FREDRIK NEIJ

www.thepiratebay.com

Net Worth : $10+ Million

Country of Residence: Sweden

Fredrik Neij, 31, Who is the co-founder of The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent index site and tracker.

He also owns the web host PRQ, which previously hosted The Pirate Bay. Fredrik Neij, one of the PirateBay admins currently on trial in Stockholm, admitted that he was hupping his servers from the courtroom while the lawyers were making closing arguments.

On 31 January 2008, The Pirate Bay operators — Neij, Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström (CEO of The Pirate Bay’s former ISP) — were charged with assisting and making copyright content available to the public

The trial began on 16 February 2009. On 17 April 2009, Neij and his co-defendants were found to be guilty of “assisting in making copyright content available” in the Stockholm district court (tingsrätt). Each defendant was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay damages of 30 million SEK (approximately €2,740,900 or US$3,620,000), to be apportioned among the four defendants.

The Pirate Bay has been involved in a number of lawsuits, both as the plaintiff and as the defendant. On 17 April 2009, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström were found guilty of assistance to copyright infringement and sentenced to one year in prison and payment of a fine of 30 million SEK (app. 3,620,000 USD; 2,385,000 GBP; or 2,684,000 EUR), after a trial of nine days. The defendants have appealed against the verdict and the judge was accused of bias.

Despite all these mixups, the one lesson to retain is that these guys had the nerve to dare into unchartered territory. Some risks are more “risky” than others, and Frederik and his friends went all out. Plus, these guys and the service they wanted to offer to the general public is something that has already started revolutionizing the online media world….even more than in the days of Napster.