Slashdot Mirror
Swedish Authorities Attempt Pirate Bay Shutdown
Several sources are discussing the recent attempted shutdown of The Pirate Bay by Swedish authorities. It seems that following the recent court defeats and the pending civil actions, Swedish authorities threatened TPB's main bandwidth supplier with a hefty fine in order to get them shut down. Not surprisingly TPB has relocated and is back online although the tracker still seems to be down. As a gesture of their "appreciation" TPB plans on sending a mocking t-shirt to the people believed responsible for the takedown attempt.
This is really just the last attemps to remain online. How long will it take until they're closed at another ISP again? (TPB is down again btw). And how long will it take until their domain is pulled down?
This time they're not just arguing against media companies/RIAA/MPAA in USA, but their own goverment and courts. Shit is going to hit the wall.
And with the latest GGF buyout news and suspected inside trading with stocks, losing in swedish courts and everything happening with them recently, this just seems like the last attemps to get the remaining money off the site.
Personally, I would like to see them stay online and fight for the values they have (or are giving to people). But it really doesn't seem like its going to happen.
The thing is, The PiratePirate Bay's talk about "but we only host the .torrent files, not the files" didn't work out for them. It's also pretty clear what was The Pirate Bay's purpose, along how they mocked companies asking to remove content. The point being they are clearly breaking the law and giving technical excuses for it, while the purpose counts just as good (and I'm saying this as a swedish person)
Sadly, it seems like the world is going to more closed place again by what goverments do. I dont want USA's laws here either. But instead of the clear pro-warez propaganda of all of the Pirate Parties, they should go more for net neutrality, freedom of speech and making people understand why they should be valued and what can happen if those rights are taken away. "But we just want free warez and dont want to pay for entertainment!" is not going to work, and it is the wrong kind of agenda. You should pay for people who spend tons of it, or just not use it like any other product. Just because it can be digitized on your computer doesn't mean you should be able to get it for free.
It's interesting to see how this develops however. Persons behind TPB have a great idea about freedom and net neutrality. It would be sad to see them getting beaten, even if I dont agree with TPB's main purpose.
does anyone actually care anymore, the pirates have sold out...
I'd like to see TPB's revenue streams, and if they are actually profitable or even break-even in any way.
I mean, I can understand fighting against the MAFIAA in some respects, but this is getting ridiculous. It's like people just pirate for the sake of pirating, just to stick it to "the man" so to speak. But then you have to question why they started pirating in the first place? I mean, are they seriously denting retail sales all that much? It doesn't seem like game and movie companies are all that concerned overall, (films especially), and films are still earning tens and hundreds of millions of dollars on movie release weekends.
I am just saying, if they are trying to prove a point or communicate a message, there has to be a better way.
How efficient of them.
The piratebay guys keep pulling these idiotic stunts, like not showing-up to their own trial, and pretty soon they will lose. If they would at least TRY to put-up a rational defense instead of acting like teenagers, maybe they can win their cause.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
"I sued The Pirate Bay and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt"
Forget DNS... just publish the most recent IP address in the Wikipedia article on The Pirate Bay.
== last known address ==
[12.34.56.78 Clikz here 4 teh warez]
Just a simple observations:
- From the beginning of ARPAnet, through BBS and 2400bps modems to today, material, restricted or not, has become exponentially easier to access. This is despite napster shutdown, DRM, and pirate bay verdicts.
- Even China and Iran that tries to censor the internet with draconian measures have been largely unsuccessful.
- Intellectual property lobbyists have won every battle, and have succeeded against fair use consistently.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
What's the T-shirt going to read? "I tried to take down The Pirate Bay and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" ?
You just got troll'd!
This is going to replace the "glass half empty/glass half full" thing.
...not from that country that screwed The Pirate Bay over in a corrupt trial with a biased judge and started to indirectly censor them by taking down arbitrary ISPs...
I'm from the country that spawned The Pirate Bay and the Pirate Party, and voted the latter into the European Parliament!
Frog blast the vent core.
I wonder if them getting involved in politics is what is causing them to be more of a target that previously?
Think about it, it wasn't that long ago they where untouchable, but since they formed their own party they are actively in court all the time, getting their equipment confiscated, or some other blow dealt against them.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
Stewart Brand was close. He almost understood.
You can't make someone pay for information unless you're the only one that can provide it. Everyone. Every single person reading this... you are a potential content provider. You could make every bit of information on your computer available, right now.
Sue us.
All of us. ...because that's the only way you can stop the tidal wave that will crush your monopoly of distribution.
You're idea of how to define property are antiquated and you're about to become extinct unless you mutate. The only people making money now are your lawyers.
And when you've lost. When you've bled yourself dry and lost all support from the public you think you pander to, the dust will settle and we will still be here distributing information. Not because we are cheap. Not because we don't want creativity to win... but because information is free.
Hint: creating information is a service people will gladly pay for...
You've got to admire any small group of people (short of murderers or terrorists) who have managed to thumb their noses at the powers that be, for so long, and so effectively. They might be geeky little bastards, but they are BALLSY geeky little bastards!!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
he's about to be eaten by a grue?
It's quite obvious the corruption involved in the initial raids on TPB in 2k6 was/is much more widespread than previously thought.
They are appealing, and from all accounts the initial lower court ruling does not get applied until their appeal is decided a year plus from now.
This is persecution plain and simple, a textbook case of political harassment by plutocrats intent on keeping their hegemony.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I'm interested to see what the net will be like if/when the legislators and lobbyists get their way it's no longer possible to make bit for bit perfect copies of everything out there. Maybe I missed something along the way but I thought that was what digital technology was *for*. Meanwhile governments and businesses expend huge efforts in creating doomed-to-fail/annoy/explode-in-your-face legislation, preventing access and blindly obstructing the core function of the whole endeavour. Maybe they should just switch it off and we'll all go back to vinyl LPs, VHS video, paper books, cable TV, electric typewriters, fax machines and non-networked computing? And if they can't switch it off then they need to learn to live with it. It's like not liking water being wet and also being determined to fix it...
Why does dated and old software gets tossed aside in your reasoning but dated and old music, TV shows and movies do not?
The software industry is like Hollywood too,their games is all they have.
If Hollywood stopped releasing crap they would get more people to pay for it. If Hollywood stopped wasting millions in production costs they would get more profits from their products.
Hint to Hollywood: stop caving at the actors demands. They don't want to play for $200K, some other actor will. Movies should be about the stories not the fucking morons who play the characters.
Oh yeah, a boat in the ocean is completely safe from an unfortunate missile control error "accident"...
How efficient of them.
The piratebay guys keep pulling these idiotic stunts, like not showing-up to their own trial, and pretty soon they will lose. If they would at least TRY to put-up a rational defense instead of acting like teenagers, maybe they can win their cause.
You don't fight Goliath by playing by his rules.
The entire point is that they are helping others to infringe on copyright: this is simply demonstrating how stupid the current laws and business models are. The fact that the Goliath is trying to shut them down, and it's turning into a complete farce is helping to show that trying to run things with the current laws is pointless. Things need to be reformed to reflect the new reality of easy distribution.
Apple has shown that people are willing to purchase music online if it's convenient and not too expensive; the various copyright cartels need to change their distribution model for movies, etc.
There will also always be some people who will download something for free if they can, just like they dubbed their own audio cassette tapes, but will never pay pay for anything: there's no sense going after them.
Being that TPB is going legit as a pay service, there is no reason to continue using the site. Time to let go and wait for the next 5 to take its place. The mods there had to pack up and move eventually so maybe its time to pack bags n jump on-board the next vessel.
Its not like the shutting down of supernova stopped torrents nor did the closing of napster stop the music sharing... its only got worse and it will never change until we accept we cant stop it and never will.
If we cant plan a business model that meets the user and the distributor halfway, the user will go elsewhere and the distributor will be left crying...
Quoting a very funny website:
"A short patronizing history
Before the growth of the merchant class, nobility used their money, power, and influence to promote ideas through the use of patronage. If they favored an artist, philosopher, musician, writers, orator, scientist or even a jester, they would patronize them and in this way their ideas would flourish. The patrons, who were often egotistical, would take credit for the ideas and would circulate them to further their own fame.
After the growth of the merchant class, nobility lost sole control over money, power and influence and patronage was partially replaced with commerce. Artists, philosophers, musicians, writers, orators, scientists and even jesters were forced to please many people instead of just one in order to survive. Spreading their creative ideas became much harder because they did not have the money, power, or influence of the nobility.
With the advent of marketing artists, philosophers, musicians, writers, orators, scientists, and even jesters were forced to associate with advertisers, distributors, branders, promoters and other middlemen in order to reach an audience. In essence these marketers became the new patrons."
htttp://quityourjobday.com
Keep your eye on the big picture here. Swedish law did not and still does not consider what The Pirate Bay does to be illegal... not directly anyway. And the fact that they were convicted of aiding the act of copyright infringement without first charging anyone of "the primary offence" is pretty suspect. (Shouldn't the charge of aiding in a crime first have to identify a specific crime having occured?)
But consider the flow of events and how these things are happening. The **AAs are petitioning the U.S. government representatives to apply pressure to the Swedish government to take all of these actions. Their [the Swedish government] first actions against The Pirate Bay and the official communications prior spells out pretty clearly what's really going on. The Swedish actions failed because their own laws do not outlaw what they are doing. There have been attempts at getting laws passed and they don't seem to be passing and so it's becoming really difficult for the people behind this (the **AAs) to get the results they have been paying for.
So what I am trying to point out here is that it is utterly amazing how this is all happening. The Swedish government is compromising its own integrity at the demand of the U.S. government (and probably with incentives from the **AAs as well) who is acting on behalf of businesses that operate in the U.S. I can't say that "this is corruption" but I can say it doesn't look, smell or feel right.
Or just set it up at http://www.sealandgov.org/
IIRC Sealand has a fairly significant business in housing computer servers.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
SCOTUS ruled in the Xerox case that copiers were 100% LEGAL because while they COULD be used for copyright infringement purposes, they also had 'substantial non infringing uses'. Thus, their use was 100% LEGAL. Why is this case not used in the case of TPB? YES they can be used to facilitate copyright infringement-but there are also a BUNCH on non-infringing uses for them as well. Following the current logic, guns should be illegal in Los Angeles, because they mostly are used for illegal purposes there (ie: murder, drive bys and robberies).
It is no coincidence that these events (court case, ISP block) are unfolding during a global recession. Some media company or association thereof have undoubtedly provided the swiss government with a fresh influx of currency.
I do not think there are many individuals who do not think current copyright law "is wrong".
I think it is wrong that it last for the authors life plus 70(?) years. Why should the author's children and grandchildren continue to make income from their ancestors work? Children of builders don't get income from the buildings their parent built why should authors and other creators be different? Twenty years is long enough to discourage people from just waiting and for the creator to earn money. This should be a fixed term, regardless of the author's lifespan, to regard the fixed value of their work. A book does not get more valuable just because the author lives longer!
I think it is wrong to use copyright to restrict fair use rights such as backups and media shifting.
I think it is wrong to use copyright to enforce artificial market restrictions such as the region restrictions on DVDs, forced viewing (disabled skip/FF) of advertising and other deliberate crippling of technology.
I think that you are confusing the purpose of copyright with copyright law. I think the AIM of copyright is admirable but I think that copyright LAW broken because it is more about ensuring large revenue stream for publishers and less about a balanced contract between the consumer and the author.
...and Robin Hood rolled into one
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
The Pirate Party would be pretty lame without a mascot.
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
whoa.... whoa there partner... lets just hold off on the lynchins.... it ain't even breakfast time yet.
You should pay for people who spend tons of [time creating?] it, or just not use it like any other product. Just because it can be digitized on your computer doesn't mean you should be able to get it for free.
Well, as a matter of fact it does mean you should get it for free.
But "should" according to which principle? The principle that we as a (world-wide) society should try to maximize our material well-being (all other kinds of well-being being equal).
See, bits cost roughly nothing to copy (the price is so small that practically everyone is willing to pay it). That means that society loses out if someone would want a copy of those bits (more than they want the money they use to pay for the electricity used to copy them).
Therefore, all bits (that have been published) should be available for free.
The problem is then how to motivate people to create those bits in the first place.
In a "normal" market, with a non-trivial marginal (re)production cost, prices both encourage production ("ooh, I can make monies!") and optimal allocation (those who want stuff most badly, in terms of how much money they're willing to pay, get the stuff). With a trivial marginal production cost (bits and ideas), prices impede the optimal allocation ("give one to everyone") but no prices impede the motivation.
It's an interesting economic question to ponder: how to motivate without impeding the optimal allocation.
But the optimal allocation is "everybody gets one", so that's what should happen. You should be able to get it for free.
[Which probably won't be completely "for free" if it's, say, tax-paid scientific research published with no strings attached]
No he's not a pirate and no he doesn't steal yada yada.
The use of the word piracy to describe copyright infringement entered the English language while the Black Flag still flew over the Caribbean.
It is not going to go away.
Ten years ago, the NET [No Electronic Theft] Act stiffened the criminal penalties for copyright infringement and removed the profit motive as an element of the offense.
If it makes you feel better, you can pursue this argument with your bunkmates at Club Fed after your conviction on the felony charge.
Couldn't agree more, but nobody here wants to here the truth. Thats why they modded you down in the hope nobody else will read it.
This is EXACTLY why there are no linux ports of big games. The demographic who insist on running linux have a sense of entitlement to everyone else's work for free.
Why would anyone sane spend MONEY to port their game to a platform where people refuse to pay for it?
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
the place where we came to regard as the epitome of modern liberties and values in the most advanced sense ?
what went wrong that these kind of shitheads are running that country now ? by any chance did you people vote conservatives ?
Read radical news here
"I spent months of time and millions of dollars to close down The Pirate Bay and all I'll get is this beautiful t-shirt!"
At least thats what it reads on The Pirate Bays front page.
This is EXACTLY why there are no linux ports of big games. The demographic who insist on running linux have a sense of entitlement to everyone else's work for free.
Why would anyone sane spend MONEY to port their game to a platform where people refuse to pay for it?
By that logic, Macintosh games should sell a lot more copies.
The reason games aren't ported to Linux is because the most successful game has sold 40,000 copies. Blame that on the mindset of Linux users if you like, but at the end of the day, marketshare is still the chief reason. I mean, do you really picture Linux users as having no DVD collection? If they were so adamant about stuff for free, wouldn't they just be well supported Windows pirates?
Couldn't agree more, but nobody here wants to here the truth. Thats why they modded you down in the hope nobody else will read it.
One of the Indiana Jones movies has an interesting comment on the difference between truth and fact.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"You frequently espouse the idea that because you have a copyright you're entitled to make money."
are you really that fucking thick that this is what you read into my posts.
Jesus christ its amazing you can operate a keyboard.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games