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ThePirateBay Will Rise Again?

muffen writes "IDG.se has an interesting article up giving more details about the raid on PirateBay, and a little history of the organization. The news organ reports that nearly 200 servers were taken, and many of them had nothing to do with the torrent-serving group. After yesterday's raid, the site is back up with a single page explaining the situation. Brokep, one of the people behind PirateBay, claims that the site will be up and running within a couple of days. He also says that there is no legal basis for the raid against them and that he is certain that the case will not go to trial." From the site: "The necessity for securing technical evidence for the existence of a web-service which is fully official, the legality of which has been under public debate for years and whose principals are public persons giving regular press interviews, could not be explained. Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal."

13 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. Cross Link & Clickies by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Informative
    I know that yesterday's article is most likely linked above but I would like to point out Christian Engström's post (the vice chairman of the Piratpartiet) which was in reply to my own post.

    I myself live in America and the only way I can find information on this political party is online. I wish that there were more official resources in English aside from their site. There seems to be one page with the content exactly the same as Christian Engström's post.

    Is it possible that this party is popular via lack of information? I would like to see them explain their strategy & give very detailed specifics about what they would like to see changed and why. I think that if this was posted, it may cause them to lose some support but would definitely let Sweden & the rest of the world know a lot more about the Pirate Party. I like their desired end results but how to plan to achieve these goals?

    I don't want to sound like an ass but in my opinion, having 200 servers of a controversial party raided and confiscated by the local government is one of the best things that could happen to said party. Especially since nothing incriminating was found on them. Do political parties now earn "street cred" like this? Certainly would strike a chord with the youth & idealists.
    Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal.
    Hmmm, sounds like pretty unlawful search and seize action ...

    Dennis: Come and see the corruption inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
    King Arthur: *seizes the servers* Bloody file sharers!
    Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn't you?
    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Cross Link & Clickies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Popular via lack of information? It's a Swedish party, for Swedes. If you can't read Swedish, you probably won't be able to vote for them either.

      And that's the way it is. There's plenty of information there, but it's in Swedish.

    2. Re:Cross Link & Clickies by Oldsmobile · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Hmmm, sounds like pretty unlawful search and seize action ... "

      Though I am not an expert on Swedish law, I doubt there was anythign exactly illegal in this operation, though it was obviously heavy handed. European law works quite differently compared to US law, so any comparisons are useless.

      If there was no reason for this seizure, of course compensation will be paid and if the evidence used to justify it was flawed or faked or the wrong kind, senior police officers may or may not face disiplinary action.

      Of course, the police in Sweden have been caught lying and faking evidence before, such as when covering their backs after shooting someone (who was unarmed) in Gothernburg during a demonstration there a few years back.

      I'm not sure how that ended up.

      --
      Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
    3. Re:Cross Link & Clickies by ozamosi · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Piracy Party has stated that one of their goals is to get into EU, and to get there, they want to help out starting Piracy Parties all over Europe. So you (or other persons interested) should probably contact them if you want to start one in your country.

    4. Re:Cross Link & Clickies by HerrEkberg · · Score: 4, Informative

      He didn't die (out of pure luck), but was sent to prison.

  2. Old troll - no longer amusing. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Dude, that joke hasn't been funny for years. (I mean why didn't you pull out BSD is dying?)

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  3. MPAA by muffen · · Score: 5, Informative

    The MPAA's statement after the takedown of thepiratebay.

    Seems like Swedish authorities gave in to the pressure from **AA groups. This may be good as it will put the general public on the side of TPB.

    A poll in the largest evening newspaper in sweden shows what people think of the takedown of TPB. The question in the poll is, is it right to "attack" people that are involved in filesharing. Ja = YES and Nej = NO. The results speak for themselves.

    1. Re:MPAA by hanssprudel · · Score: 4, Informative

      A better translation of "slå till mot" is "crack down on".

  4. Re:WTF? There's no reason why a CD should cost $20 by epiphani · · Score: 5, Informative

    But in the real world it takes losts of advertising, promotion and wheel-greasing to create a snger/band/TV show worth anything.

    Bzzt, wrong.

    What it takes is hard work. Being the son of a career musician, I can tell you that it is not hard to make a -very- decent living making music. What it does take, just as any other career, is years of constant work building a name for yourself in your community, and then beyond.

    Would people please get it out of their head that labels somehow make music as a career viable. My dad has produced and sold several records, tapes and CDs in his career; has performed all over north america, and now in his late 50s owns his own recording studio and takes students. He has a waiting list of several dozen students, and has hired several teachers to help with the load.

    You've probably never heard of him. His original music doesnt have raw mainstream appeal, BUT, contrary to your idea, he has made a very good living for himself through his music. And he never had a label around to rape his ideas and keep most of the money.

    "Reality" has nothing to do with big buisness advertising, it has to do with hard work. Pure and simple. Does he support getting his music out there via filesharing? Yes. It helps him build his reputation and get other work.

    --
    .
  5. Re:The drama unfolds by The+Darkness · · Score: 4, Informative

    Alcohol: 85,000, or between 1 and 2 percent of the US population every year. Marijuana: 0. FUCKING ZERO.

    Let me say up front that I'm for legalizing Marijuana as a substance similar to the way Alcohol is legal.

    I checked what I believe is the source of your data:
    http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm

    The "zero" number you quote is only for deaths directly related to smoking it. The number for alcohol (85000) includes car related accidents. The number of direct alcohol deaths is more like 68400 - not an insignificant number. The number of car accidents related to "illicit drug use" including Marijuana is included in the 17000 number near the bottom. If we count every incident as a "Marijuana related car accident" (which I know is unreasonable) then we still end up with a number comparable to alcohol. What that says to me is that no matter what substance you have available to let people alter their minds with there is a percentage of the population that will do stupid things like drive and take other people out.

    I think it's stupid that smoking it is illegal but perhaps something a little more realistic than "it's harmless" should be the message. If you tell people its harmless and the statistics start to show more indirect deaths due explicitly to Marijuana then you risk backlash.

    --
    There are two kinds of people: 1) those that need closure
  6. right ... but wrong. by hummassa · · Score: 4, Informative

    RIGHT: Unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted works is in violation of the Berne Convention, which Sweden is a signatory,
    WRONG: so it IS illegal for Pirate Bay to do what they are doing.
    Pirate Bay was NOT, under no circumstances, authorizedly or unauthorizedly redistributing copyrighted works. There were NO copyrighted works in PB's servers. ".torrent" files are just files that contain the following information: "the tracker XXX is keeping files YYY, ZZZ, TTT available for bittorrent swarm downloading." And "contributory infringement" is NOT part of the Berne convention... it's an USofAn "innovation". BTW, down here in Brasil there is no "contributory infringement" either.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  7. Re:Translation, please - ! by tibike77 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I could translate that, but it would take a long while. So I'm just going to (loosely) translate (some of) the relevant paragraphs... even by Romanian standards, that article is pretty shabby in legalese and IT-term-wise anyway.
    If it sounds strange to you, don't worry, that's what they actually wrote.

    They are targetting LAN DC++ users (and LAN hubs) right now.
    It is unknown wether they will extend this to torrent users of well-known ISPs or not.
    ___

    The following is the translation of the bolded text in the article:

    A hysteria broke all across the country following operations directed towards those who illegally use the "share" option in the so-called neighbourhood networks (translator note: LANs spanning users from a few buildings up to a few city blocks). Sources from the MAI (translator note: Ministry of Internal Affairs ? well, the police anyway) have declared the operation is code-named "The Gramophone".

    Because in the IP-rights category Romania got a "yellow flag" warning from the EU, Romanian Police has enacted measures regarding weekly raids organisation in order to control this phenomenon, in all counties.

    Within the scope of this endeavour, policemen and prosecutors will work together with ISPs and hub operators. Another method used by the cops to penetrate the hubs is by assuming innocuous user identities.

    In Iasi (translator note: rather large city, "capital" of the county with the same name in the NE of the country, region called Moldova), cops and prosecutors have made several household searches, seizing HDDs, computers and switches. In Tulcea (translator note: city by the Black Sea coast/ Danube Delta), over 20 Internet users have ended up with penal records, and cops have confiscated "dozens" of HDDs.

    The chief of the IP department from the "Parchetul General" (translator note: the higher prosecuting autority), Monica Otava, has declared that prosecutors all across the country will start [such] actions, benefitting from both legal grounds and the necessary logistics for the "annihilation" of LANs.

    The only other relevant (and worying) bit is the following:

    "- Sa inteleg ca de-acum incolo orice utilizator dintr-o asa-zisa retea de cartier se poate trezi la usa cu un procuror cu un mandat de perchezitie in mana?
    - Da, oricand, se poate trezi la usa cu un mandat de perchezitie."


    That loosely translates into something like this:

    *Interviewer* : So, are we to understand that from now on anybody who is connected to a local LAN can end up with the police holding a search warrant at their door?
    *Monica Otava* : Yes, anytime, he can end up with a search warrant at his door

    Well... no comment.
    --
    By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
  8. The MPAA did it by Troglodyt · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to this story It was the MPAA that was behind the raid. After being contacted by the MPAA, the US government got into talks with the swedish ministry for foreign affairs here in Sweden. The ministry of justice contacted police and prosecutors, but they didn't want to do anything since the legal issues here are unclear. So the ministry of justice contacted the national police chief and got orders to raid the server hall. The legality of the operation is highly questionable and borders on ministerstyre, whatever that would be called in english, it means that ministers tell government agencies what to do or how to interpret laws. This is illegal in Sweden.