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Swedish Police Raid the Pirate Bay Again

Posted by Soulskill on from the guess-that-raid-proof-hosting-will-get-its-test dept.

o_ferguson writes: TorrentFreak is reporting that police in Sweden carried out a raid in Stockholm today, seizing servers, computers, and other equipment. At the same time The Pirate Bay and several other torrent-related sites disappeared offline. Although no official statement has been made, TF sources confirm action against TPB. This is not the first time that this has happened.

36 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. ...and here we go again by torkus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Site down, random shuffle, site comes back. I wonder if they'll find someone else to arrest this time around.

    Though I thought they finally got smart and started hosting elsewhere?

    --
    You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    1. Re:...and here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I see these articles, which seem dated about Sept 2014:

      Pirate Bay fools the system with cloud technology

      The Pirate Bay runs on 21 “raid-proof” virtual machines

      I'm lowercasing some of those titles, so it doesn't look like RAID-proof. This is referring to police raids, not RAID (disk redundancy).

      So I guess now we may get to see just how “raid-proof” this really is(n't).

      Then again, Pirate Bay moves to the cloud, becomes raid-proof shows a date of October 2012. So their cloudiness might not be a brand new thing.

    2. Re:...and here we go again by pellik · · Score: 4, Funny

      No no, that was RAID proof the whole time. There is no redundancy of any kind in the pirate bay's system.

    3. Re:...and here we go again by sexconker · · Score: 5, Informative

      The malware bay endures!

      I have never once gotten malware from TPB.
      "Reputable" sites such as download.com have been injecting it into / wrapping it around every download for the past few years now.

    4. Re:...and here we go again by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Site down, random shuffle, site comes back.

      Seriously. If only Sony's Playstation Network was as robust.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Free Enterprise by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sweden is trying hard to make a name for itself as a place high tech start ups should work. Sweden is a place that will allow them to be creative without fear of undo influence from multinationals or foreign influence. cough cough movie studios cough cough riaa cough cough Assange...

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    1. Re:Free Enterprise by quantaman · · Score: 2

      Sweden is trying hard to make a name for itself as a place high tech start ups should work. Sweden is a place that will allow them to be creative without fear of undo influence from multinationals or foreign influence. cough cough movie studios cough cough riaa cough cough Assange...

      I get the arguments that they don't host anything and they're just a medium for people to exchange files. But their name is literally The Pirate Bay, their business model is about as close to explicit piracy as you can get.

      I'm frankly shocked they've remained open this long.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:Free Enterprise by rasmusbr · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah...

      First they came for TPB, but you didn't say anything because you weren't running a piracy torrent tracker, then they came for, uh, TPB again. And yeah, next they'll probably raid Spotify.

    3. Re:Free Enterprise by bzipitidoo · · Score: 2

      Evidence is moot because copying should not be a crime, not even a civil infraction. Sharing/copying should be encouraged as a social good. Sharing of knowledge is what made our civilization, and keeps it alive. Voluntarily allow a few elite control over what may be copied and who can copy, and you weaken civilization. Perhaps not fatally, but why take that chance for something so trivial as a broken business model? There are other ways for artists to earn a living.

      --
      Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
    4. Re:Free Enterprise by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Before I respond, let me be clear that I absolutely think copyright law is broken and needs significant reform -- at a minimum to make the time until something goes into public domain be only a few years (like it was in original 18th century statutes), not a century or more That said...

      Sharing/copying should be encouraged as a social good. Sharing of knowledge is what made our civilization, and keeps it alive. Voluntarily allow a few elite control over what may be copied and who can copy, and you weaken civilization.

      I always find these sorts of arguments hilarious. Because you know who funded the arts before copyright existed? Rich dudes.

      How did one become an artist in the age before artists could make money off of publications and copying? Well, you had two choices:

      (1) Be independently wealthy. A lot of art, music, literature, etc. used to be created by only those filthy rich who didn't have to work for a living. So, if you had nothing else to do and were bored, you could afford to make art.

      (2) You're not rich? Well, if you want to be an artist, musician, writer, or skilled craftsman, you have to find yourself another rich dude to fund your work. In other words, you found yourself a patron, because otherwise, how are you going to support yourself?

      If you actually want art that requires significant SKILL and TRAINING to learn a craft, those are your primary choices without some concept of intellectual property.

      There are other ways for artists to earn a living.

      Sure, you can say performing musicians have to tour rather than making money off of recordings, but what about the composers who actually write the songs? Lots of pop artists don't make their own songs -- they rely on expert songwriters to do that. How exactly does one make money off of those sorts of creations? One can't exactly become a "touring songwriter." (I mean, yeah, improvisation is fun and you can make up crappy songs on the spot for a paying audience I suppose, but there's little incentive then to spend time crafting an actual good song...)

      So far, I've just been talking about pop music, but it gets harder if you want someone with real talent to devote months or even years to an extended project -- like a book, for example. And how about training? Mozart spent maybe 15 years learning the craft of composition before he began writing stuff of a "mature composer" with thorough training in how to write music. Who pays for those 15 years of training before one can even begin to compose?... and then one's compositions are just shared with no reward for the person who spent his life acquiring the skill to make them.

      That's ultimately the problem with these arguments. A system without any sort of intellectual property makes it much more difficult for anyone to spend significant time on any given creative project, since no money can be made from that lost time... let alone taking any time to learn a skilled craft.

      Art thus becomes only an amateur occupation, something your crappy band in a garage does improving stupid songs on a weekend, but no room for any possible types of refinement or skills. We expect doctors and engineers and scientists and programmers to spend years refining their skills so that they can produce a quality product. And when they do, they are rewarded for their work. But if you're a skilled artist who took years to learn a trade, too bad -- we still want you to make art, but we want you to donate it to us for free. Find some other way to make your money, thanks.

      Unless, well, you're a rich dude and can spend the time acquiring random skills and putting time in creative tasks that won't make you any money. Or if you can find a rich dude to serve as your patron.

      Yeah, once you're an established artist with a record, you might be able to get some crowd-funding or something today, but good luck to get that mon

    5. Re:Free Enterprise by sirlark · · Score: 2

      While I agree with most of what you say, including your conclusion that the complete removal of copyright will mean de facto replacement by a patronage system, you miss two crucial points. Firstly, the fundamental difference between the arts in before the 19th century and today is that the distribution costs are now negligible, especially if the distribution is digital, but even if the distribution is physical. It costs less to produce most art in physical form and more importantly to reproduce than ever before in human history, yet prices do not come down. There's also a clear divorce between production costs and retail costs. A new DVD from a block buster movie with a budget in the 100's of millions costs the same or less to buy than the latest top 10 CDs with production budgets in the 10's of millions. Consumers get this, they understand they're being screwed by the CD producers. They're being charged what the CD producers think the market will bear... except clearly the market won't bear it, because piracy is rampant. Music producers (especially) love to harp on about lost sales, but flat out refuse to consider piracy as market indicator. Let's assume there were a full proof way prevent piracy. Sales would stay pretty flat, or I suspect drop a fair bit. People pirate way more than they could ever afford to buy, and if suddenly forced to buy everything, they would pick and choose a lot more, like back in the 80's and early 90's when kids saved their pocket money to buy that one album they'd been eyeing for three months. Concert and performance revenue would probably fall off (except for really big, well publicised, acts, i.e. the guys who are already coining it) because of lack of exposure. CD prices would be forced down. Lack of exposure is why I think CD sales might actually drop in this scenario. The same argument holds for other types of digitally reproducible art.

      Secondly, the content-creation (for want of a better term) industry is a lot like the the professional sports industry. We only really here about the super stars, who are 1% of all the attempts at success. The current copyright regime is already in effect a patronage system, except the "rich dudes" are rich corporations who decide who they will promote. Yes consumers can vote with their money, which only constrains who will be promoted to largely popular inoffensive artists, whereas in a true patronage system the individual tastes of the rich dudes funded a wider variety of creative efforts. There are also a lot more "rich dudes" now than ever before. They're called the middle class. They have a fair amount of disposable income. No single person in the middle class has the money to fund an artist in the same way as traditional patronage systems, but there are vastly more potential consumers for art than ever before in human history, and what's more is the skills required to reproduce a performance and the costs involved are way less than before too, allowing artists to either manage distribution themselves, or pay substantially less than previously to someone else to do it for them.

      I view piracy as a form of civil disobedience protesting inflated prices. If digital content were reduced to 25% I'm pretty sure sales would more than quadruple. Also, considering the percentages the artists get paid, they're getting screwed the least by piracy. I know that there are plenty of other people involved in music and film production, but for the most part, they all get paid salaries, not royalties. So they're not getting screwed by piracy.

      P.S. I'm viewing things from a South African perspective, where minimum wage is approximately $1 an hour and new release DVDs cost about $18 ~ $25, and a new CD will set you back around $20. E-books range widely from $1 to $15, and physical books are minimum of $25 hard cover, $12 paperback. At minimum wage South Africans have to work 2 and a half days to afford a DVD/CD/Ebook/book.

    6. Re:Free Enterprise by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We are not talking about going back to the old rich-dude patronage system. These days we have YouTube, where anyone can upload their work for free. Even recording your work is pretty cheap these days. So the current choice of a musician is:

      1. Take a loan from the record label and pray you can afford to live until it is paid off and you are a megastar

      2. Upload to YouTube and spam Facebook in the hopes of gaining a following and some ad revenue

      Option 2 seems to be the better one for a lot of artists these days. It doesn't work for everyone, but then again not everyone has mass market appeal or is actually any good.

      --
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    7. Re:Free Enterprise by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      (1) Be independently wealthy.
      (2) You're not rich? find yourself another rich dude to fund your work.

      (3) Perform for crowds
      (4) Perform alongside another type of performance, such as theater

      And now today there are still more options

      (5) Upload your media to services which produce advertising revenue, like Youtube
      (6) Fund your media through crowdsourcing, e.g. kickstarter
      (7) Create your own site, upload your content to it, self-distribute.

      These are just what I can come up with off of the top of my head.

      But guess what? You get rid of intellectual property, and you also risk reverting back to a system where only rich dudes fund art again.

      Because mainstream music, the kind which cannot exist without intellectual property, is already only funded by rich dudes. It's not clear about what you're complaining.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. I give it 24 hours by lance423 · · Score: 5, Funny

    TPB doesn't stay down long. It's like the Hydra of piracy. Cut off all the heads you want but it won't stay dead.

    1. Re:I give it 24 hours by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 2

      TPB doesn't stay down long. It's like the Hydra of piracy. Cut off all the heads you want but it won't stay dead.

      It's fine to say that, but there's no particular reason to expect that's the truth. I mean, yeah, in the past it's always come back, but kind of by definition the number of places they can find refuge is diminishing each time. Doesn't it stand to reason eventually there won't be anyone willing to host them?

      I'm pretty good about purchasing anything I consume - if it's any good - after any... grey-market downloads. I've got dozens of hardcover books that have never been opened because I first read them in ebook form. I've got unopened DVD and CD packages for much the same reason. Fact is that I wouldn't have bought nearly as much entertainment stuff if I hadn't sampled them first. Now I've got a bunch of authors, musicians, and the like who I buy their physical product on sight, unquestioned, because I originally found them at no risk, via... piracy. Yes, there are things I read/watched/listened-to that I will never pay for. But that's because frankly the stuff just didn't suit me. So hey. Live with it.

      My meandering point is that I fear the day that piracy is no longer practical. It will be so much harder to find things I truly enjoy... and BUY.

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
  4. Your tax dollars at work by Snufu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Law enforcement and judicial officials working round the clock to ensure the world is safe for multinational corporations.

    1. Re:Your tax dollars at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Bingo! Sony is presently freaking the fuck out. Torrents are the primary vehicle for the dozens of gigs of their leaked data floating around, and TPB is the masses' first (if not only) source for torrents. The timing here is no coincidence.

    2. Re:Your tax dollars at work by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      Nah, the swedes just wanted to get the rip of "50 Shades of Gray" before the official release.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    3. Re:Your tax dollars at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If there was property tax on intellectual property, you know, the same sort of argument why physical property is taxed -- "we the govt. have to spend so much money protecting your land!!" -- then, I bet, these wankers who claim their intellectual property is worth trillions will suddenly go, 'oh, did we say trillions? We mean, er, uh, very little. Please don't tax us." They'd actually have to pick a value that's in equilibrium with downward pressure to avoid taxes and upward pressure to sue infringement. Right now, there is no equilibrium, just upward pressure to maximize payout from suing over infringement, hence the sky-high ludicrous appraisals of their intellectual property.

    4. Re:Your tax dollars at work by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      Well, there's sales taxes, there's taxes on profits, there's taxes on employees wages ... it's not like you can claim that intellectual property isn't taxed.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    5. Re:Your tax dollars at work by dk20 · · Score: 2

      They'd just do what they currently do.

      Put the IP offshore and "license" it back domestically.

      We didnt make any money as we had to pay such high fees to our (Cayman, Ireland, Luxembourg) based subsidiary.

      If you really want to fix the tax system, tax corp income the same way personal taxes are done, on total earned less deductions, not on "profit".

  5. Re:Are there any good alternatives? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's always Netflix, iTunes, Amazon... /duck

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  6. Re:Are there any good alternatives? by o_ferguson · · Score: 3, Informative

    torrentz.eu has never let me down.

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
  7. For how long? by thevirtualcat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    12 hours? 24 hours? I'm pretty sure TPB has had longer downtimes that were self-inflicted.

    If they can take TPB down and keep it down for a month? That's news.

  8. Re:Hey Look by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to MPAA accounting, the few minutes TPB was offline generated 5.6 billion dollars in sales.

    And if we use Verizon accounting for the same numbers, the few minutes TPB was offline generated 560 billion dollars in sales.

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  9. It's good to know they're keeping us safe. by Iamthecheese · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Swedish people must be delighted to know how much is directly and indirectly being brought to the table in the name of removing those evil and dangerous criminals at the Pirate Bay.

    Sovereignty, reputation as a safe place to do business, a reputation for not being corrupt, and a long cultural history of preserving freedom and privacy are a lot to sacrifice but as long as a perfectly legal file sharing site can be brought to its knees for literally hours it's well done.

    Furthermore I'm sure not a single penny has crossed the border from Hollywood, and no favors were exchanged with US politicians to make this happen.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    1. Re:It's good to know they're keeping us safe. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Iamaswedishtaxpayer and I don't think it's "delightful" at all.

      --
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  10. Re:Are there any good alternatives? by grub · · Score: 2


    YIFY will never get busted. Because the quality of their rips is so low, it would put anybody with properly working eyeballs and a decent TV off pirated movies for life.

    YIFY rips are great if you are used to playing Minecraft all day long.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  11. Re:Are there any good alternatives? by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 4, Interesting

    iTunes does not work on my 10 month old Panasonic "Smart" TV, or Linux based HTPC, or Sony PS3. Amazon only recently started selling ebooks here, nothing else. Netflix is great though, now if they can finally convince content providers to license them more content.
    So what are these alternatives?

  12. http://thepiratebay.ee/ by Scottingham · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://thepiratebay.ee/

    Works for me!

    1. Re:http://thepiratebay.ee/ by Scottingham · · Score: 2

      I take that back...looks sketch...

    2. Re:http://thepiratebay.ee/ by BitterOak · · Score: 2

      http://thepiratebay.ee/

      Works for me!

      It looks like a pay site, but only $4.99 for a subscription. Can anyone confirm if it's legit?

      --
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  13. systemd by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

    Same day Fedora 21 was released? I suspect systemd is responsible.

  14. Re:Hey Look by ihtoit · · Score: 2

    keep 'em down for three days and we'll have fixed the deficit AND paid the debt! EVERYBODY WINS!

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  15. Re:https://thepiratebay.cr by BitterOak · · Score: 2

    500 Internal Server Error

    --
    If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  16. Why TPB and not the banks? by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Banks in EVERY jurisdiction carry out transactions with and pay interest on money deposited by criminals of various stripes, from tax evaders to mobsters to drug lords to terrorists. And in many cases the banksters know the provenance of those funds, and simply don't care, 'cause business is business after all. Not to mention the thefts the banks themselves commit, which are only not considered illegal via the legal legerdemain of calling them 'service fees'. So why do governments, (and by extension, their corporate masters), have such a hate on for the TPB? Yeah, I know, it's a rhetorical question, but I had to ask it.

    So Pirate Bay is raided and shut down, and its founders thrown in prison, while bank CEO's are allowed to conduct business freely and in full daylight with impunity. It seems that a lot of somebodies in a lot of places consider the facilitation of file sharing a more heinous crime than the facilitation of theft, murder, gun running, etc. Gee, that disconnect wouldn't have anything at all to do with the profits of big corporations, would it?

    --
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