Archive for: TPB
The Pirate Bay may hold a special place in your heart and a thorn in content owners’ sides, but love it or hate it a new service is being born from the same mind. The site is called “BayFiles” and is partially founded by Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij. Different from The Pirate Bay, however, is that BayFiles” will allow users to anonymously upload files for public sharing with a few anti-piracy measures.
First and foremost, BayFiles does not have any central storage index meaning if you don’t have the direct download link — given after the file in question is uploaded — there isn’t any way to browse recent uploads. On top of that the outfit has enlisted in several DMCA officers to act upon any and all DMCA takedown requests. More evidence of the site’s more legitimate tone comes by way of a much lengthier, harshly worded ToS.
Naturally, the BayFiles group is looking to turn a profit. Free unregistered and registered accounts will have a few restrictions:
- File size limit: 250 MB for unregistered accounts/500 MB for registered accounts
- Both unregistered and unregistered accounts will have a 1 download-per-hour limit
Pricing for premium accounts will be €5 (1 month), €25 (6 months), or €45 (12 months). The only question: Will it take off?
Fancy a torrent or ten and fall under Comcast’s service area? If so, you may be noticing some issues getting to The Pirate Bay today. TorrentFreak is reporting that accounts of Comcast users being unable to reach the infamous torrent website are growing. A few tests show that a traceroute stops at the correct address — thepiratebay.piratpartiet.se — and that the block isn’t DNS related. ThePirateBay team has confirmed that U.S. traffic has dropped significantly over the last couple of days, and that they’re looking into the matter.
While we can’t rule out any malicious activity by Comcast at this point, it is worth highlighting their speckled past in regards to bittorrent as a whole over the last several years. The 2007 bittorrent-blocking scandal is still rather fresh in our minds. Is this part 2?
We’ve reached out to the PirateBay team for more information and will update you if/when we receive a response.
Update
Thanks to Harry K below in the comments, we have a way to get around this block — use the Tor anonymous browser. Let us know how it goes for you!
- November 17, 2009 10:07 am
The Pirate Bay trackers may be down for the count, but that infamous sailing ship will live on, plastered against countless clothing items from t-shirts and hoodies to sweatbands and underwear. In an odd turn of events, that iconic logo used by The Pirate Bay is in the process of becoming patented. Yes, patented. But it isn’t by founding members or anyone related to the company. Instead, a Swedish clothing and technology retailer called Sandryds Handel is taking it upon themselves to claim ownership. The founding members, with their pretty blanket feels frowning on private ownership, see this as an abomination and have stated that they feel the logo should remain in the public domain — which is the reason they never patented the logo themselves. What’s bringing me to a hearty chuckle is that this company believes a mass following of pirates — who don’t pay up front for stuff — are going to begin throwing money out for gimmicky products trying to cash in on TPB name. We’ll see how well that goes…
Now some other company is going to pick up the pieces of TPB and make some money off of their name. Pretty sad and shady if you ask me. Though from a business stand point, why not rip off someone elses logo and brand image to turn a dollar on your own time? The TPB logo has just been shat upon. Perhaps Sandryds Handel should spend a few dollars designing their own logo hmm?
What do you have to say?
Wired
- November 17, 2009 7:40 am
I usually try to start off each morning with something happy or exciting, but this is neither of those. The Pirate Bay team has announced that starting today, torrent users will no longer be able to use TPB trackers for downloads and will have to rely on other trackers instead. Whether you were for or against PB, you have to admit that in a relatively short time span (since 2003) TPB grew explosively, evolving to a digital giant with upwards of 25 million peers in it’s prime. Sadly that prime is no more. The team says the main site will remain live for now, but it’s but a shell of what it once was. So it is from this point on we must hold our heads high and find a new friend in this vast space of digital junk.
TorrentFreak
{Image Source
Wondering what’s been going on with The Pirate Bay the last couple of weeks? A big move, that’s what. The official new home of TPB servers is CyberBunker. CyberBunker just so happens to be contained within some random nuclear bunker deep with what appears to be some Netherlands forest. You may be wondering as to the reason for the move. As if it were too hard to figure out, with all of the controversy and lawsuits surrounding TPB, Sweden wanted them out of the country. So they moved to Ukraine last week. However, that new home was short lived as apparently something didn’t work out. Imagine th at. After a brief, unwelcome stop in Ukraine, the servers found their current home mentioned previously and pictured above.
The cool part about all of this is the bunker is EMP (electro magnetic pusle) proof and obviously, can resist a nuclear attack. Chemical/biological warfare also poses no threat to TPB servers meaning labels and governments looking to kill the torrent king will have to find another method.
Earth shattering, gotta follow it news? To most no. But still something interesting no?
CrunchGear > Torrent Freak
The interwebs were in a tizzy late last week when The Pirate Bay was taken down and removed from Google search results. Many started speculating almost immediately (myself included) that the end was near for the once great site that defied common laws in countries around the globe. However it appears as if TPB has escaped outright death in the near term. Apparently the whole snafu was nothing more than a simple error on Google’s part. The DMCA takedown notice that was responsible for TPB’s downtime and removal centered around apparent infringement on porn copyrights. After the dust settled and the smoke cleared, it was found that thepiratebay.org address was wrongfully included in the takedown notice, or as it quickly was coming to be known — the prophesied end of the world. Cooler heads have prevailed and TPB lives on for now. Google meanwhile has since apologized for the glitch.
While it may seem like a sigh of relief is appropriate, TPB is currently on weak legs and has a grim outlook. With the potential buyout looking less and less like a finished deal and instead turning into a form of real life “vaporware”, how much longer will TPB remain relevant? Hypothesizing aside, it’s back up. Enjoy those torrents folks.
The Register
Image Source
In its current state, The Pirate Bay isn’t exactly a copyright holder/content owners dream. Quite the contrary. To those wrapped up in the world of pro-RIAA fair, TPB signifies the scum of the earth, theft, and all other sorts of baddies. Then of course you have the other side, the “outcasts” if you will. These people have long been neglected by labels, content owners, etc. in regards to the fair uses and freedoms one should have with their purchased legal content. The whole mentality is more or less, “If you can’t have it your way legally, why even bother…?”. Still, the TPB trial has changed the company in that it is even mroe determined than before to remain alive and profitable. In fact, TPB owners are looking to do one thing the labels and their mob buddies never thought would happen — they’re attempting to go legit.
