It’s not so that TPB and Mininova are making money on the publicity which they get here, but TF makes money on giving them publicity.
Don’t be naive.

TPB could be a very nice place, the people that started it seems to be 100% nice. It’s the hangarounds, the wannabees, that think they are all that special.
It’s not a community if you don’t get help when you need it.
There is nicer places to upload, and I’m not talking about private places.
When I upload on a private tracker my torrents get snatched by hundreds, or a few thousands. For me it’s a nice feeling to know my torrents have been snatched by millions when I ul on the open ones.
Wish TPB crew could get their heads out of their arses and try to help those that needs help and service so they stay on the site instead of going to a friendlier place

I really don’t understand why there’s all this hate towards thepiratebay in favour of these private trackers. Calling its users “n00bs” seems very immature as well. Also someone mentioned how private trackers “take care of their uploaders”? What does that supposed to mean anyway? I am a member of a few private sites and there’s no “special treatment” involved in uploading a torrent (just a slew of rules to follow).

At least with thepiratebay:
1. You don’t have to scrounge about for someone willing to lend you an invite to it or be lucky enough to be on there when invites do open up to the public.

2. You don’t have to worry about ratio rules which can be way too strict (and sites that require you to also babysit the people you invite (or otherwise YOU get punished for their low ratios) is just plain stupid and unfair). Understandable that they do not want free leechers on there degrading other people’s download speeds but if you ARE the free leeching type and do not wish to be criticized and kicked out of the site then thepiratebay is for you (I’m not that type though as I always seed back at least 1:1 but I do still use thepiratebay nevertheless).

3. There is MUCH more content on thepiratbay simply because everyone can upload. Yeah that also means more fakes/dupes/viruses but that’s only a result of it being not feasible to moderate every single torrent that’s uploaded. If you download from trusted or VIP sources, use your common common sense (e.g. there is NO WAY a non-screener Axxo DVDrip could exist for a movie still in theatres), and/or read the comments first from those who have already downloaded it (if any), then you could easily be able to avoid unwanted content.

The only downside as I have mentioned before is that your downloads speeds will probably not be that great due to the uncontrollable hit and run and low upload caps on leechers (that and maybe lack of rewards for uploading a lot but that’s a small issue). This is not thepiratbay’s fault though so I wish people would stop blaming them. This just comes from either idiots who don’t want to share (and the only thing settings these private trackers apart is that “idiots” are not tolerated and get banned quickly) or people using ISPs that have horrid upload rates but somewhat decent download bandwidth (this group would have to work extra hard to remain on privite sites). However, content wise, whenever a new movie/video game comes out, I always see it appear on thepiratebay very quickly (as in before or on the release date) so if it appearing on your private tracker first, it’s certainly not THAT noticable.

[END OF RANT]