A UK Court has ruled that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright under UK law. Specifically, its users infringe copyright and The Pirate Bay authorises their infringement. Further, the operators of The Pirate Bay are “joint tort-feasors” with the users.

In the present case, the matters I have considered in relation to authorisation lead to the conclusion the operators of TPB induce, incite or persuade its users to commit infringements of copyright, and that they and the users act pursuant to a common design to infringe. It is also relevant in this regard that the operators profit from their activities. Thus they are jointly liable for the infringements committed by user.

For the reasons set out above, I conclude that both users and the operators of TPB infringe the copyrights of the Claimants (and those they represent) in the UK — Mr Justice Arnold

The ruling is a preliminary step in the application by members of the BPI for an injunction against BT, Everything Everywhere (Orange), Sky, TalkTalk, Telefonica (O2) and Virgin Media, requiring them to block access to The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay was not represented in the case nor were its operators served with notice of proceedings; the court’s ruling as to why this was not necessary is perhaps the most interesting element of a judgement that is mainly about establishing judicial notice of notorious facts, rather than about developing new law.

The judge in this case is the same judge that issued an injunction requiring BT to block access to Newzbin2.