For moral justification of The Pirate Bay, there's only the Jefferson quote, "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so". It's a damn good one, but the "legal content" defense is just silly posturing.
To my knowledge Thomas Jefferson never wrote any such thing. Spurious quotation at worst, specious at best. If you can provide a source I would appreciate it. Jefferson loved the law and rational debate and would never have elevated the opinion of one person above the law except in matters of religion or spiritual freedom.
Jefferson by the way sold his library of 6000 volumes to the library of Congress for US ~$20k after the British burned Washington DC in the war of 1812. He was not a wealthy man and in fact was nearly bankrupt many times in his life. If I recall his remaining books were sold at auction after his death to pay off his debts. He was also an inventor that sought protection by the state of his ideas from theft. On the other hand he was also a staunch advocate of free education.
"The problem with quotes from the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity" -- Abraham Lincoln
In this particular case, it doesn't really matter as the inclusion of Jefferson is just for spice, it's not an appeal to authority (as quoting people like that often is). History is littered with heroes who agreed with the assertion.
That said, it's a moral assertion, not a legal one. I'm no scholar on the subject, but the way I read it, I don't see any expectation of immunity from disobeying the law, but rather a paraphrasing of "be ready to die for what you know to be true". It's unlikely that anybody is going to die for the Pirate Bay, but the founders and several users have certainly felt the heavy hand of the law, but they and their supporters still consider themselves to be morally right.
Would your view change greatly if it was you being (mis)quoted? I am a little sensitive I suppose due to my belief system being based on truth and accuracy and not rhetoric.
Also historians tend to get wrankled about accuracy, mostly because we paid the price of inhaling all that dust in an effort to be historically precise.
No, because Jefferson is not part of the argument. I accept that I got suckered into believing it was a Jefferson and didn't check the sources, but if no one else said it, I just did, and my argument still stands.
For moral justification of The Pirate Bay, there's only the Jefferson quote, "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so". It's a damn good one, but the "legal content" defense is just silly posturing.