I really don't think that the story was implying that TPB is mostly used for legal downloading. It was just saying that the prosecution has not shown a lot of evidence that TPB is mostly used for piracy.
I believe that the founders of TPB have a philosophical problem with copyright, and created TPB to actively support piracy. But that belief is not legal proof that the TPB's main purpose is to support privacy. And that's all the prosecution presented, a belief. They didn't do any kind of site survey of the legality of the torrents.
Peter Sunde is the only one to provide any kind of stats. Now I would be interested in knowing how he got his stats (he definitely didn't use the Top 100 in the survey selection), but the prosecution didn't rebut it with any kind of statistics of their own.
It's kind of like if a DA decided to prosecute Mick Jagger for drug use, but didn't look for any drugs or do any drug tests. Mick Jagger has been convicted for drug use and has admitted to using drugs, and I would believe that he still does. But that belief should not be the basis for a conviction sentence.
And I am convinced that TPB can be used legally, for example downloading linux distros. So one of the major questions is whether TPB has the legal responsibility to police itself and respond to requests to remove user submitted files. And any verdict would have big implications for website owners.
So to sum it up, I believe that most people use the TPB to break the law. But the site was created with a good understanding of local copyright law. And so the most anyone could say is that it is in a legal grey zone.
I believe that the founders of TPB have a philosophical problem with copyright, and created TPB to actively support piracy. But that belief is not legal proof that the TPB's main purpose is to support privacy. And that's all the prosecution presented, a belief. They didn't do any kind of site survey of the legality of the torrents.
Peter Sunde is the only one to provide any kind of stats. Now I would be interested in knowing how he got his stats (he definitely didn't use the Top 100 in the survey selection), but the prosecution didn't rebut it with any kind of statistics of their own.
It's kind of like if a DA decided to prosecute Mick Jagger for drug use, but didn't look for any drugs or do any drug tests. Mick Jagger has been convicted for drug use and has admitted to using drugs, and I would believe that he still does. But that belief should not be the basis for a conviction sentence.
And I am convinced that TPB can be used legally, for example downloading linux distros. So one of the major questions is whether TPB has the legal responsibility to police itself and respond to requests to remove user submitted files. And any verdict would have big implications for website owners.
So to sum it up, I believe that most people use the TPB to break the law. But the site was created with a good understanding of local copyright law. And so the most anyone could say is that it is in a legal grey zone.