Maybe if they'd called it something else?

The operators of The Pirate Bay torrent site have been found guilty of assisting copyright infringement by a Swedish district court. A fine of 30 million kronor and a year in jail will likely be appealed, of course.

While the defendants didn't store or host any infringing material on the site and an alleged 80% of the material linked to wasn't infringing material ... still, if you call it "The Pirate Bay" that sort of makes any claims of innocence seem rather specious and far harder to defend.

The most interesting aspect of the verdict is that it appears to give industry groups leverage towards laying actions against other file-sharing hubs.

Ironically, the verdict was apparently leaked to the press before it was presented in court.