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Piracy The Internet

The Pirate Bay Is Back Online, Properly 181

New submitter cbiltcliffe writes: About a month ago, we discussed news that the Pirate Bay domain name was back online. This story mentioned a timer, which supposedly showed the time since the police raid. I didn't notice at the time, but a more recent check showed this counter was counting down, not up, with a time set to reach zero at the end of January. Sometime around a week ago, the waving pirate flag video changed to a graphic of an orange phoenix, and a disabled search box showed up. I've been watching the site since, and now, about 12 hours before the timer was to reach zero, the site is back up, complete with searches.
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The Pirate Bay Is Back Online, Properly

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:06PM (#48949427)

    It seems they have problems with the staff though.
    More info here [torrentfreak.com]

    • by BronsCon ( 927697 ) <social@bronstrup.com> on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:21PM (#48949481) Journal
      Yeah... staff locked out? Seems fishy, almost as though LEOs took over the domain and brought the site back up. Someone brew some tea, I think there's a pot of honey around here somewhere.
    • This doesn't seem to qualify as 'properly', eh?
  • Countdown (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is there going to be a countdown until it's taken back down? FBI.gov maybe?

  • by TheReaperD ( 937405 ) on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:15PM (#48949465)

    And the futile game of whack-a-mole continues. I wonder just how long media companies will take to realize that this is futile? My guess is they'll go out of business first.

    • by bmo ( 77928 )

      "And the futile game of whack-a-mole continues."

      To make the matter even more confusing, Pirate Bayâ(TM)s downtime spurred the development of various spin-offs, all of which have steady userbases of their own. Isohunt.toâ(TM)s OldPirateBay.org is currently the largest, with millions of visitors per day and the number one spot for the search term Pirate Bay in Google.

      Something something "Tarkin." and "If you strike me down I will become more powerful..." Star Wars quotes here.

      --
      BMO

    • They should rename TPB to The Borg. You know, resistance is futile and all that.

    • What they need to do is make their shit available to Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, etc?

      I have a subscription and guess what. They will get paid by these too. Younger generations hate TV and tiers and paying through the nose for broadcasting fees.

      I am opposed to TPB and think piracy is wrong on all levels! I like getting paid for my work. But I won't buy your lousy shit but I do subscribe to Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix and run a Roku III on my TV for streaming what I want. Make it available and I may watch it a

      • by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Sunday February 01, 2015 @12:58AM (#48950147)
        That argument makes little sense. Of course people get paid for their work. The TBP operates in the pipeline _after_ people already got paid. Movies or whatnot don't get made without people getting paid. The carpenters who build sets and models get paid. The costume designers get paid. The extras get paid, the camera people, etc.

        It's best to think of piracy as a form of spoilage. The example is harvesting apples. That's a lot of work, and the pickers must get paid, but once the apples are put in storage, some percentage of the apples will spoil. You don't see farmers being ideologically opposed to spoilage, do you? It's not an ideology or an ethical problem. It's a natural part of the lifecycle of apples. There are ways to minimize it, but it gets expensive and often is not worth it.

        Media have a lifecycle too. Once enough people got to see them, some people will make copies, using cams or otherwise. With news it's even worse. Once enough people hear about the latest terrorist bombing, they'll paraphrase using their mouths. That's piracy: It's only a matter of numbers, and of probabilities.

        Economically in fact, piracy is a good thing just like any form of spoilage. Imagine if you bought 10,000 apples and they never, ever, spoiled? You'd still be eating those apples when you were 80 years old. You'd never have bought another apple in your life. You'd have expensive storage costs over 80 years. The farmer would be out of business already, since after everyone bought a lifetime's worth they wouldn't buy any more. And apple prices would be much higher in a futile bid to compensate.

        Same with movies and media. The myth of a piracy free hollywood is a nightmare in disguise. Don't waste your time believing their lies.

        • ??
          Wow just wow.

          I will remember not to pay you and see how you like it and make up some rationalization you already got paid. Who needs your 401k you already got paid greedy socialist etc.

          Sorry that is stealing and no if the contract was they get paid for the life of the product you can't not have it unless you pay too. You are a thief plain and simple and I know I sound assholish and a troll here on Slashdot but we work in software and expect to keep getting paid for our work. You can not expect to start a

          • by AK Marc ( 707885 )

            I will remember not to pay you and see how you like it and make up some rationalization you already got paid.

            Every person involved was already paid. The Grip and such got paid cash on the day they worked. Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it. Pay me cash for my work, then steal it after I'm paid. That won't hurt me.

            • by itzly ( 3699663 )

              Every person involved was already paid

              Except for the studio, who financed all of this.

            • by AthanasiusKircher ( 1333179 ) on Sunday February 01, 2015 @11:17AM (#48951369)

              Every person involved was already paid. The Grip and such got paid cash on the day they worked. Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it.

              To this, I offer the following parable:

              There once was a man who wanted to open a series of restaurants. He hired an architect, interior designers, and a team of construction contractors to build the first restaurant. After a year of planning and building, the restaurant was finished.

              The man went on Slashdot and then did read posts by AK Marc and martin-boundary and others, who told him that "every person involved was already paid."

              So the man decided not to open his restaurant. Burglars came and stole the food. Squatters came and took up residence in the building. But the man was unconcerned, since "every person involved was already paid."

              At the end of the year, the man went to his accountant. Lo, his accountant was not pleased. "Why didst thou spend thy money upon this restaurant?" saith the accountant.

              The man saith unto his accountant, "'Every person involved was already paid.' AK Marc and martin-boundary hath told me so. Thus I decided customers were not necessary and figured the project was finished."

              But the account then pointed out that the man had not been paid. And lo, the man was sore aggrieved. Thenceforth, he built no more restaurants, and construction business dried up in town. His architect and his designers and his construction workers lost their jobs and never were paid again.

              But, as the Slashdot posters had said:

              Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it.

              But the workers were quite confused, since they lost their jobs.

              Here endeth the lesson.

              (P.S. In case this is too unclear to the dense posters and mods who rated such comments highly -- yes, for a particular movie project, the people who "worked" on it were already paid. But the corporations and investors who paid all of them were depending on future profits to make back their initial capital outlay. If they don't receive enough profits, they will stop funding future projects, and "the grip and such" will likely not get as much work. You may or may not think this is a bad idea -- and I'm NOT defending the current copyright system by any means -- but pretending that "every person involved was already paid" and there will be no future impact on their lives is just ridiculous.)

            • And are expecting to make that money back, along with profit after the movie is released. And if they don't make their money back after the movie is released, they won't finance future projects, and this grips, editors, and audio engineers will find themselves unable to find future work.

              most movies don't make back their initial investment in first release. It's DVD, rental, and other broadcasting rights sales where they make much of their return.
              • "most movies don't make back their initial investment in first release."

                Correction. Most Hollywood movies that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars don't make back their investment. Solution: Cut down production costs.

                Actors demanding 40M bucks [forbes.com] for their role? Yeah, that will fade, sooner or later.

                Look, it's market economics 101. If your product/service/whatever don't make enough money it is time to trim the fat. Why should hollywood business be any different?

              • Never have had any sympathy for investors making less money, never will have any sympathy.

                • Never have had any sympathy for investors making less money, never will have any sympathy.

                  Funny I thought you might of had a 401k, savings, and some investments not? What about your mother if she is still around?

                  Never have sympathy for yourself and your mother. They are the shareholders. Not some smartass prick driving a Bently on Wall Street but us.

                  • You live with a mindset that anything that serves you personally is good and anything that doesn't is bad. A greedy right wing viewpoint. Don't expect others to think the same way.

                    I don't have a problem with savers getting interest, nor investors getting a moderate return. But I repeat I don't have any sympathy with investors who are making less money, and I never will.

                    • Movies are expensive to make. Somebody's got to front the money so lots of people get paid. In this case, it's the investors. Not all movies will make enough money to pay off the investors, which means that, to keep investing, they need a substantial return on some movies to average to a reasonable return that will keep them investing in movies. If they're limited to a moderate return when a movie pays off big, then they're going to have an overall negative return (or at least lots less than moderate),

                    • Why are movies so expensive to make? The cost seems almost unbelievable and almost never bears any relation to the quality of the film (above a certain threshold) what does that tell you?
                    • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
                      Especially since so many fam-film remakes are almost the same quality of the original (unless they are deliberately not so, campy-style).
              • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
                So everyone who worked on that movie will get 100% paid for it, and only the non-working investors will be out any money, and they are guaranteed by law a no-risk investment. Got it. Must protect profits for billionaires, not workers.
          • You have some problems with this "sequence of events" thing, eh? Let me spell it out for you:

            The people who actually did the work have long since been paid.

            The only people "losing" anything are the ones trying to charge rent... forever and ever, amen [booksquare.com].

        • Economically in fact, piracy is a good thing just like any form of spoilage. Imagine if you bought 10,000 apples and they never, ever, spoiled? You'd still be eating those apples when you were 80 years old. You'd never have bought another apple in your life. You'd have expensive storage costs over 80 years.

          Are you seriously trying to argue that it's a good thing apples go rotten? And that's why piracy is good?

        • That argument makes little sense. Of course people get paid for their work. The TBP operates in the pipeline _after_ people already got paid.

          Mmmmno. It's still an investment they make. The equation does not work without paying customers. Either they are in loss at the release and need to recoup the production costs with sales. Or, they want to acquire enough money with sales to make investing into the next product feasible.

          • If the pirates wouldn't have paid to see the movie anyway, for example they are too poor to pay, then that piracy is no loss to the studio whatsoever. And that certainly is the case for a sizable number of pirates.

            Of course there are other people who would have paid, but don't pay if they can get a pirate version. Those people do represent a loss to the studio owners.

            The split between the two is unknown.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Let me preface this (as i always have to do here) by saying that the current copyright system is broken, the stupid copyright extensions that businesses have pushed through are ridiculous, material should go into the public domain much sooner (the original U.S. 1790 Copyright Act's idea of 14 years seemed plenty), etc.

          But just because we recognize that copyright is fundamentally broken and business models may need to change does NOT mean we should mod up any completely nonsensical pro-piracy argument that

          • Perhaps I'm having trouble recognising a serious problem when faced with one, but with the current state of wages being: Hollywood Reporter Wages Article [hollywoodreporter.com] I'm not seeing what this piracy problem is all about.
            I don't see anyone in Hollywood making minimum wage or less..... especially not losing money because of piracy... Something as simple as a bad poster design is going to be worse for their profits than all those nasty pirates...
            Meanwhile, seems everyone who is complaining about how bad piracy is is maki
        • by Znork ( 31774 )

          While I would like to agree with you, and while you're responding to an argument that makes no sense, I think you need to work on those arguments a bit.

          First, comparing artificially scarce goods to any kind of real scarce goods is something you should avoid doing at all. Arguments like spoilage aren't particularly relevant, and spoilage is usually (throughout the history of mankind) fought as much as possible. With the advent of preserves and freezing we can do a lot, but you still don't see the world overf

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It will go on forever. Just think of comparably stupid things like the "war on drugs". It has been going on since 1920, with nothing to show than massively increased damage, but zero result in consumption. Stupid people stop their fanaticism only when they face overwhelming opposition.

      • Prohibition on alcohol didn't go on forever, and neither will the war on drugs. The war on cannabis is already fading in America.

        Overwhelming opposition just comes down to politicians believing they will get 1 more vote for decriminalising than criminalising. (Plus the lack of corporate bribes to maintain the prohibition.) Such is democracy.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Well, yes. Not "forever" in the literal sense, just far, far too long. And bet on them finding some other stupid restrictions when older stupid ones go away.

  • by lesincompetent ( 2836253 ) on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:18PM (#48949471)
    How do we know it's legit?
    i.e. not a honeypot or some kind of trick...
  • by Kekke ( 236130 ) on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:22PM (#48949483) Journal

    Now all the officials who where involved in that raid, can start searching again via PB.
    No need to use those thousands of others torrent search sites that are available.

    Good for them.
    I hope they feel like winners now.

  • by Trax3001BBS ( 2368736 ) on Saturday January 31, 2015 @09:26PM (#48949503) Homepage Journal

    But like to share a recent event

    I got my first Notice of Copyright Infringement not one but 8, one file which consist of 8 episodes.
    Hell it's even on youtube.

    On behalf of Vobile as an agent for Discovery Communications, LLC
    2880 Lakeside Drive, Suite 360
    Santa Clara, CA 95054
    agent@discovery.copyright-notice.com

    Evidentiary Information:
    Protocol: BitTorrent
    Infringed Work: How the Universe Works
    Infringing FileName: How.The.Universe.Works.Season.1[Complete][2010]HDTV-up=
    endi
    Infringing FileSize: 352 MB
    Infringer's IP Address: nope
    Infringer's Port: not that it matters

    • Infringing FileName: How.The.Universe.Works.Season.1[Complete][2010]HDTV-up=
      endi

      I should add the series is available to watch on discovery.com and I did try to watch it there first. At night to put me to sleep, it's Mike Rowe's narration, knocks me right out.

      But there is the same video AD played every 5mins or less, while it's being viewed, that I just can't take it anymore.

  • this is pissing me off. Might go back to my Three wireless, it was only 7MBit down and 150ms+ ping, but it fucking worked.

  • Where has the page that shows all the takedown notices and legal challenges (and their responses) gone?
    • Good question. The link for that showed up at the same time as the search box, but it was disabled in the same way. I didn't notice that it had disappeared when the site actually went live again.

  • Maybe it's a honeypot now (yohoooo NSA!, Hollywood!, Lawyers!)
  • by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Saturday January 31, 2015 @11:30PM (#48949919)

    I started to use Kick Ass and much nice over Piratebay. Best part is you get to see the comments numbers on the main list.

    One thing I did discover lately though is a lot of shows 2+ years old have no seeds. Wonder if usenet server could be used as a seed even if a single see to shows don't dissapear into oblivion.

  • The "new" pirate bay site is blocked here in the UK, which makes me question what kind of process the police have to go through to get sites blocked. Can a site be blocked simply because it shares the name of a site that's already blocked? Because it has a similar domain name?

    Also, if Barrett Brown can be jailed for linking to allegedly illegal material, can you, I, or Slashdot's owners be jailed for linking to an allegedly illegal torrent site?

    • In the UK it's the ISPs that have the legal duty to block pirate sites, under a recent law. And thepiratebay.se is still blacklisted from before it was raided.

  • it's not properly running if it requires to run Windows. when you click search it downloads VLC installer .exe file and won't actually search. VLC is already installed and running on my macbook pro, which of course doesn't run EXE files and won't be recognized by their dumb site.

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