The appeals of those convicted in April in the high-profile Pirate Bay copyright violations trial won’t be heard until next year, the court said on Monday.
The delay is due to allegations of bias directed at two of the judges, Ulrika Ihrfelt and Katarina Boutz , which must be resolved before the appeal can take place. This won’t happen until next year, according to Ihrfelt.
The appeal was originally scheduled to start on Nov. 13.
The judges were found to be unbiased by the Svea Court of Appeals, it announced on Oct. 6, but now the Supreme Court must confirm that ruling. Their involvement in pro-copyright organizations are the basis of the bias allegations.
Accusations of bias have been a recurring theme in The Pirate Bay case. In September, one of the lay judges scheduled to hear the appeal was deemed biased by the Svea Court of Appeals because of his involvement in the streaming music service Spotify.
Also, the Court of Appeals has found that District Court Judge Tomas Norström was not biasedwhen he delivered the guilty verdict against the four people involved in running the file-sharing site. Norström was also accused of being biased because of his involvement with pro-copyright organizations.
In April, Fredrik Neij , Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström were found guilty of being accessories to crimes against copyright law, and each sentenced to one year in prison. The court also ordered them to pay around 30 million Swedish kronor (US$4.3 million) in damages. All four defendants appealed the verdicts.