The Pirate Bay's Founding Organization Shuts Down

kcurtis sent the news that Piratbryån, the lobbying organization out of which The Pirate Bay sprang, has disbanded. (The torrent tracker is alive and well.) "Piratbyrån had many purposes, but could be described as a pro-piracy lobbying organization. It was founded in response to Antipiratbyrån, the local anti-piracy outfit in Sweden. The goal was to start a debate on copyright issues and how they affect society. Until then, most press in Sweden would simply take everything Antipiratbyrån said for granted. Internationally, Piratbyrån is mostly known for launching The Pirate Bay in the fall of 2003, just a few months after the group itself was founded. ... The final decision to disband the group came after Ibi Kopimi Botani, a prominent member and co-founder of the group, passed away. Without one of its greatest minds, the group would never be the same again, Piratbyrån's members felt."

Comments

Pirate Party Still Alive

[RobinEggs]

It's not like this is the end; the Pirate Party still has seats in the European Parliament. If they thought letting this particular organization die made the most sense in absence of some central figures, then I'm not sure I agree but it's not the end of their political movement and it damn sure won't be the end of their member's activity in similar organizations.

Nobody sold out, nobody quit; the majority of their membership will hopefully move on to different groups with the same goals.

Re:it's a sad day for pirates everywhere

[morgan_greywolf]

Um, what destruction of TPB? Still works for me.

Re:it's a sad day for pirates everywhere

[Arancaytar]

Piratbyran is not the Pirate Bay; they just founded it. Ever since 2004 their only connection was being hosted on the same servers, and that only until they moved.

Long story short; TPB is alive and well and living in... well, wherever the hell their servers are this week.

Ibrahim Botani

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

The man's real name was Ibrahim Botani - the pseudonym "Kopimi" was adopted because many pirates refer to themselves as kopimists - "kopi mi" --> "copy me."

Here's a somewhat autobiographical post in his blog. Unfortunately for most of slashdot's readership, it's not written in english.

Re:Hmm..

[Yvanhoe]

The group founded the Pirate Bay who is alive and well and had good ties with the pirate party which, with 9% of ballots in Sweden, is alive and well. The original group was slowly becoming obsolete in the best way possible. The death of the founding member just made that more evident. Closing the group is more a way to show respect and to not cling on the past than a failure.