The Pirate Bay – public enemy number one

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Deutsch: [The Pirate Bay – Staatsfeind Nummer 1 | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1495]

The Pirate Bay (TBP) seems to be the website in the limelight these days,
after the music industry decided to attack it with every legal possibility
and in any country they can, with actions in Denmark,
Netherlands, Norway, Ireland and, of course, Sweden. The move seems not to
have troubled the website too much, but has definitely given it a lot of
publicity.

Thus the Pirate Bay was offline for a few hours on 24 August 2009, after its
ISP, called Black Internet, was obliged by a Swedish court order, following
an action from the music industry, to disconnect the website from Internet.
Otherwise Black Internet would had to pay penalties of 500 000 Swedish
Krowns (approx. 50 000 euros). But TPB already had in place a backup
solution, after the other problems with the music industry this year, and
came back online in a few hours, with a message for the “attackers”:

“The MAFIAA has spent millions of dollars and endless amounts of time to get
this ban in order. Our guess is that they also bribed a bit to get it since
it violates so many laws not only in Sweden but also in the EU, not to
mention violations against human rights. And what do they have to show for
it? 3 hours of partial downtime”

In Ireland, according to the understanding reached by the music record
companies and the Irish ISP Eircom in January 2009, and to the order issued
by The High Court on 24 July 2009, Eircom has agreed to cut off the access
to TPB starting with 1 September 2009.

The agreement Eircom made with the music industry implied that the Irish ISP
would implement a three-strikes system to its users deemed guilty of
copyright infringement and also that it would not oppose any application to
the court to block access to The Pirate Bay.

Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony music companies have also
sent official requests to the other Irish ISPs to block access to the
Pirate Bay website but, for the time being, this request was denied by UPC
and BT Ireland.

“UPC has informed the rights holders that there is no basis under Irish law
requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites and that it will not
agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided for under
Irish law,” stated UPC who added that “UPC has every intention of vigorously
defending its position in Court.”

BT Ireland has also confirmed that it has refused the music industry request
considering “there is no legal basis for such a request”.

In Norway, a coalition of 21 movie and music industry companies sued
Telenor, the country’s largest ISP trying to force it to block TPB. The
hearing is to take place in October.

In Netherlands, the anti-piracy organisation, BREIN won a court case at the
end of July against TPB. An Amsterdam court has ruled that the Swedish site
must cease its operations in 10 days in Netherlands. Otherwise they will
need to pay 30 000 euros per day in penalties. Even though the ten days have
passed now, the sentence is not applied yet and the three defendants have
already appealed the case. The two parties have clashed before the appeal at
the Hacking at Random, with a public juicy encounter between the head of
BREIN, Tim Kuik and the Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm.

All these publicity on the Pirate Bay could be connected with the purchase
of the site by the Swedish company Global Gaming Factory, which is estimated
to be closed by the end of this week.

Eircom to block the Pirate Bay from September; UPC not so keen (19.08.2009)
http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2009/08/eircom-to-block-pirate-bay-from.html

Eircom to block internet access to Pirate Bay as other firms refuse
(20.08.2009)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0820/1224252952116.html

Eircom Agrees to Block Pirate Bay Access (20.08.2009)
http://torrentfreak.com/eircom-agrees-to-block-pirate-bay-access-090820/

UPC Refuses to Block Pirate Bay (19.08.2009)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0819/breaking49.htm

Pirate Bay Faces ISP Block in Norway (19.08.2009)
http://freakbits.com/pirate-bay-faces-isp-block-in-norway-0819

Pirate Bay and BREIN Clash at Hacker Conference (16.08.2009)
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-brein-clash-at-hacker-conference-090816/

Pirate Bay website back online (25.08.2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8217800.stm

EDRI-gram: The big record companies are after Irish ISPs (15.07.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.14/irish-isp-copyright