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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.
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]
Maybe, but they put up a damn good fight compared to everybody else in that situation.
It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to seeing a gang of hooligans consistently thumb their nose at the system while the entertainment goons continue to waste their resources playing whack-a-mole with The Pirate Bay and p2p in general.
TPB knew what they were up against and they are fighting it to the very end. It's debatable whether they have big balls of if they're just stupid -- or both -- but since when have big media's rabid lawyers respected the spirit of the law? They don't even respect the letter of it and they are fast making a mockery of the US judicial system and the executive branch. At least TPB are honest enough to openly mock the system rather than throw enough money at it to pervert it.
Besides, and some of you may not know this, there are other torrent trackers besides TPB. Just fucking Google it, or ask somebody here. They'd gladly tell you.
-- Ethanol-fueled
The deal that might provide such assets, a buyout offer of SEK60 million from Global Gaming Foundry, is mired in problems. The company's chairman quit this week amid reports that GGF could not come up with the cash, that it was misstating the facts surrounding its negotiations, and that some insider trading of its stock might be taking place. The company's stock has been suspended from trading for the second time in the last three months, though GGF still says that it will present the buyout plan to its board this Thursday. But who might GGF even buy the site from? The Pirate Bay defendants say that they transferred control to another company in 2006, which then transferred or sold ownership to a Seychelles-based company called Reservella. Ars has been able to confirm that "Reservella" was in fact registered in the Seychelles by the Mayfair Trust Group, a company which often sets up offshore corporations for others, though Mayfair would say nothing about the real owners. Everything about the deal suggests that The Pirate Bay defendants are still involved--including the fact that they still run the site, they were the ones who set up the negotiations with GGF, and they were the ones who explained the decision to sell.
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!
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...
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!!
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.
If it has come down to be only a matter of what the ratio of legal/illegal content is then I would suggest TPB to start auto-adding 1000 .torrent-files pointing to linux-dists for every torrent uploaded.
Problem solved.
Prosp long and liver.