Village People Hire Web Sheriff for Assault on The Pirate Bay, ABBA on Standby
Written by enigmax on February 15, 2008In a twin assault, the Web Sheriff anti-piracy outfit is looking to recruit Swedish group ABBA to fight against The (Evil) Pirate Bay, and at the same time launching legal action on behalf of The Village People. Please note Mr Sheriff, they sang “In the Navy” - they don’t really have one.
The Web Sheriff likes to appear to be different with its methods to stamping out Internet piracy. The Sheriff, aka John Giacobbi, first appears to employ a more considered approach by attempting to negotiate the removal of unauthorized content with the site owner, but in a friendly way.
The big, gold Web Sheriff badge is worn with pride on Giacobbi’s chest but with an almost comedic quality which may help to tip the balance with a site admin as he laughs at the situation, rather than panics. “We’re trying to be more civil,” Giacobbi told CNet last year. “We have good relationships with most of the file-sharing and blogging sites, and when we ask them to take down material, the vast majority of them respond straight away. In some cases, the sites give us access to their databases, and we remove content ourselves.”
One site that does respond to them right away is The Pirate Bay. You can read their hilarious exchanges here, but the real point is - when does a ‘civil approach’ turn into something else? Well, as it turns out, as soon as you refuse to comply.
“There is no way that they will have any defense because it’s blatant piracy” said Giacobbi, as he announced legal action against The PirateBay on behalf of the artist, Prince. “They’ll either have to come out and fight or just try and ignore it. In that case, we’re going to win a default judgment against them. This could be a ticking time bomb for them. They can’t outrun this. We are very confident.”
Essentially, “See you in court”. Back to business as usual for the anti-pirates, then.
Now, John Giacobbi, CEO of Web Sheriff has said in an interview with e24.se that he’s hired lawyer Lars Sandberg from Stockholm law firm Södermark to work on the case in Sweden. “We are suing for damages of millions of dollars, and they will be filed at both Swedish as well as US courts.” he added.
Interesting is Giacobbi’s attempt to recruit Swedish (I think I can use the words) mega-group, ABBA, to become some type of positive, cleansing influence to counter the dark forces of The Pirate Bay. This is good versus evil on a scale never experienced before, or at least the chosen imagery implies as much.
“It would be also be good/appropriate if the members of ABBA could take up the fight against these pirates, as they personify the Swedish music industry’s successes and are renowned ambassadors for Sweden, contrary to The Pirate Bay.”
Then, as if dragging ABBA into this bloodbath wasn’t enough, to level things up against The Pirate Bay ‘Four’ - the Sheriff has recruited a police officer to fight them - and he’ll be bringing some friends: an American Indian chief, a cowboy, a construction worker, a man dressed head to toe in black leather and even a guy from the military. Oh boy.
Yes, the Web Sheriff is teaming up with Prince and style-icons The Village People to claim back damages for every one of their albums that have been made available via The Pirate Bay. The Village People want compensation for losses on their single ‘YMCA’ and Prince wants compensation for about 40 of his albums (including some Greatest Hits albums).
When faced with the quote from U2 manager Paul McGuinness who told the Financial Times that the industry should focus on ISPs instead of filesharers, Giacobbi said: “I totally agree. For years, we have said that web hosts, who earn millions and billions in hosting sites, must take responsibility and control these sites.”
When it was put to Giacobbi that public opinion on filesharing had changed and that generally people feel it should be legalized, he responded: “People ask themselves why they should buy something when they can get it for free. But then they aren’t taking into account that someone has created the music or the movie and has invested big money in it. It is also the producer that owns the rights themselves to decided how and to whom their creative work should be distributed.”
It didn’t do ABBA’s image any good when their label was accused of picking on fans in 2006, so you have to question why they would get involved when The Pirate Bay is so popular with music lovers, especially in Sweden.
If you line them all up - The Pirate Bay Four, The Web Sheriff, Prince, ABBA and The Village People, if nothing else, it’s certainly a memorable image.
But you knew that, didn’t you John ;)
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81 Responses
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Sounds like a cheap advertising trick.
WHO THE HELL LISTENS TO VILLAGE PEOPLE?
…damn.
It looks like everybody is suing the pirate bay,
Oh boy.
Faggots defending faggots. Web Sherriff is an idiot for trying to stick his nose back in it. Appearantly he didn’t learn the first time around. I guess he likes public humiliation for publicity.
Seems that Hire-a-cop-no-brains-nor-brawl, mr Web sheriff still thinks that Americas law is the internets law. The PirateBay four stands accused of “assisting filesharing” not even filesharing. Will he ever learn the difference? Stay tuned for more wacky guest stars!
I doubt that they will have any luck with it.
Seriously if the lawyers in Sweeden can’t get TPB, how the hell should “mr. I’m soo good kids-web sheriff” be able to?
lol, i love the idea of getting in a bunch of redundant artists that nobody listens to anymore. I’m sure that with such brilliant backing this will do wonders for the fight against “piracy”. Next they’ll be recuiting other crap, like the spice girls…
oh god the moderation caught me
I think the pirate bay is safe so long as its only goons with phony gold badges. I mean come on, does he even kno what dignity is. It just draws attention to his failure to get into the law business for real.
Hahahaha, is so easy to claim for help, they just don’t know what to do at all.
If an band has a song downloaded for free, they wont accept paying to record on a studio, instead they might wait on a long line to record on a free studio of some good soul…
And thats the problem, big companies don’t want to have a free competition, like microsoft doesnt want free-linux, etc etc.
Lats say torrents got all legal, would the world of music end? No one would start a new band?
Of course not!
Everyday the equipments get cheaper, so the only ones in hurry are big companies that sometimes pay less then 9% (of total CD income) to the artist!
Ok, i created this 9% lol, not sure about, but i don’t doubt some even charge instead of pay…
LMAO village people are you serious??
Didnt they all die of aids. I had no idea they were still around. Whatever web sherrif keep up the battle Faggot.
BitTorrent will never die.
sounds like every one wants a piece pf TPB :/
Wow, Village People? Does anyone even listen to them anymore? I hate how greedy artists are nowadays.
WHYYYY-EM-CEE-AYYY!
=]
They cant stand a legal site and competition, hash files are evul and freedom of speech is so aswell.
I highly doubt anything done to TPB in US courts can make them do something, they are based in sweden…
One cant file court cases all over the world and expect people to defend themselves when they dont have to defend themselves in other countries then the one their operating in.
TPB will win the swedish court, sweden has excellent laws and TPB hasnt broken them, hence why they are legal in sweden.
And law changes wont come anytime soon, and because the majority of the swedish people supports filesharing they are very unlikely to be successfull.
The people have the power! Something thats missing in the US as of late, maybe they should fix their lobbying corperate powerhouse by giving more rights to the people? nah let them imagine they have rights sounds like a better idea…
Maybe Obama or whoever will be the next president will restore some power to the american people and remove some from the banks and corperations ;)
[quote comment="290598"]WHYYYY-EM-CEE-AYYY!
=][/quote]
WHYYY-AR-TEY-GAAY!
:p
They are both old screwed over artists trying to get their name out there any way possible. And to think I once liked ABBA!
[quote comment="290524"]Sounds like a cheap advertising trick.
WHO THE HELL LISTENS TO VILLAGE PEOPLE?
…damn.[/quote]
who the hell would seed them?
This is obviously more of an annoyance than a threat… here comes the “me too” bandwagon.
ABBA, do you want public humiliation like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Paul McGuinness from U2? If you are to get involved in this farce, this is what you will get from the public.
As for Paul McGuinness flop, there is a response to it floating around The Web, one instance being posted at
http://www.mediafuturist.com/2008/02/welcome-to-paul.html
I would like to ask everyone to re-post the whole text of that article to as many forums and blogs as possible and translate it to as many languages as possible (another post that had a wide circulation is titled “When Pigs Fly” from demonbaby).
We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.
Okay, so sharing gay music gets you into jail where your cell mates fuck you all night. Explain again, please, is this a threat or an offer?
The Web Sheriff again?? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha…
[quote comment="290627"]As for Paul McGuinness flop, there is a response to it floating around The Web, one instance being posted at
http://www.mediafuturist.com/2008/02/welcome-to-paul.html
I would like to ask everyone to re-post the whole text of that article to as many forums and blogs as possible and translate it to as many languages as possible (another post that had a wide circulation is titled “When Pigs Fly” from demonbaby).
We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.[/quote]
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1776
We is dead hard.
[quote comment="290633"]Okay, so sharing gay music gets you into jail where your cell mates fuck you all night. Explain again, please, is this a threat or an offer?[/quote]
Hahahahahaha I think the idea is to convence gay people not to share. Jail isn’t a good think even if you ejnoy rape… wait, even if you enjoy BEEN raped. Because if you enjoy rape, well, then… forget. LOL
Filesharing will never die!
“In some cases, the sites give us access to their databases, and we remove content ourselves.”
LMAO! Oh, please. Only in the Web Sheriff’s twisted little wet dreams. Please tell me what tard would actually give that scumbag Giacobbi access to their database?
First Media Defender. Now, I think it’s time the Web Sheriff got his comeuppance. Don’t f*** with us or be prepared to pay the price.
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