As far as I remember these guys declared never to pay the fines. So no, the fines themselves will not cover anything.
Not quite sure what you mean by this, but once the collector comes, he'll just take whatever you have. I don't know about Swedish personal bankruptcy law but even in the best case if debts like this can be discharged by bankruptcy, going to jail for half a year, being flat-out broke for something like 5 years after that, having all your wages and possessions confiscated, and then having to re-build your life at 40 doesn't seem like a sacrifice the 'intellectual property is evil' cause is worth.
Does anyone know something about these guys? Do they have families, companies, jobs? Eventually something like this had to happen of course, but still, I'm sure these guys were 100% convinced they were the Good Guys and Good Guys Prevail In The End, so this must be devastating...
But whomever things good guys always win are just fucking naive.
May be, but these guys paid a big price for their part in it, if there is one at all, and I don't see anyone picking up the bill for them...
The prison-sentences are short, and will only get them even more respect and higher-social standing within their peer group, broadly defined. Since girls tend to like such people, they can expect to be able to get young and pretty girlfriends and will have no problem becoming writers for various blogs/magazines.
The reality distortion field is strong on this one. Just going to jail doesn't make one a 'bad boy'. I happen to remotely know a couple of people who did jail time over fraud charges (which is the 'crime class' there guys fall in, and the group they'll hang out with inside), and let me tell you, they really haven't turned into women magnets all of a sudden just because they've been in jail.
I think the prosecutor even admitted in an interview that they don't expect to ever see any money.
I think they were all aware (except Carl Lundström) that luck would run out sooner or later, and from what I've seen, they had the plans all laid out on how to skip jail and fine.
I would be surprised if any one of them except Lundström would serve any of their prison times, or pay any sum of money to pay for their fines.
That's still a fairly hefty penalty. Even if I chose to live elsewhere the idea of never being able to return home without a fairly major sanction would be a bummer.
Furthermore, any social security or pension entitlements they may have had will automatically be confiscated so they will have to provide for themselves, in fore-mentioned third-world country, presumably without a sizable starting capital, and without being able to take on any consulting jobs that require them to travel to Europe, and potentially other Western countries (I'm not familiar with international agreements on this matter, but most countries have no problems extraditing foreign nationals, especially not when they're convicted in criminal cases).
Sounds like a great "plan to skip jail and fine".
This ain't Prison Break. There's no way to escape from convictions that don't require profound sacrifices for the rest of your life. I can't understand why everybody is so dismissive - "oh they'll be fine". No they won't, they're fucked for the rest of their lives.
Well, I didn't say it was a good plan. ;) I was merely pointing out that I thought they were anticipating that this was how things would turn out.
I would like to add: The statute of limitations here in Sweden for a jail time of <1 year is max 10 years or so (according to Swedish Wikipedia it's 2 years, but I'm not sure if the fines complicate the matter).
Their involvement with the pirate bay were well known, and I suspect known by their respective employers. They are also rather well-known within the Swedish Pirate movement.
I suspect the people who won't hire them after the verdict wouldn't have hired them even before it since their involvement with the pirate bay was no secret.
The pirate movement in Sweden is one of the most vocal movements about civil rights and against host of laws that are considered to be in dispute with civil rights, so for this movement they're more or less martyrs rather than just some nerds who built a tracker and a trademark.
Recent laws (mass-surveillance, corporations being given more investigative rights than the police, etc) and events in Sweden have in a way bridged current civil rights and rule-of-law issues with the pirate movement.
It'll be interesting to see wheter this connection remains now that Sweden has a new liberal party which tackle many of the same issues the pirate party does, or wheter they'll become more separated with time.
[Edit: Rephrased section into 'considered to be in dispute with civil rights']