The film, created by Simon Klose, follows three Pirate Bay founders during their trial in Sweden. True to the nature of the site it can be downloaded for free.

Through this model the film’s director hopes to reach the broadest audience possible. However, several film studios are obstructing this goal by sending DMCA notices to Google, asking the search giant to remove links to the documentary.

Klose was quite shocked when he found out about the unwarranted censorship and initially decided to lawyer up to sue the movie studios. That plan was later aborted when the lawyers at Chilling Effects advised the director that his efforts would be futile.

“The lawyers saw no use suing the movie studios for filing false DMCA claims and seek damages, unless I could prove subjective intent and bad faith. Instead they advised me to file a counter-notice once I had found out whether Google had actually taken down the links or not,” Klose explains.

The director decided to take up this advice and contacted Google instead, hoping to get the censored links put back up.

Klose managed to get in touch with Google’s Nordic Policy counsel David Mothander, who said he would follow up on the case. But today, two months and several reminders later, the director still has to receive a reply.

This leads Klose to belief that Google is more interested in helping Hollywood to censor the web than assisting independent creators to correct DMCA takedown abuses.

“To me it’s a depressive lesson that Google rather acts as a private proxy for dinosaur copyright enforcement than helping indie filmmakers experiment with sustainable distribution models” Klose says.

While the automated takedown request in question may not be intentional, they are certainly not an isolated incident. After our initial report back in May copyright holders have sent in several new takedown requests for TPB-AFK.

Below is one that was sent on behalf of HBO in June. The notice claims to protect “The Pacific” but also lists a link to the Pirate Bay documentary. A quick search on Google reveals that the result has indeed been removed.

The same is true for a DMCA request that was sent in Lionsgate’s name recently. This notice lists “The Haunting in Connecticut 2 Ghosts of Georgia” as the copyrighted work but as can be seen below, the notice also affects TPB-AFK and a wide variety of other unrelated titles.

Klose is pretty upset by the unwarranted censorship which he says hurts his business model, and he urges Google to also protect those who gladly give away their work for free.

“It sucks to be arbitrarily censored by Google’s and Hollywood’s bot system. By making it harder for us to share the film they are harming our freemium distribution experiment,” Klose tells TorrentFreak.

“It’s bizarre to be punished for experimenting with distribution models by an industry doing so little for the filmmakers they claim to protect,” he adds.

While it’s unrealistic to expect Google to catch all errors made by copyright holders, Klose’s problem does bring up an important issue.

There is currently no easy way to check whether a link has been removed from Google. In addition, it is not clear how third parties can send counter-notices to reinstate content on websites that they don’t own.

First and foremost, however, copyright holders should make sure that their automated tools don’t take down legitimate content that is not theirs.

Update: Simon Klose tells TorrentFreak that after he posted his complaints in public, Google’s Nordic Policy counsel David Mothander offered to reinstate the links.

“David from Google just called me up and said his “reply to me had got stuck in his outbox”. He said it was a really lame excuse and said he was sorry. Then he offered to put the links that had been taken down back,” Klose says.

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

The film, created by Simon Klose, is available for no cost and has already been watched by millions of people. The public response to this free release model has been overwhelmingly positive, but it’s now meeting resistance from Hollywood, TPB’s arch rival.

Over the past weeks several movie studios have been trying to suppress the availability of TPB-AFK by asking Google to remove links to the documentary from its search engine. The links are carefully hidden in standard DMCA takedown notices for popular movies and TV-shows.

The silent attacks come from multiple Hollywood sources including Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate and are being sent out by multiple anti-piracy outfits.

Fox, with help from six-strikes monitoring company Dtecnet, asked Google to remove a link to TPB-AFK on Mechodownload. Paramount did the same with a link on the Warez.ag forums.

Viacom sent at least two takedown requests targeting links to the Pirate Bay documentary on Mrworldpremiere and Rapidmoviez. Finally, Lionsgate jumped in by asking Google to remove a copy of TPB-AFK from a popular Pirate Bay proxy.

While it’s entertaining to think that these takedowns are truly targeted at TBP-AFK, the more likely explanation is that they are collateral damage. Most DMCA takedown processes are fully automated and somehow the TPB-AFK links were (mistakenly) associated with infringing titles.

However, that doesn’t make it less of a problem.

The whole episode shows once again that something is seriously wrong with the current implementation of the DMCA takedown system. At the moment rightsholders get to take down whatever they want, with almost no oversight and no incentive to improve the accuracy of their systems.

Perhaps a six-strikes plan or some other form of “education” is in order for copyright holders who fail to learn from their mistakes?

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

One of the topics that comes up in the film is the testimony of Professor Roger Wallis during the first Pirate Bay trial four years ago.

Wallis was brought in to answer questions regarding the effect of unauthorized file-sharing on music and movie sales. In his testimony Wallis told the court that his research found no relation between the two, adding that piracy may even boost sales under some circumstances.

This prompted the music and movie industry lawyers to discredit and question the professor’s reputation. The TPB AFK documentary captured this moment, and the clip below shows that Wallis was visibly shaken by the attacks.

“How low can you go?” questions the professor as he exits the court room.

The professor later adds that it is not uncommon for pro-file-sharing researchers to be attacked like this. However, Wallis mostly knows the stories from colleagues in the United States, not Sweden.

“I think it’s sick to attack the academic world like this, but it’s not the first time,” Wallis says.

“I’ve heard horrible stories from the United States where professors who have indicated that file-sharing could be positive for the development of the industry have been hunted down with a whip.”

“It’s sad that these American methods are coming to Sweden,” the professor concludes.

Wallis doesn’t go into detail about the accusations, but it’s no secret that the copyright lobby can respond harshly to pro file-sharing sentiments.

Just a few months ago we saw that the RIAA’s research partner NPD discredited a study showing that file-sharing music buyers spend more than their non-sharing counterparts.

In his article NPD’s Russ Crupnick wrote that the research findings were based on misinterpretations, and that some researchers should have a license to publish data. Ironically enough, this article itself included a huge mistake as the numbers in one of the NPD charts didn’t add up.

For Wallis everything turned out okay in the end. After his testimony his wife was overwhelmed with flowers and other gifts from the public, as a token of appreciation for her husband and the pro-sharing stance he took in court.

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

The BitTorrent site and its founders have been targeted by several court cases over the years, and Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose has documented part of this struggle.

The result is TPB AFK, a dark documentary that follows the three Pirate Bay founders during their trials in Sweden up until the final verdict. The project started more than four years ago and today it premieres at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival.

In a world first the documentary is available simultaneously on a BitTorrent tracker near you as part of the official release.

- Download the TPB AFK torrents (proxy)

For those who have been following TorrentFreak for a while the film will not bring many shocking revelations. However, it does provide a unique behind-the-scenes perspective on the dozens of news events that were reported during the Pirate Bay trials.

What not many people know is that the three founders of The Pirate Bay often pretended to get along in public, but had some big fallouts in private. This also becomes apparent in the documentary.

Peter Sunde, one of the three founders followed in the documentary, previously told TorrentFreak that he has mixed feelings about the final TPB AFK cut but that “it tells an important story.”

TPB-AFK highlights a lot of the negative events the three founders went through, ending with the final guilty verdict early last year. Needless to say these events had quite an impact on their lives.

“It’s still a fucked up story and the film makes me think about the past years of my life quite a lot,” Sunde says.

The Pirate Bay founder added that he might have chosen other material to include and that many of the good parts have been left out.

“It’s Simon’s decision what to include and it’s his view of our story. I like that he’s independent from us and that he’s promised to release lots of extra material for some of the things that I might have wanted to have included,” Sunde said.

Those who’ve seen TPB AFK will understand Sunde’s sentiment. Perhaps that’s what makes the documentary even more compelling. A must watch.

Let us know what you think in the comment section.

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

In the 2 minute clip Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde talks about their ongoing hosting troubles.

In 2010 Hollywood obtained yet another injunction which requited ISP Black Internet to stop hosting the popular BitTorrent site.

Responding to the legal pressure, The Pirate Bay moved part of its operation over to servers hosted by the Pirate Party, giving them “parliamentary immunity.”

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

It often takes months before a blockbuster movie appears online after it premieres in theaters, while the public demands instant access.

So, when a documentary is made about the founders of The Pirate Bay, things have to be done differently. And this is exactly what’s going to happen with the upcoming release of TPB-AFK.

Today it was officially announced that the documentary will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) on February 8th. This offline premiere coincides with the free online release, making it the first ever to have such a double release.

“I’m so thrilled to open the ‘Panorama Dokumente’ section of the Berlinale with the first film ever to be released for free online from an A-festival,” TPB-AFK director Simon Klose tells TorrentFreak in a comment.

“The Pirate Bay changed the film industry from the outside, I’m trying to change it from within,” he adds, hinting that it might be wise for others to follow this trend.

After seeing the TPB-AFK trailer many users and followers of the notorious BitTorrent site are excited to see the documentary. However, the film doesn’t have the classic Hollywood ending most are used to.

TorrentFreak talked to several people who’ve seen a private screener and the overall impression we got is that it’s not the most uplifting story. That doesn’t come as a surprise of course, as most of the material covers how the three founders fought their legal battles in Sweden, and lost.

Peter Sunde, one of the three founders followed in the documentary, has mixed feelings about the end result.

“It tells an important story,” Sunde tells TorrentFreak.

“I don’t want to tell too much about it because people should see it and make up their own minds. After seeing the full movie for the first time I was thinking about it for about two weeks without having an opinion or words to describe it.”

TPB-AFK highlights a lot of the negative events the three founders went through, ending with the final guilty verdict early last year. Needless to say these events had quite an impact on their lives.

“It’s still a fucked up story and the film makes me think about the past years of my life quite a lot,” Sunde says.

The Pirate Bay founder adds that he might have chosen other material to include and that many of the good parts are left out.

“It’s Simon’s decision what to include and it’s his view of our story. I like that he’s independent from us and that he’s promised to release lots of extra material for some of the things that I might have wanted to have included,” Sunde says.

Sunde concludes, however, that the director did a great job and that TPB-AFK is a must watch.

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

The film will be distributed for free on the Internet this spring and the official trailer was released yesterday.

Thanks to a feature on The Pirate Bay frontpage the 1:45 preview already got more than 400,000 views.

TPB-AFK is a project of Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose and has been in the making for four years.

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

The Pirate Bay was born, and nearly a decade and numerous court cases later it is still the most-visited torrent site of all time.

But how did Anakata, Brokep and TiAMO – three guys from Scandinavia – become 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?

These and other questions will be answered in the soon-to-be-released documentary TBP-AFK. The film shows the three founders looking back at how it all started, and also follows them during the Pirate Bay trials in Stockholm.

The film has been in the making for four years and Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose has now finally announced that it’s ready to premiere. Once a film festival picks it up TBP-AFK will be made available for download on The Pirate Bay as well, and everyone will be allowed to share it.

To get funding for the film Simon Klose initially started a Kickstarter campaign during the summer of 2010, and not without success. The goal of $25,000 was met in just three days and $51,424 was raised in total during the month-long fundraiser.

However, TBP-AFK also received financial backing from several major broadcasters in Europe, including the BBC, the German ARTE, Swedish SVT, Norwegian NRK, Danish DR and the Dutch VPRO. This is quite remarkable, considering that the documentary will be shared online for free.

To keep close followers of the project happy, Klose has previously released a few short clips of the footage he shot. One clip features Pirate Bay founder Fredrik Neij (TiAMO) drinking a beer and chatting about the early days of The Pirate Bay.

In the clip below Gottfrid Svartholm (Anakata), who’s currently serving his sentence in a Swedish prison, discusses in court how The Pirate Bay came about.

Klose told TorrentFreak that he hopes to release more details on the premiere during the coming weeks, as well as some other big news.

Stay tuned.

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

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.