The Pirate Bay was born, and as of today it is still the most visited torrent site of all time. But how did Anakata, Brokep and Tiamo- three guys from Sweden – turn into Hollywood’s worst nightmare?

What drove them to mock copyright holders, how did they deal with the private investigators who were watching them, and what makes The Pirate Bay so special?

To answer these questions and more, Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose started making a documentary about the site’s founders titled ‘TPB-AFK’. For the film, Klose followed the three both during the 2009 Pirate Bay trial and the appeal last year, as well as the months in between.

In order to complete the project Klose started a Kickstarter campaign last summer, and not without success. The initial goal of $25,000 was met in just three days and $51,424 was raised in total during the month long fundraiser.

The filming of the documentary has now been completed and Klose is currently working on editing it into the final product. To assist him during these last steps, the Swedish Government has chipped in with a financial injection in the form of a 200,000 Swedish kroner ($31,325) grant (pdf).

“I feel really honored getting 200,000 kroner from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee,” Klose told TorrentFreak. “The money, together with the Kickstarter share, will go to editing the film with a Danish editor.”

The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, which falls under the Ministry of Culture, awarded 141 persons with a theater or film project, of which Klose’s TPB-AFK is one.

“If TPB AFK can shed some light on how an open Internet can benefit artists, maybe the current Swedish government’s schizophrenic Internet policy can change too,” Klose told us. “On one hand they praise internet activists that help spread democracy in the Middle East, on the other they actively oppose the same activists building an open Internet in Sweden.”

In the coming months the documentary will be finished and eventually released to the public. Needless to say, a copy will be available on The Pirate Bay as well.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“TPB AFK is not a fan movie about the Pirate Bay, neither is it a journalistic piece on copyright conflict,” said Klose when describing his film. “It’s an observational, character driven film about three guys whose hobby homepage became the embryo of a global political movement.”

Although the three Pirate Bay founders who star in the documentary are no longer affiliated with the site, it appears that the new Pirate Bay owners would also like to see the documentary released.

Over the past days the fundraiser has enjoyed a prominent link on the Pirate Bay homepage, which in part explains the success of the campaign – the required $25,000 was raised in just three days.

At the time of writing, a massive $28,099 has been pledged and this figure is increasing by the hour.

Now that the funding is in, Klose can hire a professional editor and studio to complete the film. That said, the final premiere date depends on several other factors, most importantly how the upcoming appeal of The Pirate Bay trial plays out.

“The process of documenting processes is unpredictible. If the Swedish court process doesn’t miraculously speed up in The Pirate Bay trials, we’re at least a year away from the opening night of TPB AFK,” Klose comments in a blog post.

In other words, you can expect TPB-AFK to be released sometime in the coming years. Those who want to support Klose and TPB-AFK can still pledge their donation at Kickstarter, as there are 27 days left.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

To document the events that happen surrounding the Pirate Bay, Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose started making a documentary about the site titled ‘TPB-AFK’. For the film, Klose followed the defendants both during the Pirate Bay trial of last year and after, and he will also be present at the upcoming appeal next month.

The film will eventually document all the events from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. To complete the documentary, however, Klose needs funding and he hopes to achieve that by asking people who believe in the project to contribute through donations. The official website of the project will be launched tomorrow, along with a discussion forum and a Kickstarter campaign where people can pledge funds.

“I want to prove that people who claim that the network is threatening cultural creation are wrong, and I will ask the Internet for help,” filmmaker Simon Klose said, commenting on his choice to crowdsource the film’s funding.

TorrentFreak contacted Peter Sunde, former Pirate Bay spokesperson and one of the film’s subjects, to ask him about his experiences thus far. “We’re happy with it, as long as the end result is good. So far it looks very good and Simon know that we are cautious, so he listens,” he explained.

Sunde further stressed that other than allowing the filmmaker into their lives, the Pirate Bay co-founders are not affiliated with the project in any way. “It is his project, we don’t own or direct anything. We just help by giving him our time,” he said.

Last year, some early TPB-AFK footage already found its way onto the Internet. The material shows the crew working out how much money they have earned from the site. More evil plans and true motivations of the former site owners are expected to be unfolded in the final release.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In the meantime, according to a report, one of the servers originally confiscated by the police in the 2006 Pirate Bay raid is set to become a museum piece.

Sweden’s National Museum of Science and Technology has announced it has bought the server for 2,000 kronor ($243). It will be displayed in a section of the museum dedicated to machines and inventions that have changed people’s lives.

In other Pirate Bay news, film director and producer Simon Klose previously announced he was making a documentary about the site entitled “TPB-AFK”. The movie, which is being made by Klose from a fly-on-the-wall perspective, is scheduled to be finished in five years. When it’s released, Klose hopes that it will be heavily pirated but of course, pirates don’t operate on other people’s release schedules.

Impatient at having to wait years for a release, someone sneaked a CAM into an early screening and released the footage onto the Internet. The damning footage, which shows the crew working out how much money they have earned from the site, is available below.

More Pirate Bay updates as we get them…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.