Behind the scenes of the Pirate Bay trial
As countries become more corrupted, their "legal" system becomes less about the law and justice, and more an arm of the state to impose its will.  I've seen countless examples of this, where the law was ignored, precedent and procedure was ignored, and obviously corrupted officials acted for their best interest in persecuting the people the state had decided needed persecution.<p>In fact, this tendency is so common, historically, that it is one of the reasons the US had its revolution, and one of the reasons the form of government created in the USA was so different from the rest of the world, at the time.  Many protections were enshrined in the US constitution, designed to prevent exactly these abuses.<p>However, even in the USA, these protections have become meaningless... because at the end of the day all systems rely on people. When all of the people with power in any system are answerable to the state (And the state only) the system quickly becomes merely an agent of the state's interests... and not a defender of the public's interest.<p>We see this most starkly with the states demonizing of "terrorism" (when in many cases it isn't actually terrorism it is going after)... with its massive power grabs due to the "War on drugs" (after decades of demonizing drugs) ... and now, lately, after "piracy" (with decades of demonizing "pirates".)<p>Things will continue to get worse in this regard-- because there is no effective force to counter it.  US elections, no matter which party wins, put "anti-terrorist" and "anti-drug" and "anti-piracy" people in office.<p>Note Obama who promised a "softer war on drugs" picked the Architect of the Drug War, Joe Biden as his running mate and his tune immediately changed after getting elected. Bush was no better, etc.<p>It has been decades since blatently unconstitutional asset-forfieture laws were enacted under Reagan.  Further, in those decades we've had uncountable incidents of police outright stealing property under them, never charging someone with a crime.<p>I can think of nothing more corrupt than, for instance, florida cops stopping tourists to take all their money. (similar incident happened in texas.)<p>Despite public awareness and many appeals to the courts over the years, this practice is only growing bigger.<p>So, what is to be done?  They're getting away with it, and show no signs of stopping.... and the alleged methods to hold them accountable: The law, the courts, the supreme court, and elections have all failed.