Pirates In The News

Terror on the high seas.



The issues of Somali pirates came up recently when an American cargo ship the Maersek Alabama was captured and its captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage. 3 of the pirates were shot dead in a successful rescue attempt to save the captain, and the story has raised the issue over piracy in the area. It'seems alittle sad that this has only become an issue once the Americans became involved, had this been any other nation the outcry would not have been as huge. Piracy in the area is now being reported more widely and the world leaders have to do something about it and have to acknowledge the problem.



Pirate bay. The popular Swedish file sharing network 'Pirate Bay' and its owners were under attack over copyright laws. The site does not host the files itself, but it makes them easier to access them. Interestingly the people running the site claim that they arent breaking 'Swedish' copyright laws, and that 'Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. US law does not apply here'. Does that exactly work over the internet though? Theft is theft in any country, but it seems the owners thought they may have found a loophole, but it didnt seem to protect them. The owners of pirate bay were sentenced to a year in prison each, the ordered to pay heavy fines of $3.6 million in damages. The four owners plan to appeal the decision, which could drag this process on for many months and years to come, seeing as this first ruling took three years to reach, so we might not see a definitive ruling for a long time to come