swapz.co.uk™ - the blog

Swapz takes the hardline when it comes to copyright piracy and now, so it seems, does the Swedish courts.

The founders of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year in jail in Sweden for breaking copyright laws by helping millions of users download music, movies and computer games for free.

Experts believe the ruling could be the first step towards ending illegal downloading, which has cost music and film companies billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The 2 founders along with 2 employees were sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty in a Swedish court of making 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal downloading on the website Piratebay.org.

In a Twitter posting before sentencing, one of the founders said: “Nothing will happen to The Pirate Bay, this is just theatre for the media.”

The Pirate Bay provides a forum for its estimated 22 million users to download content. The site has become the entertainment industry’s enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.

Figures indicate that the number of home owners who are resorting to swapping their properties as a means of selling them has jumped by more than 400 per cent in the past year.

Home swaps are attractive to because property owners can save thousands of pounds on estate agent fees and enter into a chain-free purchase.

An industry expert says: “Home swapping may seem a little off-the-wall but for the savvy seller it could be the key to finding that elusive buyer.

The reality is that an increasing number of sellers, frustrated and disillusioned by the lack of genuine buyers coming through estate agents’ doors, have clearly decided it’s time to take matters into their own hands.

With many people struggling to make ends meet and worried about losing their jobs, there are a growing number of homeowners looking to downsize rather than upsize in the current economic climate. This provides the perfect backdrop for home swaps - one party looking to upsize and the other looking to downsize.”

Source: Daily Telegraph - 14th April 2009