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Hack Exposes Pirate Bay User Data
tsu doh nimh writes "A group of hackers from Argentina recently broke into the database for thepiratebay.org, the Internet's largest torrent search engine, exposing user names, Internet addresses, and (MD5) hashed password data on more than 4 million users, according to Brian Krebs. He interviewed the leader of the group, Ch Russo, who said they briefly considered what the information would be worth to the RIAA and MPAA before going public with the breach. From the story: 'Probably these groups would be very interested in this information, but we are not [trying] to sell it,' Russo said. 'Instead we wanted to tell people that their information may not be so well protected.'"
With usernames and passwords, you can see what torrents an account has uploaded and seeded, as well as other stats. Pirate Bay is facilitating the distribution of illegal materials through their tracker, and being an uploader makes you equally culpable.
Your "paid for marketing" accusation is absolutely hysterical and typical of the loony worldview pirates have.