The Pirate Bay is a site self described as (and probably really is) “the world’s largest bittorrent tracker“. If it all sounds Greek to you, and you ‘re not a speaker of Greek, let us try to explain what that is.
BitTorrent is a protocol for sharing files over the Internet. It allows for reliable downloading of large size files from multiple sources with the ability to pause and continue downloads at a later time. BitTorrent is by no means illegal, and file sharing is not illegal either. What is actually illegal in most countries around the world, is the sharing of copyrighted material (music, movies, software etc) without paying proper royalty fees. That is also known as “Piracy”.
Pirate Bay however, maintains they hold no copyrighted material on their servers. And that should be true, since the actual file sharing is done between users on a peer-to-peer network. All that Pirate Bay does is act as an open tracker for torrent files. In other words, a search engine for torrent files which contain download information about the actual files to download.
Nevertheless, Swedish authorities raided the site’s facilities and reportedly confiscated 200 servers. They didn’t manage to shut them down for long though. Pirate Bay is back, allegedly now hosted in the Netherlands, while other possible new hosting locations may also emerge. I don’t believe Pirate Bay gives a nickel over copyright being infringed. But that doesn’t mean they do it. BitTorrent is used for many other purposes other than “illegal” file sharing. It is for instance actively used by the academic community and for the file sharing of free open-source software, public domain and creative commons licensed works. Shutting down a site that may also serve as a tool to illegal file sharing sounds like shutting down a library because someone might steal a book.
Surely the music/movie/software industries can come up with more creative ways to protect their interests other than attacking technology that is generally beneficial to those in the community who use it for perfectly legal purposes.
