clipped from: www.nzherald.co.nz 
The judge in the Pirate Bay case, Thomas Norström is reported to be a member of the Swedish Copyright Association (SFU) where he is joined by Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, all of whom represented the entertainment industry in the case against the BitTorrent tracker site.
He also sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (SFIR), an organisation that lobbies for tougher copyright laws, reports Sveriges Radio's P3 news programme today.
Despite today's reports judge Norström denied that his involvement with the two copyright organisations constituted a "conflict of interest" in his ability to preside over the most high-profile trial involving illegal filesharing in European history.
"Every time I take on a case I assess the chances for any recusation, but in this case I don't believe that my impartiality was affected," said Norström.