Stefan Mileschin

Big Content has made much hay that it was hammering the Pirate Bay to protect the poor struggling artists, but that doesn't quite appear to be the case.

According to TorrentFreak, it turns out that none of the damages will actually go to any artists. All the cash has been allocated to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to fund new anti-piracy campaigns.

Part of the sentence were damages that have to be paid to various entertainment industry companies. EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony Music and other labels. Of that, €550,000 was supposed to compensate artists and rights holders for the losses they suffered. Unfortunately for the artists, the court money goes to the IFPI, which has decided to pocket it.

Of course no one has really received any money at all. The Pirate Bay had no traceable assets in Sweden and the Enforcement Agency has no powers to investigate outside Sweden.

The IFPI admits that there is no prospect of recovering funds, but if it does the cash will go to the IFPI in Sweden and London.

Former Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, who was convicted in the case, points out that the real "thieves" were Big Content.

After all, they told the court that they were giving cash to artists but if they get any money they will trouser it.

Sunde said that as far as he is aware no money ever won in a lawsuit by IFPI or the RIAA has even gone to any actual artists.

He thinks it is more likely that the cash will be spent on cocaine than the artists that they're 'defending'.

http://news.techeye.net/internet/big...elping-artists