfer to the site. Flattr, however, continued allowing donations to Wikileaks. Sunde commented "We [Flattr] think their work is exactly what is needed and if we can help just a little bit, we will."
External links
- Personal blog
- Peter Sunde on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- The story of the Pirate Bay