One might think that a film which boasts an all access pass to the prosecution of the three boys behind the world's largest file sharing website would be thrilling or at least capable of holding one's interest, but sadly this film isn't even capable of the latter.
Admittedly, the first 20 minutes or so or the film are very interesting. We see the boys explain the creation of the website; we see boys at a few preliminary hearings introducing themselves and making a few statements. (By the way, I say "boys" because none of them seem to possess anything close to a manly trait, aside from the occasional neckbeard) We see the inherent culture-clash between the judges and lawyers and the militantly geeky co-founders. (Says one of the hackers, "How did she (prosecutor) mix up bits and bytes!? Bytes measures storage, while bits is typically used to measure transfer rates.")
We also hear the boy's legal defense. Here it is in all it's glory: "We didn't personally share copyrighted material, we simply created a file sharing system. What users did with that system is not our business." By the way, this legal argument has nothing to do whatsoever with the actual political beliefs of the Pirate Bay, which was founded by an organization which wants to abolish all copyright laws entirely.
Unfortunately, what is never fully articulated is the response to their arguments. Surely, at least someone has a well reasoned argument in favor of protecting copyright laws. Instead we are given one or two sound bytes from the prosecutor about "making the Swedish respect copyright laws." Surely there's more to the story.
Then the film deteriorates into a series of pointless scenes depicting the life of two of the boys (the neckbeard apparently fled from the camera crew) while they 1) sit in front of dimly lit computer screens and complain about how stupid the judge is, 2) get stupid drunk and start flying off the handle about "unencrypted emails" or 3) show up to their appeals hearing and talk about how bored/sick they are. All of this could have theoretically been entertaining, but the film lacks a single likable character. (What was I expecting from a bunch of pale computer hackers?)
The most entertaining scenes from the last hour or so of the film include the 2 appearances by the process server who functions as a safe target for one of the boys anger and disrespect. Why not?
Spoiler alert, they get convicted. Then we see the boys learn about it, (as well as the denial of their first appeal) through a dimly lit computer screen
Admittedly, the first 20 minutes or so or the film are very interesting. We see the boys explain the creation of the website; we see boys at a few preliminary hearings introducing themselves and making a few statements. (By the way, I say "boys" because none of them seem to possess anything close to a manly trait, aside from the occasional neckbeard) We see the inherent culture-clash between the judges and lawyers and the militantly geeky co-founders. (Says one of the hackers, "How did she (prosecutor) mix up bits and bytes!? Bytes measures storage, while bits is typically used to measure transfer rates.")
We also hear the boy's legal defense. Here it is in all it's glory: "We didn't personally share copyrighted material, we simply created a file sharing system. What users did with that system is not our business." By the way, this legal argument has nothing to do whatsoever with the actual political beliefs of the Pirate Bay, which was founded by an organization which wants to abolish all copyright laws entirely.
Unfortunately, what is never fully articulated is the response to their arguments. Surely, at least someone has a well reasoned argument in favor of protecting copyright laws. Instead we are given one or two sound bytes from the prosecutor about "making the Swedish respect copyright laws." Surely there's more to the story.
Then the film deteriorates into a series of pointless scenes depicting the life of two of the boys (the neckbeard apparently fled from the camera crew) while they 1) sit in front of dimly lit computer screens and complain about how stupid the judge is, 2) get stupid drunk and start flying off the handle about "unencrypted emails" or 3) show up to their appeals hearing and talk about how bored/sick they are. All of this could have theoretically been entertaining, but the film lacks a single likable character. (What was I expecting from a bunch of pale computer hackers?)
The most entertaining scenes from the last hour or so of the film include the 2 appearances by the process server who functions as a safe target for one of the boys anger and disrespect. Why not?
Spoiler alert, they get convicted. Then we see the boys learn about it, (as well as the denial of their first appeal) through a dimly lit computer screen