I don't think anything will stick, due to Sweden's current "Freedom Of Information" laws which take precidence over the DMCA laws. Most likely, the Swedish government is just letting this go to trial to appease the MPAA & RIAA, who have been bitching for years.

They won't lose the lawsuit, they won't get shut down, and the Swedish Government can just shrug their shoulders at the RIAA/MPAA/MAFIAA, and say "Hey, at least we tried."

Well, The Pirates have already won half their case:

(FROM INQ:)

Quote:

CHEEKY PEER TO PEER-ENCOURAGING SCAMPS from The Pirate Bay have won a partial victory in their fight against The Man having seen at least half of the prosecution's case dropped after just one-and-a-bit days of legal shenanigans. The prostitution (Is this right? Ed.) are having a bit of trouble proving that any of the torrent files in question actually used the Bay's tracker, as many of the screen shots presented as evidence don't have any tangible link to the Swedish site. The defence lawyers basically pointed out that the prosecutors were a bunch of Luddites who didn't really understand the technology involved and the prosecution put their hands up and moved on, leaving the part of the case which alleged that the boys in the Dock had 'assisted copyright infringement' in tatters. The Pirate Bay's lawyers were jubilant saying, "This is a sensation. It is very rare to win half the target in just one and-a-half days." The IFPI, which brought the case to court, put a very different spin on the whole situation, however, saying, "It's a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works." Obviously they still don't grasp quite how the whole file sharing thing works.

They have already appealed the decision, and under Swedish law, the verdict can not be enforced until all appeals have been resolved. Most Appeals in Sweden take about 5-7 years to process. So they have some time.

Apparently the plot thickens:

From INQ:

QUIET SWEDEN IS BUBBLING OVER with righteous indignation following revelations that the judge in the Pirate Bay trial has various links with the Big Media Mafiaa.

An investigation by Sveriges Radio P3 revealed that Judge Tomas Norström has ties with the prosecutors and plaintiffs in the case, through his membership of various associations concerned with and working for strong intellectual property laws.

As a result of the revelations, Peter Althin, lawyer for Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, has said that he plans to demand a retrial. "I will point that out in my appeal, then the Court of Appeal (Hovrätten) will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited," Althin said on Thursday, according to Sweden's Local.

Norström is a member of the board at the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd). He is also a member of the Svenska föreningen för upphovsrät as is Pirate Bay prosecutor Monique Wadsted

Norström and Wadsted are also both members of the IIS arbitration service.

Norström argued that his membership of such associations and his associated familiarity with the copyright arguments make him suited for this sort of trial. The defence takes the opposite view.

INQUIRER readers from Sweden have been bombarding our inbox today with various links they have discovered between the prosecutors and the content Mafiaa.

Rickard Falkvinge, the chairman of Sweden's fastest-growing political party - the Pirate Party - said, "The copyright lobby has really managed to bring corruption to Sweden."

You can't keep a good pirate down. The site's back up.

Games and movies are questionable pirating items.

But what about software applications that companies charge insane prices for? (I'm looking at you, Photoshop CS4. What makes you worth $700?)

The Pirate Bay four have filed appeals against their recent convictions.

According to CNET, the appeals are packed full of issues, including claims that the judge had a conflict of interest because he belonged to several anti-piracy groups.

Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundström have all filed independent appeals of their convictions.

Sunde's appeal is based on the fact that he was just a spokesman for the site. He also claims that the damages to copyright holders that were assessed were too high and calculated in an unreasonable way.

Even if Pirate Bay was illegal, Althin was not responsible for the crime of assisting copyright violation, his appeal says. His argument is that a car or a gun can be used to commit a crime, but the maker of the car or the gun doesn't go to jail every time one is used.

It is not clear on what grounds the others have based their appeals. The appeals will be evaluated by the high court of justice.

Durring the trials, someone posted the entire contents of The Pirate Bay's website up as a torrent. It got over 1000 downloads, which means, if the original goes down, then other will almost immediately spring up to replace it.