Peter Sunde charged by court to pay record labels; TPB co-founder to file own lawsuit

For co-founding one of the most popular torrent sites, The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde has found himself in hot water in recent weeks.

Reports surfaced last week that local branches of Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI won a default judgment that put Sunde in a difficult situation.

As a result of the ruling, Sunde needs to pay $395,000 for the music that circulated around the torrent website and illegally downloaded by the users.

Furthermore, there is a pending punishment for Sunde if the downloads continue after this fiasco.

However, according to TorrentFreak, Sunde was surprised by the verdict as he washed his hands of all the blame and claimed that he has not been associated with the website for 10 years now.

Not only that, but Sunde revealed that he never shared anything illegally so he must not be held liable for the distribution of music.

He went on to tell reporters that he was not aware of the verdict until it was eventually handed down to him, which means he was not given due process.

As a result, Sunde is going to go for his own lawsuit, with a defamation claim against the record labels.

In the same interview with TorrentFreak, Sunde claimed: "I've decided I'm going to sue them for damage against my good name and stealing a lot of time from me.

"I'm a public person in Finland and they're calling me a criminal when they KNOW I'm not involved in what they're suing me for. It's defamation."

Sunde believes that the record labels owe him money as he will no longer stay silent regarding the case as it has already damaged his name and character.

He added: "It's getting very obvious the case will be won by me and it's time to hit them back. Attacking has always been my best defense and I'm going to demand what I'm owed finally."

As for the verdict, according to Sunde's lawyer, Peter Herkko Hietanen, they can still appeal the default judgement within 30 days and a retrial may follow.