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The Pirate Bay Facing "Old Fashioned" Pressure

Posted by kdawson on from the brown-shoed-squares-in-the-dead-of-night dept.

Jety writes "Ars Technica has an article reporting that The Pirate Bay is facing legal pressure from a new front. A wealthy musician with a track record for going head-to-head with record labels and little kids is now joining the queue to take a legal swing at TPB. What I find particularly interesting about this article is the description of the 'camera-toting investigators following [The Pirate Bay admins] around in cars marked with Danish plates.' One TPB admin asks, '"What do they think they can find out by following us around? Everything we do is digital.'"

8 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. FTA: by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm just sad that Prince--whose music I really like--can't understand that he's the new Metallica versus Napster. And we all know who lost that... Umm, I know he's trying to say that Metallica lost. However, Napster was closed down and turned into a less popular subscription service and file sharing was dealt a harsh blow that it took a while to recover from. They definitely lose that court case. Metallica won the smaller case and lost the larger war of digital piracy, at least so far. The difference here is that Prince actually has been embracing the internet and consumer rights in general. This situation isn't as clearly a case of "dinosaur fights the inevitable," and it certainly doesn't mean that TPB will be able to survive it.
    1. Re:FTA: by domatic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Metallica attacked the PAN newsreader project because it included an mp3 decoder (gasp!) and was being funded at the time by the same VP funding Napster. It was basically a bullshit guilt-by-association thing. The best part was Metallica's attorney asking one of the developers on the stand "How would you like it if someone gave away your work for free on the Internet?" He seemed completely flabbergasted when the rest of the dev team and the developer burst out laughing.

      It is customary for newsreaders and other Internet protocol software to use internal and external decoders on file formats. PAN certainly wasn't unique in that regard. Those Metallica dipshits just thought "ZOMG! It's something else that downloads mp3s! Napster BAD!" Their being cool about the live shows doesn't entirely absolve them of the "bad reputation". Attacking the only FOSS project making a decent GUI newsreader at the time definitely put them in the thoughtless jerk category as far as I'm concerned.

    2. Re:FTA: by Martian_Kyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      By shutting down napster, file sharing took a harsh blow that is took a while to recover from? I wouldn't really agree there, maybe in the eyes of cnn and official news sources. Personally, I never felt that blow. I switched over to kazaa in matter of days, it was still usable then, later to sheraza, then dc...and so on and so on.

      It's almost impossible to deal a harsh blow to file sharing. Even shutting down oink, didn't disrupt things. Though it made a lot of people sad, myself included. In my opinion the only way to deal a harsh blow to file sharing is on the internet provider level, not by shutting down services, because new ones pop up in matter of weeks, or even days.

      Once you receive a mail from your isp, saying 'I know what you've been downloading last night', you'd be more careful/paranoid. That sort of monitoring would however anger the privacy advocates.

  2. Stalking! by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What, doesn't Sweden have laws against stalking? Because that's what this sounds like to me.

    Just because Prince is some big star doesn't give him any special rights. Well, outside of America anyways. If Hollywood had any influence there, the TPB admins would already be in jail.

    So go for it - sue Prince for harrassment and stalking.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  3. Re:ha by garett_spencley · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The record labels finally give in and provide it online, and they're told that people will still keep illegally distributing music because they don't like DRM and 99 cents a song is somehow too high.

    At 99 cents / song it would cost roughly $5,000 to fill a 20GB iPod (assuming an average of 4MB / song).

    The fact that 160GB iPods exist and are selling implies there is demand for them.

    Just something to think about ...

  4. Re:ha by king-manic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could someone please tell me how TPB is somehow offering some new business model for the people who make the music? New business model? it's really the old business model. A third party distributes your music and you don't see a dime for it(sometimes you owe them for it) and you make your money from performances, merch, and promotional considerations. 90+% musicians live this way. All TPB is doing is applying the same treatment to the ~10% who actually got something back from that third party. That ~10% isn't really hurt that much either. The stones may make a few million on a new album but they'd make a few hundred million on tour. It's only a problem if your a talentless lazy slut who doesn't tour often. Perhaps if your a studio musician it hurts you more, but all my musician friends don't see a dime and some have been signed. In fact some of those signed now owe money and got nothing in return.
    --
    "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  5. Re:Maybe... Illegal where? by elwinc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Ah, it occurs to me that different nations and states have different laws, so not all claims about legalities are universal.

    In particular, in some places such as the USA it is a crime to provide a service that abets illegal file sharing. In other places, though the filesharing might be illegal, providing metadata about shared files is legal. In those places, you have to go after the sharers because running the tracker is legal see footnote 9 . Sharers are like roaches: there's a million born every day and they're coming out of the woodwork. There's little evidence that suing a few hundred sharers alters the behavior of the unsued millions. So for Prince, going after trackers is the only sensible option, even if trackers are located where trackers are legal (one wonders when or if the RIAA will ever come to this conclusion). So Prince is desparate. Suing fans, the only legal remedy, may be counter productive. He's left with trying to intimidate the tracker operators.

    The bigger picture here is we're watching the collapse of a business model, and there's no replacement in sight. If musicians can't make money, they won't record. On the other hand, the record labels have earned the ire and disrepect of many fans, and the labels are practically impotent. We're watching dinosaurs die, and we have no idea what will replace them.

    --
    --- Often in error; never in doubt!
  6. Re:Maybe... by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, and money is only a concept, therefore unimportant to real life.

    Let me offer you a hint from the real world: private investigators can, and will, root through your garbage and find out fascinating things about your medical history, your social life, and your work history. Contacting your bank and informing them that you are the guy who runs a pirate site might make it a bit awkward to get a mortgage.