The Pirate Bay must also transfer domain to Sweden after appeal

A Swedish judge has again ruled on appeal in the The Pirate Bay case that the ownership of the domain names thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se must be transferred to the Swedish state.

In this way, the judge maintains a rather similar judgment, reports the Swedish site DN. It also stipulated that the domain names had to be transferred, because they had been used in committing crimes, including copyright infringement. However, the current ruling is not final yet, as it is possible to appeal again. It is unclear whether this will actually happen.

The verdict only extends to the two Swedish domain names of The Pirate Bay and not to the site itself or the content of the underlying systems. In addition, the site has a range of other domains, so this decision will not have a major impact on accessibility. According to Sweden’s Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, however, the ruling sets an important precedent when it comes to domain ownership.

Due to the transfer of the domain names, they will not be available for re-registration, DN reports. This happens, for example, if people are convicted of crimes, after which the domain name is lost in the same way as if the bill has not been paid for it. Recently, the Swedish police coordinator expressed the wish to be able to confiscate domain names without having to go to court first.