A Swedish court has ruled that a lay judge, who would participate in the appeal in The Pirate Bay case, is biased. The Court of Appeal in Svea has decided to remove him from the case because of this.
The lay judge in question works for the legal music service Spotify and the Court of Appeal judged that this employment, along with his ownership of shares in the company, presented a conflict of interest. The fact that several record companies from the Pirate Bay case are co-owners of Spotify was also a reason for the judges to assume that there was a conflict of interests.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also believes that the lay judge is biased by his job at Spotify, although he doesn’t think so. In any case, he will no longer be able to participate in the case due to the decision of the court. The appeal is due to start in November. At first instance, the site’s four administrators were sentenced to one year in prison and to pay compensation of SEK 30 million.
It is not the first time that judges in the Pirate Bay case have been accused of bias. Last week, a lawyer accused two professional judges in the case of being or being members of organizations that they say are engaged in copyright research and discussions. The Court of Appeal has yet to decide on this. Judge Tomas Norström, who presided over the case at first instance, was also charged with bias, but the Court of Appeal ruled that charge unfounded.