“The Court held that sharing, or allowing others to sharefiles of this kind on the Internet, even copyright-protectedmaterial and for profit-making purposes, was covered by the rightto ‘receive and impart information’ under Article 10 (freedom ofexpression),” the decision reads.
After a hearing last month, the Court has denied theirapplication, arguing that the Swedish courts had already made thecorrect verdict.
The Strasbourg court concluded that the Stockholm rulinginterferes with the right to freedom of expression, but said it wasa necessary measure to protect copyright. The decision reads:“The Court concluded that the interference with the right tofreedom of expression of Mr Neij and Mr Sunde Kolmisoppi had beennecessary in a democratic society and that their application hadtherefore to be rejected as manifestly ill-founded.”
Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of one of theworld's biggest torrent-sharing websites were charged withviolation of the Copyright Act in 2008.
In April 2009, the two defendants were found to be guilty of"assisting in making copyright content available" by thejudge. The businessman were sentenced to one year's imprisonmentand fined 3.3 million euros after Stockholm district court heardnumerous Hollywood production studios claims of copyrightinfringement. A year later, their sentence was reduced buttheir fine increased.
In June 2012, Neij and Sunde appealed to the European Court ofHuman Rights arguing that their freedom of expression had been violated.
