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The Pirate Bay To Create YouTube Competitor

Posted by kdawson on from the torrential dept.

Jared writes "The Pirate Bay has confirmed that is working on a streaming video site with user-generated content. A spokesman said the site will be modeled after YouTube but there will be 'no censorship': The Pirate Bay 'will not be the moral police' and determine what content stays or goes as is oftentimes the case with YouTube. He added that 'the community will have to do that.'" The site will be at thevideobay.org, but nothing is up there for the public yet.

15 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Ironically by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their version of YouTube will have no copyright infringement.

    1. Re:Ironically by elysiuan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm curious how they are going to pay for the bandwidth to run such an endeavor. If the service is unreachable due to bandwidth issues then no matter how in demand it might be its not going to go anywhere. I'm sure that thepiratebay.org is a fairly high traffic site but essentially they are just serving lots of little static text files. Full, streaming video is going to be a bit of a jump from that.

      I imagine they have some sort of person-network in place for bandwidth but how will that scale? Even things like topsites wouldn't use as much bandwidth as a youtube thing since they are hidden from the general public.

      I'm perplexed.

    2. Re:Ironically by BakaHoushi · · Score: 5, Funny

      If their name is any indication, they'll travel the seas, attacking any and every Bandwidth Ship that journeys by. Their fearless captain at the helm, they'll be like the Robin Hood of the seas and the Internet. For too long have the Bandwidth Barons held the vast majority of the Internets, and preventing the peasants from using theirs as they will. TV episodes and music clips for all who need them!

  2. Something tells me a war is comming by Intrinsic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It will be interesting to see what happens if the new pirate bay video site becomes as popular as youtube. As more sites pop up that dont have restrictions on hosted content, what is going to happen to the other content providers who are restricted to what content they can host?

    1. Re:Something tells me a war is comming by xmas2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      YEP ... although my guess is that censorship at the country borders (as has been done to YouTube a couple of times) and/or blocking by large organization (US military is doing so now) might curtail this slightly if they get really, really popular.

      But yea, the content providers who have to "operate by the rules" will be handicapped ... so perhaps I Too Welcome our new Video Site Overlords!

      --
      Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    2. Re:Something tells me a war is comming by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As more sites pop up that dont have restrictions on hosted content, what is going to happen to the other content providers who are restricted to what content they can host?


      Here's a news flash for the "entertainment industry": I'd even PAY for such a site that doesn't have restrictions on hosted content. Pay AND click through to their advertisers. And because it's The Pirate Bay, I'd even tell my friends about it, because while Sony and iTunes and URGE and [Corporate Media Site Here] has always had some aspect of their service that was like a stone in my shoe, not to mention DRM (which is a deal-breaker for me under even the best circumstances], The Pirate Bay has managed to give this consumer exactly what he wants.

      The big Entertainment/Industrial Complex just doesn't get that a satisfied customer is a happy customer, and happy customers will make you a success. So while they are all looking for new ways to frustrate the consumer, someone like The Pirate Bay has an opportunity to do it right.

      The entire entertainment industry can't disintegrate fast enough for me. And you know what? There will still be music, and movies, and novels, and art. And the innovators, the creative souls will still make a living. Brittney Spears might become underemployed, but that's just the price of sucking.
      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. The site will be hosted on Sealand, by markov_chain · · Score: 5, Funny

    will run on Hurd web servers, and the first 1000 registered users will get free copies of Duke Nukem Forever!

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  4. Already a site that does this... by satchmodian · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ Someone beat them to it.

    1. Re:Already a site that does this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They don't host the shows. Those are linked to other pages, and some of them are broken due to the videos taken down from the source.

  5. Is this legal? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How is this legal? I can understand how a tracker is legal, since they aren't hosting the actual files on their own server, but unless they come up with a way to do p2p video streaming, I can't imagine how this will stay up very long.

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
  6. If TPB went legit... by Podcaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure that it is a good idea for TPB to try to build an real business running a proper internet service. The many software developers here on /. will tell you that there is a massive difference between what it takes to host the current TPB website, and what it would take to develop and deploy a youtube rip-off.

    Developing such a site demands a return on investment, which calls for a business model and legitimate corporate structure, which will ultimately require them to protect themselves by censoring their users and removing illegal content.

    Looks to me like the start of a slippery slope - if TPB ever goes legit it will bring about the end of an era. Until copyright law is reformed on the international stage, true rebels will have to remain completely outside of the system.

    -P

    --
    Be my friend.
  7. Update to sneak preview by glassesmonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oops, it appears the flash player is still live: http://thevideobay.org/player/flvplayer.swf

    You can also download some of the sample uploaded vids, but some are VERY weird.. probably nsfw.. you have been warned!
    http://video01.thevideobay.org/vids/38.flv (replace "38" with any number)

  8. Re:Niche Porn by mux2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stop it man, you're beating off a dead horse.

  9. Re:Lawsuit by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 5, Informative

    > And they thought the last lawsuit and raid were bad... I guess they can show the videos from their torrent site now. lol

    They thought the last lawsuit and raid were bad?

    "Just some stats... ... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix:
    Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days
    Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days
    The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days .. yawn."

    Wow, they're hiding their ph33r well.

    lol, indeed.

    --
    This is where the serious fun begins.
  10. Re:pr0n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, like people with clothes, what kind of sick person would upload that in those sites