I really, really didn’t think that the prosecution in the Pirate Bay trial stood a chance, mostly because it seems like the Pirate Bay has some sort of litigation-proof vest, judging from past run-ins with the law. The defense presented a good case (what was that, a month ago? two months ago?) and I somehow thought it would hold up.

Of course, the site IS called the Pirate Bay, so I think it’s pretty fucking obvious its sole purpose is distribution of copyrighted materials. You can only kid yourself for so long. Each of the four defendants (at least one’s role in the site is questionable) has been sentenced to a year in prison and about a million dollars each in fines.

This doesn’t, however, seem to affect the site for the time being. The front page operates as normal, with a text message reading “Don’t worry – we’re from the internets. It’s going to be alright. ” Membership at the Pirate Bay increased 20% in just a couple hours after the verdict (about 3,580,000 users when I checked, and that’s just REGISTERED users), as well as support for Sweden’s Pirate Party, with more than half of Swedish men under 30 pledging votes for the party in 2009. Protests are planned in Stockholm on Saturday.

I don’t really know how it works, legally, but the judge also declared use of BitTorrent with the Pirate Bay illegal. If you’re the paranoid sort of torrenter, maybe it would be wise to avoid using the Bay for a while? I’m sure the defense is appealing, so who knows how long this thing could go on.