Aftermath of The Pirate Raids

Found on Slyck on Thursday, 01 June 2006
Browse Filesharing

ThePirateBay.org's seizure was a welcomed turn of events for the entertainment industry. For three years, attempts to force ThePirateBay.org to comply with international copyright standards were met with mockery, contempt, and ridicule. With ThePirateBay.org offline, the various entertainment industries that assisted expressed their satisfaction.

During the raid, each and every server that was hosted by PRQ was seized, despite the proper labeling of each domain. Not only did the Swedish National Police succeed in removing ThePirateBay.org, but every other domain hosted by PRQ.

The seizure of these domains, which total between 200 and 300, affected a wide range of websites. While some were smaller, personal websites, many were business oriented websites that depend on advertising for the owner's personal livelihood. Either way, virtually all servers confiscated had absolutely nothing to do with piracy, ThePirateBay.org, or the online copyright wars.

"Antipiratbyran has obviously mislead the police in this case" said Tobias Andersson from PiratByran. "They seem to have told the incompetent police that the servers in question is filled with copyright protected material, this is a huge misuse of the tax payers money."

It's interesting to note the motivation behind the raid was to secure the economic interests of the entertainment industry. Yet to this day, no clear connection has been established between downloading a copyrighted work and a dollar lost.

"The tragic circumstance, (probably typical of illegal actions by legal authorities), is that the most damage is done to people and companies who have nothing whatsoever to do with the matter at hand. I am thinking of the customers of PRQ. The least damage was done to TPB. 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. Perhaps their down time is shorter than any of the other PRQ customers affected."

Seems like some people shot themselves in the foot. I had to laugh when I read the press release of the MPAA; nothing but useless talking. Additionally, the mission itself failed: TPB might be back faster than any of the other raided domains, and the others might very well start some lawsuits. Load the cannons and sail again.