‘The four co-founders of website The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of assisting the distribution of illegal content online by a Swedish court today and have been sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6m (£2.4m) fine.
Charges against the site, which allows web users to access music, movies and TV shows without paying for them and claimed 22 million users during February, were brought by a consortium of media, film and music companies led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
A Stockholm court found the four defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal sharing through The Pirate Bay, which means they will have to pay compensation to 17 different music and media companies including Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Warner, MGM and 20th Century Fox.
All four have pledged to appeal against the decision though the process may take several years.’
‘In a satirical jibe at stringent censorship imposed by Fiji’s military Government, the Daily Post newspaper has been filling the space with some no news.
Headlines in Wednesday’s edition included “Man gets on bus” over an item reading: “In what is believed to be the first reported incident of its kind, a man got on a bus yesterday. ‘It was easy,’ he said. ‘I just lifted one leg up and then the other and I was on.’ ”
Another headed “Breakfast as usual” began: “It was breakfast as usual for the staff of this newspaper. ‘I had leftover roti from last night,’ senior reporter Manueli told his colleague yesterday morning.”
A third story began, “Paint has apparently dried on his old couch, Max reports. Given the job of painting the couch, Max was excited at the prospect of the paint drying. But when asked how it dried, he was nonplussed.’
‘A Kenyan man bit a python that wrapped him in its coils and hauled him up a tree in a struggle that lasted hours.
Farm manager Ben Nyaumbe was working in Kenya’s Malindi area at the weekend when the snake struck, apparently hunting for livestock.
“I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python,” he told the Daily Nation newspaper.
When the snake coiled itself round his upper body, he resorted to desperate measures.
“I had to bite it,” he said.’
‘A cyclist was knocked out after being hit by a corpse thrown from a speeding car.
Student Wu Dan, 16, was riding home when the incident happened.
His uncle Yun Tsui said: “A car passed and a package came flying out the door. It had a dead woman inside. My nephew was very upset.”
Police believe she was the victim of a car accident and was being dumped by the driver who had hit her in Dongyang, eastern China..’
‘Shocking video footage of a newspaper seller being knocked over by police minutes before he died of a heart attack during the G20 protests emerged last night.
Ian Tomlinson, 47, was hit with a baton and pushed to the floor by an officer in riot gear after getting caught up in the demonstrations in the City of London last Wednesday.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is already investigating the death of Mr Tomlinson – who was not involved in the protest and was trying to walk home from work when the incident occurred. [..]
After the apparent assault, Mr Tomlinson is shown sitting on the floor remonstrating with police who stand back as bystanders help him to his feet.
He then walked away but three minutes later he collapsed and suffered a heart attack. ‘
