ThePirateBay.org Raided – Servers Seized
In their native Sweden, ThePirateBay.org enjoyed a level of immunity from copyright prosecution rarely seen in the file-sharing world. Often defiant in the face of those wishing to enforce their intellectual property rights, ThePirateBay.org would go on to become one of the premier BitTorrent indexing and tracking sites.
Mystech: Argh matey, we’ll miss you. Flying the jolly roger at half mast today. 🙁
As one of the largest trackers, ThePirateBay.org largely replaced the demise of the SuprNova.org search engine. SuprNova.org met its demise in late 2004, when it was under pressure from the entertainment industry to shut it operation down. Conversely, such pressure has been ineffective against ThePiratebay.org.
When such political pressure fails, the use of force is typically the next course of action. In a move that many thought would never come, Slyck.com have learned ThePirateBay.org is currently being raided by Swedish police.
“…The police right now is taking all of our servers, to check if there is a crime there or not (they are actually not sure),” ThePirateBay.org spokesperson “brokep” told Slyck.com.
The seizure of ThePirateBay.org’s entire server farm will guarantee this BitTorrent tracker will remain offline until the police complete their investigation. Whether this will keep ThePirateBay.org offline indefinitely is another matter.
“We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” brokep said.
According to The Pirate Party, a Swedish copyright reform organization, the raid also seized Piratbyrån’s (the Pirate Bureau) servers. In addition, The Pirate Party reports “…the servers where located in a protected area, to which the police had no legal right to enter…” Approximately 50 police participated in the raid, which placed into custody two PirateBay.org personnel.
The premature departure of ThePirateBay.org marks a significant turning point in the BitTorrent community. Although it’s not currently known what, if any, entertainment entity is behind this raid, failure to secure ThePirateBay.org’s permanent removal will only bolster this tracker’s position of defiance.
