It’s been nearly four years since a Stockholm court found The Pirate Bay founders guilty of facilitating copyright infringement, sentencing the four men – Peter Sunde, Gottfried Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundström – to prison and hefty fines.
While the main courtroom drama ended long ago, the story of The Pirate Bay and the young Swedes who helped make it the world’s dominant filesharing site continues to unfold.
And on February 8th, audiences will get a long-awaited, behind-the-scenes look at how a handful of internet pioneers found themselves in a David versus Goliath battle against big media companies over access to information and creative content in the digital age.
The documentary, culled from more than 200 hours of footage shot over four years, comes thanks to Swedish documentary filmmaker Simon Klose, who followed the band of net activists in a “whack-a-mole, cat-and-mouse” battle against forces that wanted to shut down The Pirate Bay.
In Pictures: Swede of the Week Simon Klose at work
“It’s a tragic story, really, about drivers of new technology being treated like criminals,” Klose tells The Local of his film, TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard.
Klose is quick to admit that he sympathizes with the views of the Pirate Bay founders that unrestricted access to culture would boost creativity and that current copyright laws were out of place in the age of the internet.
However, he bristles at claims that his film is simply “propaganda” for the filesharing site.
“I wanted to document what I believe was an historical moment in the evolution of the internet pitting these net rebels against these media industry giants,” he explains.
SEE ALSO: File sharing recognized as a religion in Sweden
Born in Lund in southern Sweden and educated in Stockholm, Klose has been making films for more than a decade, including many documentary shorts and music videos.
And thanks to a chance phone call from a friend in 2008, Klose ended up connecting with a band of rebellious Swedish net activists, spawning one his most comprehensive efforts to date.
At the time, a friend invited him to attend a rally against a controversial Swedish wiretapping law.
“It was a scary law. I thought it was really wrong,” Klose says in describing what was known as the “FRA law” and which allowed the Swedish Radio Defence Establishment (Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA) to monitor all telephone and internet traffic that crosses Sweden’s borders.
SEE ALSO: Sweden passes divisive wiretapping law
“So later I had coffee with Peter Sunde in Malmö and I found his stories instantly fascinating. I couldn’t sleep after the meeting so later I called him up and asked if anyone was doing a documentary.”
One of Klose’s first encounters with the Pirate Bay crew and their band of merry followers came aboard a vintage 1970s bus as it travelled to Italy for an “away from keyboard – AFK” meet-up of like-minded netizens.
“I think it was the first time all of these people who had come to know each other online actually planned to meet,” he recalls.
“I found it fascinating that they had become such good friends through the internet, but had never met in person.”
Shortly thereafter, the founders of The Pirate Bay found themselves in a Stockholm court, facing charges they violated Sweden’s copyright laws in an infamous trial which serves as one of the central storylines in the film.
“At its heart, this is a human drama and I try to take viewers behind the scenes,” says Klose.
Trailers from the film contain scenes of Svartholm Warg and Sunde testifying in what the latter labels as a “political trial”, as well as clips from a rally in Stockholm celebrating the Pirate Bay coming back online after having been shut down following a 2006 raid.
“In your face Hollywood,” Neij proclaims.
The official trailer for the film
Klose admits to being “relieved” that the project is finally completed, explaining that his final effort reflects his approach to filmmaking.
“My projects are usually quite long. I like to follow people in their environment and try to be a fly on the wall and see how things change over time,” he says.
SEE ALSO: Supreme Court denies Pirate Bay right to appeal
He adds that is in no way objective or “journalistic”.
“I hate movies that try to be objective. I tried to be as subjective as possible. The truth in the film is my truth and nobody else’s truth,” Klose asserts.
Shooting the film was an exhilarating, if not time-consuming, experience, he says, especially when he was granted access to the then secret location of the Pirate Bay server halls.
“It felt like I was in a real-life cyber-thriller,” Klose explains.
“As someone who grew up on a steady diet of sci-fi in the 1980s, I was so stoked to discover that the treasure of these modern-day pirates, their servers, was actually hidden in a real cave.”
Klose is circumspect about the significance of the Pirate Bay verdict and its effects on the ongoing debate about internet freedom.
“It’s hard to say who the winners and losers are. The founders were convicted, but at the same time The Pirate Bay is still going,” he says.
“But the story demonstrates a real power shift. The largest media companies and governments in the world weren’t able to touch this small group of young people and their website.”
SEE ALSO: Pirate Bay founder held in new hacking probe
Klose also had no illusions about approaching a traditional film studio for help producing and distributing the film.
“Releasing this film through a studio was never an option. From the start, I knew it was going to be free,” he says, adding that “the map is still being drawn” on new ways of distributing films.
“We can’t keep building Berlin Walls. We have to ready to accept new distribution systems that make it easier to reach audiences, keep prices lower for consumers, and allow artists to keep a larger percentage of the earnings.”
While he’s “humbled” at being invited to premier the film at the Berlin International Film festival, he emphasizes the importance of releasing the film online under a Creative Commons licence, which allows viewers to watch and copy the film for free.
“Putting it out online is sort my way of hacking the film industry,” he says with a laugh.
Klose also hopes allowing unfettered access to his film will help it reach a wider audience, something that every filmmaker wants.
“I hope it’s viewed by a gazillion people,” he jokes.
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David Landes
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