Pirate Bay Shifts Connections From Sweden To Ease Heat on Pirate Party

An anonymous reader writes with this news (excerpted from IT World) that follows up on the report of pressure put on Sweden's Pirate Party for its connection to The Pirate Bay: "The Pirate Bay has opened two new gateways to its internal network in order to shield its current Internet provider, the Swedish Pirate Party, which had been threatened with legal action if it did not stop providing Internet access to the torrent search site by Tuesday. The Swedish Pirate Party had provided bandwidth to The Pirate Bay for about three years because it was hard for the site to find anyone else who would do so. But last Tuesday the Rights Alliance, an organization that represents the film industry, gave it an ultimatum: The Pirate Party had to cut off Internet access to the torrent search site or face legal action. The Pirate Bay's administrators said in a post on Facebook that, because of the legal threat and the potential cost of fighting it, 'We've taken the decision to move on to Norway and Spain.'"

Comments

Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Ukab the Great]

But don't f*ck with ABBA.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Nodsnarb]

Your saying this may be the Pirate Bay's Waterloo?

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Vulch]

They're not sending out an SOS yet...

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Opportunist]

Probably not. They're just moving to Another Town, we'll be following the piper and say thank you for the music.

With nobody caring about the MI yelling for Money, Money, Money and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

More like the Pirate Bay's evacuation of Sicily.

In the grand scheme of things, its a shiny political win but economically and practically hurts Pirate Bay nowhere near as much as it hurts Sweden. Why setup servers in Sweden if there's a constant threat of being targeted and having your servers shut down? If TORRENTS can get you hit with legal action, digital storage sites like Dropbox and Amazon (which actually host the infringing material) are probably looking at this and blacklisting Sweden from ever hosting servers.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[jfdavis668]

The roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you hear the drums, Fernando...?

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[tnk1]

Although I am not fond of this action, I think most server operators understand how the Pirate Bay's operations are different from run-of-the-mill hosting. The whole "it's not unlicensed content, it's a torrent pointing to the unlicensed content, and we're only providing net access to the torrent" has always breached the spirit of the law, even if it *might* have skirted the actual letter of the law. A company like Amazon will only infrequently stray into that gray area and only well protected by legal teams.

Now, if this exposed some extraordinary power that the government or the local *AA clone has in Sweden that could be used to arbitrarily screw with anyone, then you might see some more general concern. However, threatening legal action against material accomplices is pretty stock for this sort of thing. Surprised it hadn't happened already.

Yes, this action may not be popular, and some people might move in protest, but they won't be doing that because it is now inherently unsafe to operate in Sweden.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't need to expose anything. They just need to threaten the possibility of using said extraordinary power.

Why should Dropbox risk millions of dollars establising operatings in Sweden if theres a chance of getting hit with legal action (win or lose) when less scrupulous users host illegal material on their servers? Its safer (and cheaper) to setup operations in countries that won't threaten the possibility of using said extraordinary power.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole "it's not unlicensed content, it's a torrent pointing to the unlicensed content, and we're only providing net access to the torrent" has always breached the spirit of the law

Has it? Is a library breaching the spirit of the law if it contains books which can point an individual to unlicensed content? I would say no, but maybe that's just me.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[tnk1]

A library may provide knowledge about illegal activities, but torrents and networks that host them provide not only knowledge about illegal activities, but also key information for actually executing the transmission of the actual content. It's the difference between a book about computer viruses, and a book that provides the specific location where you can find complete virus code that can be compiled and run as-is.

Torrents aren't the illegal material, but they do more than just provide information on how to obtain it, they actually allow you to obtain those files with little to no effort. And having used plenty of torrents in my time (legally, of course), I know just how much torrents can facilitate the process.

Now, the point of this is not to say I think that the torrents or network access to them should be illegal. Only that you could make a case that this specific use of them is so specialized (and willful) that it would not be broadly applicable to affecting more conventional sites. That doesn't prevent a judge from writing a bad decision, but that's a risk whenever you walk into a court.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

The only problem with your argument is that The Pirate Bay does not host any torrents, and hasn't for quite some time.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[TheInternetGuy]

But don't f*ck with ABBA.

At least not with the two Bearded B's.

Re:Takeaway: You might be a pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

Semantics. I went to download a movie last night. I went straight to The Pirate Bay. I had a movie downloading in uTorrent with no more clicks than when they used to host the torrents. Maybe they're insulated now legally by simply linking, but it still looks the same to me.

*yawn*

[Anonymous Coward]

tor: hidden-services?
good thing they just moved to magnet links: btih:4e4c67fa69f1dde755bc779936ae34565f79d5af

Re:*yawn*

[GameboyRMH]

They do have an official onion site but last time I checked it was down and had been for at least a week.

Re:*yawn*

[Joce640k]

There's a list of pirate bay proxies here: http://proxybay.info/

Re:*yawn*

[ArcadeMan]

It's not down.

Ye Scurvy Rights Alliance Ninjas be damned!!

[crazyjj]

Turn broadsides!

Counter attack.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Rights Alliance is in effect threatening a political party to a government. Any obligations Sweden has to that organizations hosting country, could become null and void as a result.

Besides, the recording industries 'Rights' is a unique point of view. They talk about their rights, but things like constitutional rights don't seem to mean anything to the courts.

Re:Counter attack.

[Kiwikwi]

The Rights Alliance is in effect threatening a political party to a government. Any obligations Sweden has to that organizations hosting country, could become null and void as a result.

The Rights Alliance (Rättighetsalliansen) is a Swedish organization, with sister organizations in other countries (e.g. RettighedsAlliancen in Denmark).

You must realize that Sweden's obligations to the USA trumps Sweden's obligations to its own population.

Re:Counter attack.

[xenobyte]

Yes, this is very sad.

Note that for at least a year TPB has not done anything Google, Bing etc. doesn't do - TPB is strictly a portal and indexing site with no trackers or similar. They provide exactly the same when it comes to potentially illegal content as Google, Bing etc. - a link. It's amusing that rlslog.net has bowed to legal pressure and removed their download links, but they replaced them with Google searches for the same thing. So now they only link to Google

Sure, TPB is specialized in torrents while Google provides a lot of other stuff besides torrents, but otherwise they're providing the very same thing. It is time to stop the witch-hunt and realize that TPB is nothing more but a politically motivated search engine, and that these Rights Alliances simply does not like that policy, and through lobbying they try to make things illegal in other to fight the political goals of TPB and their 'colleagues'.

Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems like with all the lawsuits getting thrown around these days, even dedicated organizations run scared at the first mention of 'legal action'. We need to stand up for what is bullshit to begin with. Sure, people will go to jail, but without sacrifice there can be no victory. If you aren't prepared to do whatever is necessary for what you believe in, don't join a national organization dedicated to supporting it(supposedly no matter what the consequences). The world is getting hairier and hairier with legal steps these days, we just need cut through all the crap and focus on what is important. EVERYBODY has to help though. Artists, consumers, everyone is important because without them all, the big guys win. And nobody wants that. People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people. Peace.

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's an epic fail on the part of the Pirate Party. Surely they must've figured that they would be sued eventually and should've prepared for it, instead they showed up with a bunch of pitchforks and ran scared at the first whisper of warning from their opponent... Makes them look like a bunch of amateur miscreants and gives more credence to MAFIAA's position.

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Troed]

There are multiple angles to this issue. The Swedish Pirate Party is part of an international movement (with sister parties in ~60 countries) and we're represented in the European Parliament. Thus we are already well on our way to through political means change society to be more Internet friendly.

While providing Internet connection to The Pirate Bay is a political statement, it won't help our overall goal to have the party economy, as well as that of our leaders and administrators, in ruin. It makes for a less effective election period next year, when we have both EU and national elections during the span of a few months.

Luckily, we didn't have to make that choice. The Pirate Bay choose themselves to switch to other ISPs making the result of our internal debate moot.

/me - board member of the Swedish Pirate Party

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Anonymous Coward]

I say it again: anybody with an ounce of intelligence could figure out that your actions would've led to a legal battle. The fact that you didn't foresee that and prepared for it shows an utter lack of planning and forethought. Your name is a joke and your actions are a joke and making the rest of us look bad. At least the Rhinoceros Party is upfront about their position in that regard... Either find better leaders who know what they're doing or bug out, right now you're doing more damage to society than good. I've been an internet user for 20+ years and am very concerned with the damage your pirate party is doing to our freedom on the net.

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Troed]

I say it again: anybody with an ounce of intelligence could figure out that your actions would've led to a legal battle

But of course. You could say that we've accomplished exactly what we were after - the copyright mafia having shown that they consider their interests to be above those of the common carrier principle. That forces other carriers, larger than us and with their own legal departments, to join us in lobbying.

I've been an internet user for 20+ years and am very concerned with the damage your pirate party is doing to our freedom on the net.

What damages would that be? I'm also a 20+ years Internet user (note the capital 'I') and I'm extremely happy that us oldies finally have representation in democratic parliaments. The pirates in the EU parliament were instrumental in defeating ACTA - if you've heard of it.

http://falkvinge.net/2012/05/31/three-strikes-against-acta-in-european-parliament-today/

As to the name - it's perfect. As evident by it having been adopted by 60 parties world wide.

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Anonymous Coward]

Represent who? A bunch of disorganized cowards who don't follow up on a crucial fight? "Oh look we didn't think they were going to sue us and we don't have money, let's run!" Yeah what a joke. You do damage to society by claiming to be serious and represent its interests yet you don't act like it.

Yes go play games with capitalizing words and leave the fixing of society's problems to people who are really serious about, who not only don't cower at the thought of losing their precious money, but put their lives on the line, like the Egyptians.

Re:Anybody remember the Fifth of November?

[Troed]

who don't follow up

As far as I can see, we won this fight. As an Internet user of 20+ years I hope you appreciate the neatness and 'netness' of the solution :) In Gilmore's words (20 years ago, this year):

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it"

put their lives on the line, like the Egyptians.

Or the Tunisians?

http://torrentfreak.com/arrested-pirate-party-member-becomes-tunisian-minister-110117/

I'm saddened that you don't appreciate our victory today. We will however continue working politically for a world that's ... more Internet.

TOR

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we just move to Tor already?!

The Silk Road has been running fine. This dog and pony show is getting old.

I want my torrent community back. I am sick of private trackers!

Re:TOR

[letherial]

I dont know when the last time you where at SR but it isnt ideal, it can take a long time to navigate SR. While there is no better place to show how silly the drug war really is, i wouldn't put it as 'running fine'

Re:TOR

[Anonymous Coward]

This is exactly what I was thinking...
Why not setup a server cloud anywhere and only link to it via a .onion site. Then proxy to it via any and all small time vps providers you can find. They aren't hosting anything, they are just proxying a tor client.... Any takedown would be silly.
It would give good protection for people who want to use TOR, and provide access to people who don't.

They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[concealment]

The Pirate Bay through its unfortunate but iconic name will always be a target. If they'd named it "Generic Torrents," we wouldn't see this.

However, as someone who uses TPB to distribute legal content, I don't want it to go away. It is the most high-profile torrent tracker in the world and that makes it useful for spreading information.

I don't know how much of its content is legal, but I think the roles here are reversed. If someone uploads a torrent of illegal information (child porn, piracy, state secrets, etc) and other someones download it, then those are the people who should be prosecuted.

The recording industry is attacking TPB instead of attacking the someones who are doing the illegal acts, because those someones are mostly the children and college students of middle America. It would be politically unpopular to attack those.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[cellurl]

Generic Torrents, cool name.
They are enjoying "thumbing their nose at it all". I get it, live fast, die young.
But
I don't know why they don't go full bore.
For example, why not charge a little money for downloading, and donate it to starving kids somewhere.
Then when they get shut down, kids die.
That would be thumbing their nose at Hollywood and their self-righteousness (Oscars, Streisand, Clooney, Freeman).

Help eliminate stupid speeding tickets

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know when last you "used" the pirate bay... but it's a not a torrent tracker anymore and hasn't been for a while.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[geekymachoman]

>> The recording industry is attacking TPB instead of attacking the someones who are doing the illegal acts, because those someones are mostly the children and college students of middle America. It would be politically unpopular to attack those.

They just label those people as anti-americans / terrorists. The unpopular action becomes popular.
It's not something they aren't doing already.

First they just need to stuff the idea of "downloading music makes you a bad person / thief" into the masses / societies. They are already at it, on a global scale.
In Bangkok where I live, in Skytrain system, there are a "ad boards" of a "artist" looking all sad, and a statement: "every time you download illegaly, you're taking away from our creative spirit" or something like that. Ads like these are everywhere, and step by step, they gonna demonize all the people doing this, so it won't be a problem for them to arrest some student on charges of being a "bad guy". Public will agree.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[heypete]

It is the most high-profile torrent search engine in the world and that makes it useful for spreading information.

Slight clarification bolded above.

TPB hasn't run a tracker since 2009. With a few exceptions (such as torrents with less than 10 seeds), they don't even host torrent files anymore: they only provide magnet links which a client can then use to find a torrent file in the DHT, over peer exchange, or other methods.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[PPH]

Watch my words! Misuse the image of Mickey Mouse just one more time and Walt Disney is just going to give up producing new content.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

this has been going on for a long time now the problem for the recording industry is rather then make it unpopular they made it popular becouse people who never hear of such sites will they do after the news reports it. the attempt to demonize people also fell on its face all they did was make sites like pirate bay icons. lets also admit the fact main stream music has been dead for a very long time now and it was not the pirates that did it. it was repacking the same old tired no talent artiest over and over again.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[fbobraga]

I've seen something like it here, in Brasil

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[DeeEff]

Is this an incentive or a threat? A bug or a feature? I can never tell anymore.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Flammon]

How about, giving the users the ability to donate to the content creators?

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[OverlordQ]

It is the most high-profile torrent tracker in the world and that makes it useful for spreading information.

No it's not, it stopped being a tracker a while back, now it's just an indexer that uses other public trackers.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

sounds good, but keep in mind, you are peddling buggy whips and we all know it.

Change is inevitable, adapt, ask Bill Gates about DRM. Its ok, just don't legislate laws first.

(oops, forgot to login) My name is James Pruett (901) 213-7824

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[liamevo]

Peter Sunde is trying to do that with flattr.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sooo.... you're saying that the future is that nobody pays content creators? That idea has tried and failed. Good luck.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Kjella]

First they just need to stuff the idea of "downloading music makes you a bad person / thief" into the masses / societies. They are already at it, on a global scale.

You mean like they could call these people by the same name as those nasty sea robbers? Yes they're already at it and have been at it for 400 years, are they winning? I still remember the 90s with hidden underground eLiTe BBSs, FTP warez servers and floppy trading, they're a million billion miles away from even turning time back to 2000 before Napster. Did they win when Napster died? Grokster? Kazaa? DC++ hubs? Suprnova? They're winning the formal battles but losing the war for the public opinion, best evidence by how everybody just flows to a new service. And even if less people file share with age, in a few years the people who were 20-25 back then have teenage kids of their own and they'll know all this BS is false, even if they don't do it themselves anymore. The clock isn't about to go backwards any time soon.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

That idea has tried and failed.

No, it hasn't. Stop making shit up. Society wouldn't fall apart, and things wouldn't stop being made.

Copyright, however, is clearly unmaintainable.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

I used it two weeks ago, it is in fact still a torrent tracker. Maybe you're confusing Pirate Bay with Pirate Party?

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[cbiltcliffe]

GP is right. TPB took down their tracker years ago.
The site remains, and still links to .torrent files and magnet:// links, but that's not what's meant by a "tracker" in bittorrent parlance.

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a bit like the luggage boxes at train stations.
We've all seen movies where they exchange bad stuff using those, but never heard of a legal complaint against the train station...

Re:They're afraid of going after downloaders.

[dissy]

That's even more illegal than just pirating it according to the RIAA.
If the RIAA can't have the money, no one can. Once artists get paid without them, their last justification for existing goes poof.

They would much rather go into debt and have all the content creators starve to death than see a world where the people can give money directly to those that create content.

Lawsuit threats work

[schneidafunk]

Moral of the story? Just the threat of a lawsuit motivates people to do things against their will.

Re:Lawsuit threats work

[fibonacci8]

From Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: Extortion noun (Concise Encyclopedia) Unlawful exaction of money or property through intimidation or undue exercise of authority. It may include threats of physical harm, criminal prosecution, or public exposure. Some forms of threat, especially those made in writing, are occasionally singled out for separate statutory treatment as blackmail.

Re:Lawsuit threats work

[letherial]

Work? im not so sure anything worked, they sue, they scream, they bitch, they use governments to push agenda as well as ISP, yet i can still download the latest screener in 15 minutes. I suppose the best they can do is force TPB to move to another country, not that it solved or did anything to help there cause.

Re:Lawsuit threats work

[schneidafunk]

Moving to another country is a pretty big deal, considering they did not actually sue, but simply wrote a letter threatening to sue.

Re:Lawsuit threats work

[letherial]

Not a big deal at all, i suppose it would be if it affected the pirate community one bit, but it didnt, nothings changed..pirate bay could fall off forever and it wouldnt change. My point was, its all pointless.

Also, pirate bay still up and they have been attacked so many times that its always up now.

That's not a bad strategy

[JohnnyComeLately]

Have some intel on how far their legal teams are getting to filing, and then right before they file.... move. Now, they have to start over in the new country. Watch them, wait for them get ready to file.... move. Eventually they'll realize they're spending millions on legal teams and not getting anywhere. Eventually, you start over, but since time has progressed (as I'm sure technology will for distribution in some way) they'll have to re-review or start over.

Re:That's not a bad strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Have some intel on how far their legal teams are getting to filing, and then right before they file.... move. Now, they have to start over in the new country. Watch them, wait for them get ready to file.... move. Eventually they'll realize...

that your comment involves a spherical cow in zero gravity and a vacuum. You don't see the problem with your "solution", Mr. Allen? Hint: most of us aren't independantly wealthy with passports to dozens of countries.

Re:That's not a bad strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, because remotely admin'ing a box is crazy ridiculous talk!! You have to be in the same room to log into a server.

Money Law

[Phrogman]

Just another case where the courts are being used to threaten/bully someone into conforming to the will of our corporate masters. Sad to see.

Long live TPB

[vswee]

Down with absurdly overpaid software giants and entertainers

Re:Long live TPB

[Anonymous Coward]

except copyrighted material is by definition not an open market but a (formerly) limited-time monopoly, so Smith-style supply-and-demand doesn't apply.

Re:Long live TPB

[fbobraga]

Correcting the GP: "monopolistic giants" (instead of "overpaid")

Re:Long live TPB

[denis-The-menace]

You forget, for copyrights:

Time = Infinite

Re:Long live TPB

[Anonymous Coward]

It does still apply, because the demand is quite elastic in nature and there are (usually) many substitute goods available. For example if the price of Beiber's music doubles, the demand drops off remarkably because most of his fans are not diehard enough to want to get one of his songs when they can get two songs of their next faviorite artist for the same price.

Monopolies of course change things, but there are very few monopolies in software and entertainment (not even Windows is a monopoly anymore.)

Re:Money Law

[Phrogman]

Oh that got completely borked by /. refusing to include the Greater Than symbol in between the 2 words. Yes, yes I should have previewed, but then they could write the code to allow things like greater than and less than symbols without filtering them out instead. Not that difficult to manage.
And yes, I could have used HTML, but I forgot that Plain Old Text only means *some* Plain Old Text :P

Shakespeare

[Anonymous Coward]

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
(2 Henry VI, 4.2.59), Dick the Butcher to Jack Cade

No really. Lets kill them all and blow up the law schools.

Just so I get this straight...

[Opportunist]

They're threatening a political party? Is it me or is that just begging to be slapped silly with bad PR? Something along the lines of "Some US organization threatening our democracy".

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[PPH]

Keep your priorities straight. This isn't just democracy we're talking about. Its the Film Industry.

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[Opportunist]

Both are phony and a hollow shadow of what they used to be when they were good, so why is one more important than the other?

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[fustakrakich]

If you have noticed, bad PR and shame are having less and less effect on these kinds of people. They have enough money no to care anymore. They still win elections and occupy high corporate offices.

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[misexistentialist]

Maybe they should petition the King...

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[snadrus]

when they were good

....and moved to California because that made the copyright laws easier to avoid?

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would "The Rights Alliance" care about PR? Its not like they are trying to sell any products that Im aware of?

And as it is a Swedish organization, the anti-american centiment doesnt work either.

Re:Just so I get this straight...

[gmhowell]

You have to realize that that political party has messed with one of the primal forces of nature.

Blackmail

[DustPuppySnr]

Is it only called blackmail if you are not a registered corporation?

Ironic name

[Anonymous Coward]

the Rights Alliance, an organization that represents the film industry

I don't think I have ever seen such an ironic name.

Re:Ironic name

[skywire]

Indeed. What chutzpah!

Thanks for the correction.

[concealment]

This is true. I should have said "link index."

Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

And by "from orbit", I mean THEY are put in orbit and blown up there.

When money becomes the issue

[fustakrakich]

It becomes time to use a gun to protect your rights. That's what they use to protect their 'law'. Fair's fair, right?

Re:When money becomes the issue

[Korruptionen]

While I agree with you... in this realm, guns aren't so useful.

Re:When money becomes the issue

[Anonymous Coward]

While I agree with you... in this realm, guns aren't so useful.

Only if you're not targeting the right people. Random violence doesn't work, try targeting the guilty enforcers, judges, lawyers, PR guys, elected officials who sign off on it and of course the corporate executives and senior shareholders driving the madness.

This isn't a zombie movie where you mow down everyone. It's an old style vampire one where you the goal is to eliminate the leader, not the rank-and-file.

+1, cold?

The Political Bay

[CanEHdian]

Modeled after The Promo Bay, TPB should enter political campaigning and start rallying the troops. It's no use harassing these Industry-organizations, they will never change their minds, but politicians have one deeper "basic instinct" than accepting money or favours (free movie screenings) and that is holding on to their seats. TPB can be instrumental, when there is an election anywhere it mattes, to reaching out to first-time voters and urge casual voters/voters of habit to support "friendly" parties (i.e. not necessarily limited to the local Pirate Party).

Piracy warning

[ArcadeMan]

Typical MPAA piracy warning.

The pirate ship is sinking

[CaptainAdultt]

The ship is taking on water and theres no saving this crew of misbehaving malfeasants.. unless they stop dealing in pirated digital goods. They will go under in Spain and Norway if they don't throw their pirated goods into the sea. Norway is extremely strict and the MPAA pressure against Spain will finally sink this disreputable crew of sailors under a torrent of lawsuits. Its a good day. Hahahel!

Re:The pirate ship is sinking

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that they will move on again, as they have many times in the past, once the heat comes on in Spain/Norway?

The Pirate Bay (according to them) already has future connections planned for moving it again. It takes months, if not years, typically for the pressure or legal rulings to move them again... In that time they just plan more and more future prospects. You cut off one connection, but 50 more grow in the time it takes you to do so. Pirate Bay thus will always win.

It boggles the mind

[ThatsNotPudding]

I still don't understand how an entire Nordic country would so willingly become lackeys of not only the US government, but the fucking US entertainment industry too?

I expect ignorance, apathy, and doing what you're told from my fellow USians, but not from enlightened, progressive folks of a country and culture that still has a real education system. Mystifying.

Re:It boggles the mind

[Anonymous Coward]

I think pretty much any nation in the world would give priority to preventing an us trade embargo over letting kids download illegal content.

Re:It boggles the mind

[Anonymous Coward]

I still don't understand how an entire Nordic country would so willingly become lackeys of not only the US government, but the fucking US entertainment industry too?

I expect ignorance, apathy, and doing what you're told from my fellow USians, but not from enlightened, progressive folks of a country and culture that still has a real education system. Mystifying.

The power of the almighty dollars deposited into offshore accounts should not be ignored.

One of the police officers testifying in the previous court case against Piratebay's founders, was given a well-paid job at the media industry's lobbying organisation APB, moments after the trial had ended. It's apparently not illegal in Sweden to hire police officers, but there is a moral to the story.

Politicans wants well-paid lobbying jobs too.

Re:It boggles the mind

[geekymachoman]

You're mystified ?
Of course you are. If you and your bunch weren't, they wouldn't be able to do this.

No pun intended intended, your comment asked for it.

Re:It boggles the mind

[bentcd]

I still don't understand how an entire Nordic country would so willingly become lackeys of not only the US government, but the fucking US entertainment industry too?

They used to call it realpolitik, and it was all the rage.

Re:It boggles the mind

[Sigg3.net]

Because we do what we're told or, rather, the wish to conform and stay politically correct trumps all other considerations.

I'm Norwegian and was surprised they chose Norway. I'd thought Iceland was a better candidate after the Wikileaks scandal.

Re:Money Law

[Anonymous Coward]

Greater Than works >. It's < that you need HTML for, but in both HTML and Plain Old Text. POT seems to do little but let you do away with the <P> tag. To do a < simply put &lt;

And yes, you should preview.