Italian Pirate Bay Trial in the Making Ernesto, from Torrent Freak

Following the Swedish verdict, Italy is now considering starting its own trial against the people involved with The Pirate Bay. This would be the first criminal prosecution against the Pirate Bay ‘founders’ outside their home country.

During August last year, The Pirate Bay was “censored” in Italy when ISPs were ordered to block access to the worlds largest BitTorrent tracker. The Pirate Bay appealed the block and eventually won the court case. In October the Court of Bergamo ruled that no foreign website can be censored for alleged copyright infringement.

However, with the Swedish verdict against The Pirate Bay in hand, the Italian justice authority is now looking into the possibility of starting their very own trial against the Pirate Bay ‘operators’. Interesting to say the least, because The Pirate Bay and those involved with the site have no direct link to Italy.

Nevertheless, anti-piracy lobbyists are already claiming a victory. “The charge is the same as the one in Sweden, so one can be optimistic about obtaining a similar verdict in Italy,” Enzo Mazza, president of the Italian Music Industry Federation (FIMI) told IDG.

The defense lawyers seem to be a little more down to earth. Francesco Paolo Micozzi and Giovanni Battista Gallus, the lawyers for Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that the music industry boss might be a little too optimistic.

“I absolutely disagree with the fact that the Swedish decision would in any way clear the way for the Italian prosecution,” they told TorrentFreak. “First of all, it’s a first instance decision, which means that it is not relevant at the moment.”

“Secondly, the Italian case has many different peculiarities, starting with jurisdiction issues, which make the Swedish decision much less relevant than it could seem at first glance. Thirdly, every decision is based on its own evidence, and in the Italian case the trial is yet to start,” they explained. Thus far, the only binding jurisdiction with regard to The Pirate Bay is that the Italian blocking order was absolutely unlawful under criminal law.

Nevertheless, the entertainment industry is one step ahead and already thinking about how they will divide the booty. Simona Lavagnini, one of the lawyers representing the Italian music industry said that it is not very realistic to expect the defendants to be extradited to Italy, but she believes that fines and a seizure of assets belong to the possibilities.

The Italian prosecutor will decide in a few months whether there will be an Italian Pirate Bay trial or not. The order for ISPs to block access to TPB is currently under appeal and the decision in that case will come some time in September.