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As one of the largest trackers, ThePirateBay.org largely replaced the search engine SuprNova.org. 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 learned this morning that ThePirateBay.org was 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. The uncertainty on the part of the police may stem from the fact ThePirateBay.org's servers only host .torrent files, not actual copyrighted material. As a tracker, ThePirateBay.org's function is to index .torrent files and to direct BitTorrent traffic and maintain the swarm (uploads and downloads.) The downloaded .torrent file contains all the necessary information to locate and download the queried file. The legality of indirectly linking to copyrighted material has yet to be tested by Swedish courts.

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. Piratbyrån is a educational and quasi-political organization which performs a public servic role similar to The Pirate Party. 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.

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Originally posted by MikeLamb
http://slyck.com/news.php?story=811

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Great cheers of jubilee echoed in the entertainment Halls of Justice yesterday, confident of their victory against the great Satan, ThePirateBay.org. ThePirateBay.org, as many are aware, was perhaps the largest BitTorrent tracker in history. Although it was regarded as little more than a pillar of piracy by the entertainment industry, it provided a simple avenue and interface for artists to release creative commons work to the P2P crowd.

This world came crumbling down on May 31, 2006. Seemingly immune from copyright infringement prosecution in their native Sweden, police from the National Crime Unit executed raids against the Internet Service Provider Rex|Port 80 and web host PRQ.

After the successful execution of the raids, the entertainment industry’s media machines went into high gear. The MPA (Motion Picture Association) claimed Swedish Authorities had “sunk the Pirate Bay.” The IFPI (International Federation and Phonographic Industry) also clamored the raids, stating “This is a very good development for the Swedish music industry and for the real innovators and entrepreneurs who are trying to build a legal online digital business.” Antipiratbyrån, the Swedish anti-piracy bureau, also expressed its satisfaction after a long string of copyright enforcement impotence.

So now that ThePirateBay.org is offline, the celebration can go into high gear, right?

Remember we’re dealing with file-sharing, the ubiquitous hydra that simply cannot die no matter how many press releases you throw at it. If you destroy one file-sharing network, another will take its place. Remove ten BitTorrent indexing sites, 20 more will pick up the slack. ThePirateBay.org is no different, but in holding true to their nature as defiant to the entertainment industry, this BitTorrent tracker and indexer is scheduled to return within two days.

Although all tracking and indexing abilities are currently offline, ThePirateBay.org domain is still functioning. For the last 36 hours, it has been providing various updates on the raids and status of its administration. And true to their nature as being defiant in the face of the entertainment industry, ThePirateBay.org’s days are far from over.

In large, bold text, the following text is scrolled mid-screen:

“SITE DOWN - WILL BE UP AND FULLY FUNCTIONAL WITHIN A DAY OR TWO”

Yesterday, ThePirateBay.org spokesperson “brokep” informed Slyck.com “we are moving it to another country if necessary.” It appears ThePirateBay.org is making good on this promise. Carl Lundström, employee of Rix|Port80 told Slyck.com “As I take it, they have bought new servers, installed back-ups and are already up and running tests in at least one foreign server centre.”

It seems once again the entertainment industry is about to shoot itself in the foot, unable to stop the global spread of file-sharing. Considering the speed in which ThePirateBay.org is scheduling its return, (which requires a substantial amount of logistics, organization, leadership, and not to mention equipment), it would appear they were well prepared for this event. The same cannot be said about the entertainment industry.

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