Pirate bay fun...

Well this is a little late but for those that haven't heard the pirate bay people lost their case and have been sentenced to a year in jail as well as a large fine.

Interestingly an appeal has been filed based on an alleged bias on the part of the main judge (here's the story). I've got to say that if nothing else this should have been declared (which it wasn't).

A final interesting fact (the one I find the funniest) is that the membership of the pirate bay political party in Sweden has now gone up 150% (see here).

Ah the fun and games of the weird mess that is the internet....

Yarr! a pirate's life in Somalia

This is (supposedly) an interview with a Somalian pirate by the bbc.

It's somewhat depressing as unsurprisingly they claim that they have been driven to it by loss of their own sources of income, the claim is illegal fishing and toxic dumping has removed their main employment as fishers. Which makes sense but I can't help but think that mainly it's greed. By the sounds of it the payout for three successful hijackings are significantly better than a lifetime of fishing. That being said given the difference it's a pretty understandable greed.

pah the world sucks

I did like the guys optimism that "Foreign navies can do nothing to stop piracy" having watched the US react to most things I think that sooner or later they will try - even if it just means training crews to kill and leaving escorts around Somalia.

ah well at least they didn't try and make a robin hood story from it.