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Pirate Bay Captain Speaks Out on TV for the first time watch!

youtube.com — One of the most popular online communities - ThePirateBay - is known as one of the Internet's largest file-sharing sites with free music, games and movies available for download. But the man behind the project is now facing copyright charges.

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  • dantidote, on 02/11/2008, -14/+155Who was that reporter? Foxy.
    • zaqarov, on 02/11/2008, -0/+35Foxy News
      • NullPolarity, on 02/11/2008, -1/+35They got Fox 11's style of "CHECK OUT ALL THESE BLANK PAGES OF SUPPOSED DATA" down, at least.
    • editor88, on 02/11/2008, -1/+15http://www.russiatoday.ru/employee/31 A Brit who works for Russians, it seems
      • webtroll, on 02/11/2008, -0/+9After seeing her picture, her voice has grown dearly to me ;-)
        Go employee 31!
    • houndeyex, on 02/11/2008, -1/+20Her voice gets to me after a few seconds.
    • eschompthis, on 02/11/2008, -0/+8the media approached thepiratebay very odd compare to the US. They attack him for making millions in advertising, here in the US they would just attack him for record labels not making any money
    • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5Her voice is bloody annoying, though.
      • Gregus1032, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5i blame the terrrrrrrrrible sound quality on that video.
    • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -2/+1yeah and the rest is just screwable. But better not open that mouth and talk, now that was a turnoff for sure.
  • ZenFountain, on 02/11/2008, -36/+4http://normand1.ytmnd.com/

    I'm trying to find this album on The Pirate Bay, can anyone help me?
    • ZenFountain, on 02/11/2008, -11/+3PS, this guy makes about as much sense as the TPB's owners defense of earning millions of dollars in ad revenue to fight the greedy corporations.
      • ufia, on 02/11/2008, -9/+3La poignée de porte, y'a lachait pas, la poignée de porte. EEEEeeeeeee! La poignée de porte.
  • Flinty, on 02/11/2008, -6/+185You really think they make millions? I'm sure they make a bit of cash but really in the millions?
    • arcooke, on 02/11/2008, -8/+39I don't doubt it a bit.. with how much traffic runs through that site.. advertising is worth a lot.
      • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -5/+9They don't make millions. Trust me, they don't.
        They make money from it, but the HUGE load on the site and spread failsafe costs a ton to maintain. And that is the story.
        Another side of the story is ad blockers. Ad-block plus for instance. A lot of people use them, including myself. I never see any adds what so ever.
        • theblt, on 02/12/2008, -2/+3"but the HUGE load on the site and spread failsafe costs a ton to maintain"

          Do you know how BitTorrent even works? Besides the tiny .torrent files, tracking, and searches, there isn't a HUGE amount of load. Sure it probably costs thousands per month, but nothing they don't make up in advertising.

          Also, your analysis of their advertising is assuming that the advertisers are paying per impression or click. They might be, they might not be. In any case, I'm sure they're making some decent bank.
    • GOVATENT, on 02/11/2008, -1/+17in order to make money, do people have to click the ads, or is it based on every unique ip that loads an ad?
      • nephilimx, on 02/11/2008, -3/+19normally load, company buys 10,000 ad views for say $3,000 (google ad way). when millions view, thats when the cash rolls in.
        • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+11That's not how Google AdWords works. You pay per click. Pageviews are free. If you offer to pay as much as $4 per click and 17 million people view your ad before one person clicks it you only pay $4 (or, more likely, $2.84 or something - it's auction pricing).
          • fkr3, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3Except they're not using AdSense (the publisher branch of AdWords). And only getting 1 click out of 17,000,000 views would take a special kind of determination to achieve.
          • spyrochaete, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2I know that. I was just replying to the guy above me who was incorrectly describing the "google ad way".
      • Zera, on 02/12/2008, -1/+1Borrowed link from down below deep in the comments: Article clearly shows one of the Pirate Bay guys as worth $10 Million

        http://www.dulcenegosyante.com/top-20-internet-mil ...
    • LordKaT, on 02/11/2008, -2/+78they might make millions but ... how much does it cost to keep TPB running?
      • saady87, on 02/11/2008, -23/+7less then 100 K I assure you...
        • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -1/+17Less than 100K?!?!? Go build yourself a service runtime like TPB and failsafe locations and get a grip you noob.
          Start by imagine how much the electricity bill is only. For that you would need to understand what need to be powered etc.
          You think TPB sits on a 100 mbps!?! And that juice is the only part needed to provide dataflow?
          Seriously, someone should smack the invoice of 1000 pages over your head and maybe you learn what things of this magnitude cost.
      • skyshock1, on 02/11/2008, -0/+15I'm curious as to what kind of hardware infrastructure they use in order to serve that much traffic.
        • superdog87, on 02/11/2008, -0/+9http://static.thepiratebay.org has a little info...
        • skyshock1, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1Wow. I thought there'd be... more to it than just those few busted looking racks. Hahaha, that's awesome. Those guys must sure know what they're doing to run that kind of operation on commodity hardware like that.
      • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -2/+10Significantly less than the ad revenue.
    • iancorey, on 02/11/2008, -1/+18Why would the teevee lie?
    • Hello1024, on 02/11/2008, -11/+2From experience running a donation-supported site, I got on average ~4 USD per unique user per year. (an average donation of $30, and ~1 in 7 people donated)

      If that carries through for large sites, then I guess the 50 ish million users of TPB give it in the region of 200 million dollars a year income.

      The difference here is it's adverts not donation, but I presume the overall income will be the same ballpak figure.
      • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3No, I would not. What makes you think that donations per user = ad revenue per user? And it's not per unique user anyway, ad revenue is per page view/per click. The figure would not, as you so eloquently put it, be in the same 'ballpak'.
      • djbon2112, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1You're also ignoring the fact that at smaller sites, people tend to donate more individually and more of them do.
      • TaB42, on 02/18/2008, -0/+2Not even greenpeace gets a 1 in 7 donation rate. What the hell are you advocating? Give a kitten to a Taliban?
    • crypticlabs, on 02/11/2008, -3/+3http://www.digg.com/business_finance/Top_20_Intern ...
      • Zera, on 02/12/2008, -1/+2Why is he being dugg down? That shows a link that says the Pirate Bay founder is worth $10 Mil
    • r3negadeX, on 08/11/2008, -12/+4Face it, the pirate bay is run by a bunch of greedy selfish *****. If you want to pirate stuff at least have the decency to do it from somewhere that isn't run by a bunch of greedy assholes.
    • sporg, on 02/11/2008, -0/+10"Offshore accounts" a phrase which always puts a smile on my face.
    • Cofaloaf, on 02/12/2008, -0/+5Idk looks like he is still saving for a haircut
    • bxblox, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1Id say hundreds of thousands minimum... whatever it is, theyre well off
    • cassaffousth, on 02/23/2008, -0/+1Why then isn't the RIAA/IFPI/whatever setting up a tracker to compete for those millions?
  • HarryWatson00, on 02/11/2008, -27/+2Good news for these guys...they live in Sweden...they won't get prosecuted! More power to these guys though!
    • zongamin, on 02/11/2008, -2/+12So you know more about Swedish Law than the Swedish Police and courts? Or are you just repeating something you heard about Sweden and it sounded about right?
      • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7TPB was always operating within Swedish law (according to TBP - IANASL). That's why they were so open and brazen with legal threats. TPB confessed from day 1 what they were doing because it was 100% legal. If it were illegal they'd have been behind bars long ago.

        I don't know what the police expects to do to TPB - change the laws all of a sudden?
        • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -6/+4It was never legal or illegal, it was a grey area that was never ruled upon. That ruling is about to come.
          • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -2/+6No, it was and still is legal. I read on their blog a long time ago that their lawyers recommended, if linking to torrents became illegal in Sweden, that they'd change their website to link to a link to a torrent. Pending the baning of that, they'd link to a link to a link to a torrent.

            Sweden's government in power is simply compromising its national identity for American money. Rival political parties, as well as most of the Swedish populace, are taking a stand against this.
          • actorboy, on 02/12/2008, -1/+1spyrochaete:

            Because lawyers are always right, huh?
    • ZBrannigan, on 02/11/2008, -2/+9Fail! They were officially prosecuted 11 days ago. Heres the press release from the swedish part of IFPI
      http://www.ifpi.se/getpressrelease.aspx?id=73
      • Radan, on 02/11/2008, -2/+4Translation:

        Today prosecutor Håkan Roswall brought in an indictment to the district court of Stockholm against the four people who may be held responsible for the illegal file sharing site Pirate Bay. The prosecuted are suspected for helping and planning crimes against the copyright law. This crime may lead up to two years in prison.

        At the raid against Pirate Bay the 31:th of May 2006, the Police confiscated a number of servers and other computer equipment. The preliminary investigation has been extensive and has now ended. The four people who has now been prosecuted may part from having to serve their sentence, may also have to pay a major amount of money for the damage file sharing has inflicted.

        "The organisation of Pirate Bay is inflicting the copy right owners, that is, the author, the artists, musicians, actors and producers major economical harm. The creators of Pirate Bay have nor any interests of spreading free speech, nor are they running Pirate Bay because they love music or film. They are instead highly commercial and are driven by the hunt for personal economical profit", says Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI.

        The investigation has been long and after 1.5 years is prosecutor Roswall finished with the preliminary investigation.

        "It's very satisfying that the prosecutor shares our opinion that the activity of the Pirate Bay is illegal and that a prosecution has now been done. Sweden has got the reputation of being a sanctuary for internet pirates ('nätpirater' sounds so good in Swedish :P) and that's not flattering. The trail will get alot of interest all around the world.", says Ludvig Werner.
  • ApokalypseNow, on 02/11/2008, -5/+65Yarr, we prefer ta be called "Buccaneer Americans"
  • Skanadian, on 02/11/2008, -1/+216I love how they have to make it clear that they're nerds.
    • honeymustardn, on 02/11/2008, -4/+49He's been living in front of a computer since he was 6!
      • xaxxon, on 02/11/2008, -5/+23I watched it, too. Thanks.
        • honeymustardn, on 02/12/2008, -1/+4Well that's good then. I was just pointing out what a ridiculous thing it was to say. Perhaps a better phrase would have been "He's been using a computer on and off since he was 6".
    • eOgas, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7It's true. There was a news story around here about a couple that got robbed, and it seemed like the story was mainly about how they were goth....oh yeah, and they play D&D. That was the gist of the article.
  • arcooke, on 02/11/2008, -1/+95Great idea.. put a link to the website on the news and tell people they can download full movies there. The last people on earth who don't know how to download that stuff (people who still get their news from TV) can learn how on the news.
    • zongamin, on 02/11/2008, -16/+1I don't think its ever been a secret.
    • okaroleo, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7as long as they seed i'm all for it. :)
      • Zera, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2They will. New users aren't familiar with it so they are the most likely to keep unwittingly seeding the longest. They also make the *BEST* victims as they are the most novice of all users, and when they're charged with a crime you get the bizarre stories like "Single Parent Mother of 5 charged with Piracy when her 9 year old daughter downloads Finding Nemo"
    • Zera, on 02/12/2008, -0/+3You bet. That's called the "Metallica Effect". Nothing did more for file sharing than when Metallica made a stink about Napster. Napster went from just a few hundred thousand college kids to literally tens of millions of main stream adults. Even my 75 year old Grandma at the time figured out how to go to Napster.com, download and install it all on her own. And then download and listen to some songs that she hadn't heard quote "since I was a little girl"

      Of course Napster died out, but that just allowed the next wave of file sharing to take it's place, and people now knew what an MP3 was, basically how to get them and use them, and this is no different. Mainstream media coverage just informs a whole new generation what it is, and where to go to get it.

      Thank you Metallica.
  • aekdbbop, on 02/11/2008, -4/+346The fact that they have their offices in the same building as the "anti piracy" group is SO BAD ASS.

    I would be so bored without TPB. And broke.
    • computershack, on 02/11/2008, -83/+5Nice to see you're admitting you're a thieving scumbag with no morals.
      • rpatel11, on 02/11/2008, -1/+14ssh shh shhh
      • KOSmurfy, on 02/11/2008, -4/+26No morals? Sharing some copyrighted works might not be ethical, but it's on par with speeding, stealing a pack of gum, etc.
        • BurnTees, on 02/11/2008, -16/+2according to.........?
        • IADTatami, on 02/11/2008, -0/+19Society.
        • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+30Stealing a pack of gum is way more unethical than speeding.
        • Kanidia, on 02/11/2008, -1/+20I don't even think that pirating is on par with speeding. Speeding is dangerous and can result in serious accidents, while gum is probably sold by small stores who can't afford to lose a pack of gum a day. Sure you can use the social contract theory and claim that "if everyone downloaded music"... but the truth is they make millions without that happening.
      • boombye, on 02/11/2008, -1/+12The real thieves are the people the writers strike against, or the corporate record labels that make it impossible for your song to get on the radio but are quick to give you a bad contract
      • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -0/+6last time I checked, the cartell the music industry etc. been up to are far more illegal.
      • hawkeyes2k7, on 02/11/2008, -0/+6did you just say that?
      • djbon2112, on 02/12/2008, -0/+4Copyright infringement is not theft.
      • jimmiss, on 02/12/2008, -0/+3Die in a fire.
    • 4ork, on 02/12/2008, -0/+5I love how they dance on thin ice :D
  • meteor321, on 02/11/2008, -19/+0I searching for it to, I ll tell you if I find it^^.
  • djisti, on 02/11/2008, -15/+8Nohing says "hippie" like a star tatoo on your shoulder. Love the zoom-in at 3:14 to make sure we understand what a commie looks like.
  • yannicwalter, on 02/11/2008, -15/+9I love, that their HQ is in the same building as sweden's anti-piracy-organization.
    That's so badass.
    • noahgelman, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4dude, almost word for word as the guy a few comments above, read before you post
      • theblt, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2Unless they both posted it around the same time...
    • yannicwalter, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1Yeah it's kinda odd, we posted at the exact same time the exact same words…
      lulz
  • muuhgnoo, on 02/11/2008, -8/+18He already spoke in the freely available documentary "Steal This Film", along with the other pirate bay people. http://www.stealthisfilm.com
    • FoxFaction, on 02/11/2008, -4/+23I only have time for movies that originally cost money.
    • Zuggy, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4internet video interview != tv interview
  • kashi, on 02/11/2008, -7/+150Oh poor everybody... I didn't hear the reporter mention that bandwidth doesn't come free and somebody has to pay for it... with real money.
    • computershack, on 02/11/2008, -24/+2Well as they're thieves (they admitted to downloading copyrighted stuff) they probably leech off someone elses connectivity.
      • WhipTail, on 02/11/2008, -7/+5Not thieves, it's copyright infringement.
        • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5Allegedly.

          Next up, sue Melville Dewey. I used his decimal system to find a book in the library that explains how to convert analog audio into digital bits.
      • zephyr42, on 02/11/2008, -1/+10See the thing is what people don't understand is TPB DOESN"T HAVE ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL ON ITS SERVERS AT ALL. They are simply the google of the torrent world.

        IN FACT you can use Google to search for downloads of torrents. Think we should shut them down too??
        • theblt, on 02/12/2008, -2/+1I DONT THINK COMPUTERSHACK WAS IMPLYING THAT TPB HAD COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL ON THEIR SERVERS, BUT MERELY THAT THEY HAVE DOWNLOADED IT THEMSELVES THROUGH THE TORRENT NETWORK. WHETHER THAT'S RIGHT, I DON'T KNOW. LOOK I'M COOL LIKE YOU WRITING IN CAPS!!1!1
      • Bklynadam, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1I think the difference from google is that they actually respond to DMCA notice-and-takedown requests.
        I actually think the solution is to modify the law so that ISPs don't enjoy such a wide immunity for hosting these infringing sites. Then the sites that merely "point" to infringing content don't have to bear all the backlash.
    • zeromancer, on 02/12/2008, -0/+4well. i seem to be paying my service provider and i'm sure TPB is paying their service provider, so please explain to me what your point was again?
    • Bklynadam, on 02/12/2008, -0/+4How dare you imply that the one's profiting from infringement are really the broadband companies and ISPs!
  • flxfxp, on 02/11/2008, -14/+6Damn the audio is crappy
  • flxfxp, on 02/11/2008, -20/+2Damn, the audio is crappy
  • habenneas, on 02/11/2008, -1/+14Wish I had a real pirate ship with a super fat satellite internet connection. Stay in international waters for months on end and serve up the goodies!
    • willster580, on 02/12/2008, -0/+0What would be better, and possibly realistic a ways into the future is a satellite - that would be badass.
    • UncleDavid218, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2Or you could like... buy your own island. Wait a minute...
  • Glimjaur, on 02/11/2008, -2/+99That, really, really is lousy reporting. Oh god..
    • orangetiki, on 02/11/2008, -1/+16true. it's 5 minutes of telling you who they are. and letting the guy have one sentence
    • DiggzDE, on 02/11/2008, -1/+11Is this Sweden's version of Fox News? I haven't seen such sensationalist reporting in a while.
      • mbup, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5Does it sound like Swedish to you?
        • DiggzDE, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1Did I say they were speaking Swedish? Nope. Just as there are various different language television stations here in the States, I figured that there were a few English speaking news stations in Sweden. To me, they were reporting it as if it was local news.
      • willster580, on 02/12/2008, -1/+0British = Swedish...oh wait no it doesn't
  • 0crabby0, on 02/11/2008, -4/+25What? No peg-leg? Not even a hook or patch?
    arrrrrrrrr....
  • Emery, on 02/11/2008, -4/+6Ahoy, he looks like a pirate!! Arrr
  • oOLiquidNightOo, on 02/11/2008, -2/+72what a disappointing segment. the reporter starts the report by saying that the people behind pirate bay rarely talk to the press. apparently she felt the need to keep that consistent:

    intro: long winded setup.

    reporter: and this .. is the site's mastermind.
    pirate bay guy: i've done nothing wrong ..

    exit: long winded wrapup.

  • Sharkky, on 02/11/2008, -2/+54Is that a dildo/vibrator on her piano?
  • DarkSamus, on 02/11/2008, -10/+1someone translate

    can't listen to this at work
  • zongamin, on 02/11/2008, -14/+5Thief.
    • snatchmstr, on 02/11/2008, -2/+5We'll see what the courts think. Did you need a new porche this year?
      • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -4/+4Funny, I'm a professional film actor and drive a beat up pickup I paid $1200 for. You clearly have the inside scoop on the industry though. Please point me and my peers to the money train.
        • barbobot, on 02/11/2008, -2/+4"The Industry" eh?
        • boombye, on 02/11/2008, -2/+3Chances are nobody cares for his acting abilities or his material. So he's just finding a reason to blame others for nobody watching the crap he's been involved. Actors have big egos sometimes, and when they don't realize how bad they suck, they blame it on leechers. Can't tell you how many shows got ***** ratings and they blamed it on downloading, but it'd be like some show about some girl's feelings or something, nobody wants to see that ***** lol.
          • actorboy, on 02/12/2008, -2/+2I've made 27 films, 5 or 6 last year alone. I've just been cast in something else today and have three auditions this week straight to the director, no pre-screen. Somebody apparently likes what I'm doing. If it's you, don't steal my work. If it's not you, don't steal my work.
        • happytedium, on 02/12/2008, -1/+1Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you like to refer to yourself as "actorboy".
      • Mesmorize, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2If he earned a Porsche he should get his goddamn Porsche.
  • illtempered, on 02/11/2008, -2/+13I don't know why people should be bothered that these guys are earning money from advertising on their website.. i mean, look at the amount of people getting served by a service they created!
    • kyle415, on 02/11/2008, -6/+0look at the amount of musicians who are getting f'ed up the a.
    • shark72, on 02/11/2008, -3/+1That's not the troubling issue. People who understand the realities of Internet business know that TPB is making some pretty good money. The annoying people are the kids who drink the kool-aid and think that TPB isn't making money. It's certainly in the best interest of TPB for them to lie about their income...but it's sad when otherwise smart people fall for the *****. The TPB guys are businessmen, not saints.

      Would be nice if TPB announced that they were donating a percentage of their profits to the artists. THAT would back up their "we care about the artists" stance. Until they do that, it's just so much talk.
      • asa400, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1You have a point, but there's some issues preventing that from happening. TPB can't donate to "The Artists" directly. Which artists would they donate to? They'd end up donating to the record labels, and their money would be used to file lawsuits against them. They're smarter than that.

        In a perfect world, yes, TPB would pay a fee to the artists. But in order for this to work, the recording industry as a whole has to give some ground, admit that file sharing is legal, and realize that money can still be made. And they aren't smart enough to do that.
    • Bklynadam, on 02/12/2008, -1/+1Do you mean the amount of people being served, like,
      "you got served biatch!" ?
      If so, thats appropriate.
  • tj111, on 02/11/2008, -3/+51Horribly biased reporting. Personally I could care less if the guys at the Pirate Bay make billions of dollars. They are offering a service to the world, they damn deserve it. It doesn't make them greedy money driven hounds, it makes them smart.
    • Fordi, on 02/11/2008, -6/+5Don't you understand? If you're making money in a way that makes the Overlords happy, they're heroes. If they're making money in a way that makes the Overlords unhappy, they're theives, murderers, and any other type of criminal that they can stretch over the truth.
      • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -1/+5The overlords? What is this, some kind of oppressive fantasy regime?
    • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -3/+12And actually creating the entertainment you want is not a service?
      • barbobot, on 02/11/2008, -3/+3That's the thing though, noone is against those who create the service, they are against the middlemen who steal from the people who create the service
        • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -7/+2Who do you consider the middleman? The studios? Who do you think finances the stuff? The only businesses digital distribution legitimately replaces are printers and manufactures of CDs, DVDs and plastic cases.
        • BurnTees, on 02/11/2008, -1/+6ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm huh? the middlemen who a) distribute the created product so that everyone gets a chance to experience it or the middlemen who b) provide the money necessary to create the product?
          • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -1/+10The middlemen who charge $10 for a digital album with no packaging or shipping. The middlemen who show ads in the movie theatre before the lights go off, before the movie after the lights go off, and positioned in the lead actor's hand during the movie. The middlemen who coincidentally ask a question about Google on Jeopardy just before the commercial break. The middlemen who put ads on the DVD movie you bought so that you wouldn't have to watch ads.

            The middlemen who are double- and triple-dipping because they will do anything to make more money - even alienate and sue the very customers they rely upon to survive. That is why these industries are doomed, and that's why law-abiding people are fed up enough that they risk incarceration.
          • actorboy, on 02/12/2008, -3/+1spyrochaete:

            The $10 is recoup the cost of the studio, recording, mixing, sound engineers, payroll, etc., plus put a little money in the bank to finance other artists. Physical CDs and printing are not the only things that cost money.

            Theaters put ads in front of movies and charge a lot for concessions because most if not all of the ticket price go the movie studios. They gotta make their money somewhere. The box office is not where that happens.

            Google on Jeopardy? What?

            You buy DVDs so you don't have to watch ads? I buy them so I can have a clean, unedited, uninterrupted version of the movie I want to see. Ads before the movie do not hinder this. Go make popcorn and pee while they run. The DVD will stop at the "Play Feature" menu.

            Double and triple dipping from whom? I agree to the contracts I sign with movie companies. If you're ripping off movies to help me as an actor, please stop. I'd rather have the residuals.

            Sue the customers they rely on? If you're pirating movies, you're not paying and you're not a customer. If you're not pirating and get sued, then sue them back.

            Law abiding people? I thought we were talking about people who pirate.

        • Matt2k, on 02/11/2008, -3/+3> That's the thing though, noone is against those who create the service, they are against the middlemen who steal from the people who create the service

          Keep telling yourself that. Maybe it will come true.
      • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -4/+3So essentially, you think it's OK to deprive the artists who create the service of their reward because of some... vague dislike of the MPAA and RIAA?
        • shark72, on 02/11/2008, -3/+2Exactly. Imagine I put up the cash to get somebody's album (or movie) produced and promoted, in the hopes of making money. You, on the other hand, distribute it for free, without helping me with the costs of getting it done. To your average 16-year-old on Digg, you're the hero and I'm the bad guy.
          • FunkyLlama, on 02/12/2008, -0/+1I consider myself the exception that proves the rule, but yeah, I agree with you.
  • PawFox, on 02/11/2008, -5/+6He has cool hair!
  • atomicrobot, on 02/11/2008, -7/+136This is just another prime example of widespread ignorance. TPB is only being singled out because they're so popular and so defiant. TPB is absolutely no different from Google.
    You might argue: "Oh, but atomicrobot, TPB keeps torrents to illegal content on their site!"
    Yeah? Guess what, Google keeps indexes of websites containing bomb recipes, child pornography and illegal downloads. That's much worse than TPB, why not go after Google?
    Oh that's right, everyone uses Google and Google isn't run by mischievous young people!
    It's blatant discrimination. As long as the ***** at the RIAA/MPAA go after the underdogs, they will have the majority of the internet against them. I for one, would gladly donate $ to TPB's legal costs, should they ever need help.

    As far as them earning money? I don't see anything wrong with it. It's better than domain parking or blogspam!
    TPB forever.
    • computershack, on 02/11/2008, -15/+3Difference between Google and TPB is that TPB was set up specifically to help aid illegal sharing of files. Where in Google do you see links to copyrighted TV series sorted by name and series in a manner such as here: http://thepiratebay.org/tv ??
      Quite simply, you don't. The torrents and links Google carries are as a side effect of search engines whereas TPB deliberately sets out to provide an easy service to help people thieve content.
      • cphelps, on 02/11/2008, -0/+17WRONG. TPB was set up specifically to allow people to share files. They don't tell people "Share illegal files here." People just do.
        • Huangism, on 02/11/2008, -3/+2well you can say the same thing about google
        • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -8/+4You know they have the word Pirate in their name, right?
          • cphelps, on 02/11/2008, -2/+7So? I've been on amusement park rides before with Pirate in the name and it didn't steal anything from me. Nor did the restaurants I've been to with Pirate in the name.
          • sirhomer, on 02/11/2008, -4/+2I have "Homer" in my name. In fact, I am actually the real life Homer Simpson from the show The Simpsons, and I was knighted by the Queen of England. But that doesn't mean TBP are actually "pirates", although they might dress like a pirate.
      • Fordi, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7"TPB was set up specifically to help aid illegal^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sharing of files"

        Fixed that for you. TPB is for sharing files with a broad base of people. They are under no onus to filter those files, nor do they have the responsibility to take anything down, under Swedish law. After all, the only things they share are a couple of kilobytes of cryptographic hashes, representing the proper arrangement of the files to share.
        • BurnTees, on 02/11/2008, -4/+3so i guess they set up a /tv section to let people legally share tv episodes that aren't copyrighted?
          • cphelps, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4Someone could produce their own television show at home and upload it so people can download and watch it...
          • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7It's legal in Canada (and presumably in Sweden) to share TV shows online.
          • boombye, on 02/11/2008, -0/+2Besides, TV shows need all the exposure they can get, because all the money is in dvd sales, so if you turn people on to a new show they'll probably pick up the dvds
          • Fordi, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2How is downloading the torrent of a TV show different from recording it on your PVR?
    • sirhomer, on 02/11/2008, -2/+13Google is a big corporation! They play by different rules then the rest of us. Same with the elite rich people. The CEO of Universal's son was discovered by the record industry to be downloading music from the Internet, do you think he got sued or arrested? http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061204/003837.s ...
      • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4George W. Bush's daughters are on the record, stating they wanted to make daddy a mixtape for xmas. I haven't been watching the news lately but were the president's daughters sued by the RIAA yet?
    • noots, on 02/11/2008, -8/+3i think the main difference is TPB hosts the torrents which then link to pirated content themselves . Google provides links to websites - that then provide links to illegal content -.

      Essentially there is a middle man with google, making their business seem more legit. It is actually quite a big difference if you look at it.
      • sgoogle, on 02/11/2008, -2/+6A torrent is basically the same as a link from Google
      • vibrokatana, on 02/11/2008, -1/+6All a torrent has is url/ip locations for the tracker which is about the same thing as indexing links.
      • noots, on 02/11/2008, -3/+3yes.... TPB is HOSTING the file that provides links to the material. Google LINKS to the SITES that provide LINKS to the material.

        i had to abuse caps because you both seem to have ignored that key point.

        i'm not against TPB, i just don't believe in the arguement that TPB = google. Because it doesn't. I'm am also aware that they added email and image facilities to go along with their main site to make it appear more google like.
        • Fordi, on 02/11/2008, -1/+3Hmmm.
          L=(Link to Copyrighted material)
          L`=(Pointer representing link to copyrighted material)
          L`=*L;

          So, (L!==*L) I'll agree, but (L!=*L) returns false, I'm afraid.

          In short, you're playing with semantics. Stop it.
        • sgoogle, on 02/11/2008, -1/+1Google is HOSTING the LINK to the site / file that contains the material
        • Quakes, on 02/11/2008, -1/+6Google cache? They host plenty of cached .torrent-files on their servers.
        • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4So your point is that Google links directly to illegal content, whereas TPB links to a link that points to illegal content. Doesn't that make Google more directly liable?
      • xenaphobia, on 02/11/2008, -2/+0Actually no sorry you're a tad wrong there.
        Search google for
        "No Country For Old Men" Filetype:torrent

        Win?
        • xenaphobia, on 02/11/2008, -2/+0*filetype

          For some reason F != f when it comes to queries ¬¬
    • sirhomer, on 02/11/2008, -0/+9I'd like to also add Google *DIRECTLY* hosts copyrighted content on their websites such as Google Video, YouTube, and even Gmail. I'm not even talking about links I am talking about full songs, TV shows, and even entire movies, often without any explict permission. What Google does is far far worse then TBP in the law's eyes, but of course the movie industry goes after TBP because:
      1. They are defiant and somewhat political about it (but I promise Google could be very political about what they do if they were under the same kind of threat to their business model)
      2. They don't have nearly the same resources and money as Google, which makes more money then entire record industry combined
    • soapycub, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2It's all in the name -- No one will go after Google because, well, it's Google.

      TPB has the word Pirate in it, so let's get them. If they were called "The Happy Bay" then we might not even see this report.
  • woodcoxcb, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7long live captain brokep and the rest of his crew!
  • jeremymccurdy, on 02/11/2008, -2/+34Christ that wasn't a biased report or anything.
    • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -12/+1It wasn't biased. It reported both sides of the argument: Pirate Bay thinks it's not illegal, artist thinks it should be, many laws say it isn't.
      • waspbr, on 02/11/2008, -1/+12I thought it was a little biased , at the end it kinda hinted that TPB people were leeching opportunists... didn't like that
        • actorboy, on 02/12/2008, -1/+1The Pirate Bay makes money off their site. Reporting facts is not bias when you report the facts from both sides.
          • waspbr, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1the way it was reported was, it sounded like piratebay only deals with the music/videos when it has a lot more stuff circulating in its trackers. At the end showing small time artist who no one outside sweden has heard of seemed very biased, it would be more accurate if instead they showed some musician off MTV cribs.
  • korea, on 02/11/2008, -2/+4hah the guy looks like a pirate
  • FoxFaction, on 02/11/2008, -13/+2Oh Mr. Pirate guy, your ramblings are sooo interesting. Mmm, tell me again how you're not doing anything wrong, I like that.
    • snatchmstr, on 02/11/2008, -1/+5The site does not host copyrighted material, that's how he's doing nothing wrong.
      • FoxFaction, on 02/11/2008, -6/+1Oh, I didn't mean to imply that I think he is doing something wrong. Sorry for the misunderstanding in my joke. I'll attempt to be more clear next time, thanks!
        • FunkyLlama, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3Patronising, facetious or stupid? You decide!
  • JusticeFriend, on 02/11/2008, -1/+3TPB FTW!
  • hackntossh, on 08/27/2008, -1/+28"Thousands of people across Stockholm..."
    How about millions of people all over the world...go big or go home...
  • theirongiant, on 02/11/2008, -5/+11That news report was so awful. It was neither fair nor balanced. Are they a FOX News affiliate?
  • FuckXboxx, on 02/11/2008, -1/+2Awesome...I saw them scroll past The Mars Volta.
    • Fordi, on 02/11/2008, -0/+1I loved that too. I've been obsessed with Frances the Mute for weeks now. Even bought the album, first the US version, then the Japanese one (wanted the extra track).
  • SSUK, on 02/11/2008, -0/+8Is that woman's microphone broken or is shouting into a microphone seen as dramatic now-a-day?
  • k0001, on 02/11/2008, -4/+1TPB (and the other ones of course) let you be like Robin Hood, and... that is G R E A T!

    Disclamer: I support the idea of SHARING as "stealing prevention", but if these retards don't share, then BE ROBIN HOOD!!!
  • enclaved, on 02/11/2008, -2/+4They said 1500 pages, but that's only 3 reams of paper, and that stack was a bit dramatic for 3 reams of paper. No?
    • Fordi, on 02/11/2008, -3/+2It was faked, pure and simple. The IFPI lawyers wouldn't let a reporter anywhere near those documents; they're being used in an active case, it'd be a breach of protocol.
      • enclaved, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3Well, although the numbers different, from thepiratebay's blog.
        "It also came to our attention that it's now possible to buy the documents, from the police!, in the current investigation about The Pirate Bay. But only on paper. And it's not 4000 pages, it 4620 pages. And they cost 6050 SEK for all of them (about 1000 USD). Our view of it? Why not just make a PDF, make a torrent of the PDF and seed it. We know a perfect place you can do that for free, and nobody would have to pay for all those pages of investigation. And a hell of a lot of trees would be saved... And even though the information in the investigation might be a bit personal at times (alcohol intake, sex addictions) we're not suing the police for commercially exploiting the material they took from us without permission."
  • thewerty, on 02/11/2008, -0/+22Love that they call him the MASTERMIND OF PIRATEBAY
    • okaroleo, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4he's gaining pirate street cred every minute. lol
  • freshcuts, on 02/11/2008, -3/+4Crappy reportage!
    Oh "pirate bay makes millions of ads" maybe like google???
    • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -4/+1Maybe the majority of Google's advertising revenue doesn't come from pointing to pirated content. That seems to be a really big difference.
      • sirhomer, on 02/11/2008, -2/+2What the ***** is "pirated" content? The majority of Google's links point to copyrighted content, in this respect Google is no different the TPB. In fact Google ***HOSTS*** copyrighted content that they have no real permission to do so, unlike TPB.

        I think you are falling into the trap that only stuff made by the MPAA or whatever the ***** is protected by copyright, when in reality anything not ***EXPLICTLY*** defined as non-copyrighted by it's author is copyrighted per the Berne convention, and the author has exclusive rights to copy and distribute, sublicence or sell such works. This includes the majority of websites, including Digg, my comments on Digg, etc, all of which are copied into Google's cache without my explicit or Diggs explicit (NOT implicit, publishing something to the net is NOT explicit) permission.

        Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc may all be violating copyright law by copying copyrighted content without permission.
  • wmth, on 02/11/2008, -10/+2This is just one reason why liberals make me sick. They're hypocrites. Listen people, if it were you that was getting all your content stolen thus losing money, you would be screaming bloody murder. How is it wrong to want to start a business on the Internet? That Pirate Bay Captain talks about corporate greed. He's a socialist who hates capitalism and wants his government to take care of him. You cannot have socialism and capitalism at the same time. This guy is a scumbag thief.

    All you people who think this guy is cool are hypocrites and pissed that you aren’t rich and hate paying for anything.

    Can anyone tell me how it’s wrong to start or have a business on the Internet? Remember, it’s not just music that’s being stolen. What if you wanted to sell a video or something?
    • cmackattack, on 02/11/2008, -1/+2
      Price the video at 5$ instead of 30$ to start...you'd probably sell more videos than have them pirated...this is the root of the problem in my view. People sell things for much more than they are actually worth.

      Fair price, good product = fair transactions and successful business.
      Fair price, bad product = fair transactions and only a hobby
      Bad price but still a good product = pirated business product
      Bad price and bad product = no transactions, and out of business

      Some people, not all, have to work an entire day and spend that entire day worth of wages to buy one DVD that they might watch anywhere from one to a few times. Is 8 hours or more work worth 90 minutes of entertainment? And bad entertainment at that as nothing but ***** has been coming out for years??? I think not...but lucky for me I don't buy DVD's nor pirate them. I spend my time and money on better things.
    • cmackattack, on 02/11/2008, -2/+2oh and sadly, business put into the price of their products the risk of loss due to theft and piracy. This is a fact. So in actuality they are loosing nothing besides MORE EXPONENTIAL PROFIT.
    • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3"This is just one reason why liberals --" BURY

      Polarize and no one will ever take you seriously.
  • Huangism, on 02/11/2008, -3/+5the guy said he doing this to rup off the greedy people in america but at the same time he is making millions. please don't doubt that, ads and advertisement will make him millions. it's true the greedy america company are getting rip off and i don't care for those companies. but he should not of said that as he is just as greedy as they are. sure there are cost to keep the site running but the cost would be nothing comparing to the profit
    • cmackattack, on 02/11/2008, -2/+4It would seem that he needs the money for legal fees...yet another profession that is overpaid--lawyers. Without him making profits, then he would not be able to fight the greed and thus the service would be unavailable...make sense?
    • beansac, on 02/12/2008, -0/+2unless you have analyzed TPB's cash flow sheet, there is no way that you can actually know the profit of the business. So great attempt, but shut the hell up.
  • Ultra99, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5I dunno about everyone else but this whole Pirate-Bay-in-the-Public-Spotlight stuff kindof makes me uncomfortable. If these guys try to argue their case to a mainstream audience they're going to get crucified by the but-it-stealing posse. I dunno, it seems almost suicidal on TPB's part. Wish they'd go back to quietly doing their thing on the low down and keeping all the PR stuff small and directed towards their core audience, if anything.
    • hippyjeremy, on 02/11/2008, -0/+2ya dude, but they are threatening to throw the guy in prison. If he were to keep to the shadows he would be crucified in the dark and no one would know of his sacrifice. He wants to bring it to public light to try to get everyone to rally behind him.
    • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -1/+1TPB has always been upfront about what they do. This isn't the first time they've been featured on TV or in newspapers. Soon they will be set free because they haven't broken any laws and the whole farcical game of cat and mouse can start all over.
  • tonytopper, on 02/11/2008, -2/+2The closing bit was really bad, while the rest of the report was just poor. Interesting non-the-less. The RIAA and other organizations like them are almost always undereducated and myopic when it comes to how they think. I liked the wikipedia entry better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay
  • heartsblood, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7wow that's a little one sided. Why doesn't the reporter go into how much it costs to actually run the site. I've heard some say a few 100k at best but I think your underestimating just how many satellite servers + bandwidth + the cost of remote security for each of those satellites and of course we can't forget the ever pervasive lawyers. That ***** aint cheap. I don't find it much of a stretch to believe that the site brings in a few million a year, but I do find it unlikely that the site doesn't cost at least that much to operate.
    • actorboy, on 02/11/2008, -4/+4Why doesn't she also go into how much it costs to make a movie, album or develop software?
      • xaxxon, on 02/11/2008, -1/+3After they've spent so much making the movie/album/software, we have to step in and say "Thank you for all you've done. We'll cover your distribution costs as a way to give back." Don't let them keep giving and giving. We have to make it a two-way street.
  • gracias, on 02/11/2008, -2/+6Want to help The Pirate Bay, click and check out their advertisers.
    • BurnTees, on 02/11/2008, -7/+3why? they already have millions. at this point, they're the same as the greedy record label who you claim is making money off of artists instead of the artist getting all the money. is pirate bay sharing their earnings with the artists who aren't getting the money they deserve? why don't you go click on some links on my freaking blog...i need the money more than they do, i can assure you that.
      • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -1/+1They do not have millions. Trust me. Go explore how much one make from adds like they have and get a clue. Then add how much juice and administration etc is needed to run pirate bay and realise that almost everything of what they make are flushed down into sustain that.
    • campigenus, on 02/11/2008, -2/+1There are ads on TPB? Hmm, I seem to learn something new every day.
      • Cryoniq, on 02/11/2008, -0/+2Yeah lol. I might have seen them 1 or 2 times. But Firefox hide them with success for me.
    • spyrochaete, on 02/11/2008, -0/+2No. If you want to help them then visit their site, host and seed torrents, and leave comments. No one is obligated to pay for their services. That's their whole mission statement.
  • drakia, on 02/11/2008, -0/+6*runs to grab kleenex*
    Oh jeeze, I didn't know an irritating voice could make your nose bleed!
  • ElBeh, on 02/11/2008, -2/+0He's pretty hot.
  • leerayIG88, on 02/11/2008, -1/+2I want my demonoid back.
  • spancho, on 02/11/2008, -0/+1This is just an attempt to demonize file sharing. Oh-my-god! they make money from ads on their web page! I think what the reporter said was something like "making millions from other peoples content." if this is why the government is pissed, why arent they going after digg?
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