TorrentFreak

Starting today Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL are blocking The Pirate Bay website. The blockade is the outcome of a legal battle with the local anti-piracy group BREIN. Ziggo is currently redirecting users to an information page explaining why the site is no longer accesible. In a separate press release [...]

A new WordPress plugin makes it dead easy to uncensor blocked websites. In just a few clicks people can setup their own proxy site with the popular blogging software. An essential tool for people whose speech is restricted by oppressive regimes, and handy for downloaders in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and other countries where ISPs are blocking The Pirate Bay. Additionally, the plugin partially defeats the PIPA and SOPA bills in the US.

Earlier this week The Pirate Bay stated that they don’t see the pending PIPA and SOPA bills in the US as a threat to the site. Today, as the Internet protests against the two anti-piracy bills, The Pirate Bay is also weighing in with a public press release. “We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations,” they say.

Supporters of the pending PIPA/SOPA anti-piracy bills often use The Pirate Bay as a prime example of a website that can be taken out under the new legislation. But is that really the case? The Pirate Bay team has been silent on the issue, until now. As it turns out, the people behind the popular torrent site don’t believe the laws will do much to stop them, but they do fear for the future of the Internet.

Hollywood and the major music labels frequently describe The Pirate Bay as a piracy haven that ruins their businesses. On the other side, however, there are many independent artists who would like nothing more than to be featured prominently on the world’s largest torrent site. For the latter group The Pirate Bay team have just released a new platform where artists can have their content promoted on the site’s homepage, free of charge.

In a month The Pirate Bay will no longer offer downloads of .torrent files. Instead, the largest torrent site on the Internet will only provide so-called magnet links to its visitors. The first step in this direction was made today with The Pirate Bay replacing the current default torrent download links with magnets. Could this be the end of an era?

Here we go again… In the fall of 2010 “Anonymous” started Operation Payback, the longest and most widespread attack on anti-piracy groups, lawyers and lobbyists in history. Initially DDoS assaults were started against the MPAA, RIAA and anti-piracy company AiPlex Software because these outfits had targeted The Pirate Bay. Those DDoS attacks were later replicated [...]