Pirate juror had to leave post

A short note about the Swedish justice system:
We don't have a "jury" as such, but rather a group of laymen in cooperation with one or several experienced judges. All of these then determine the verdict and punishment together. This article is about one of the laymen.

The headline is a little misleading. He isn't really a Pirate juror (how cool would that be?), but a layman who was supposed take part in the trial.

One of the jurors in the Pirate Bay trial that starts next week has had to leave his post. He was considered to have a conflict of interest and has been replaced by a new juror.

- Originally, three jurors were interviewed and some opinion was offered. Upon a question from me to the jurors about whether they are or have been members of any copyright association or anything of the like or if they've been artists, one of them said yes, said district court judge Tomas Norström, the chairman of the court in the Pirate Bay case.

Juror Lennart WestMan, (MP), who is a composer, confirms that he's had to leave the case. He is a bit disappointed.

- I guess there's a risk that the conflict of interest would be brought up when the case gets moving, but personally I feel there's no conflict. I do write and compose music as part of konstmusikfacket [lit. Art Music Union], but I don't do any of this downloading at all, says Westman.

The Pirate Bay trial, which is planned to run for thirteen days, will be broadcast live via SVT's web site.

SVT is the Swedish public service TV. From what I have heard, the mentioned live broadcast will be audio only, since video capture in the courtroom is not allowed.

Article from Sydsvenskan.

On a side note, Sydsvenskan had a copyright special last Sunday. Seven pages of the paper were devoted to copyright debate, The Pirate Bay, The Piracy Bureau and The Pirate Party. Almost the whole special was uploaded to The Pirate Bay on Thursday by Sydsvenskan(three days before it was released in print). They asked people to download it and help them make improvements before it was printed in the paper.