back to article Pirate Bay resurfaces after German legal depth-charge

The Pirate Bay file tracking site is currently offline - apparently forced to close by a German court injunction filed last week. We covered the filing last week. A district court in Hamburg heard from the Motion Picture Ass. of America, which targeted German ISP CB3ROB (Cyberbunker). Cyberbunker was ordered to unplug the …

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  1. Libertine

    Hamburg Court

    no surprises there then...they have a long running reputation of judging in favor of copyright holders and other, well, scum...

    1. No, I will not fix your computer
      Megaphone

      Copywrite holding SCUM

      Yea, you're right there, how dare people have any kind of ownership for things that they have created, I know if I was in a band, or was an actor, artist, designer, technician I shoudn't have any kind of ownership for my own stuff, anybody, everybody should have it for free.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ORLY?

        Photographers haven't been crying out since the day we were able to right-click, save as ... If I want a copy of a painting or a statue I could pick up a pretty good replica for pennies without anything going back to the original artist but for some reason musicians wail and bleat if they have to fill their second swimming pool with Veuve Clicquot Brut rather than Cuvée Dom Perignon. Well boo hoo, get a real job, millions of people are out there making very good music for beer money or for the sheer hell of it.

        People will always freeload, whether they like , the only way to top it is to get rid of the demand and that' a lot easier said than done. Convincing people they have to pay for something they've got for free isn't going to be easy, the market is still there for audiophiles to show off a music cabinet of original vinyl but we are paying a lot of money for a fancy CD cover to sit on the shelf and swank off to our mates with when the people just want a quick song to bung on their ipod.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Ummm... No...

          You cannot have a copy of a statue or painting that is still in copyright. Thats how the Tate make most of there money. Oh, and photograpers don't realy care about that because that is not how thay make there money. Thay make it of comertial rights. Try publishing something with a copyrighted photo and youll soon find yourself in court.

          Just because you don't understand the system dose not make it non existant.

        2. No, I will not fix your computer
          WTF?

          @Shizzle

          >>Photographers haven't been crying out since the day we were able to right-click, save as

          Umm.... yes they do, have a professional photographer do a wedding or other professional shoot, if you can view them online before you buy them then right-click is often disabled, and they are low resolution with a watermark (copywright etc.), buy the photos and take digital files to a print studio, it's likely that they still retain copywright info in the file, the print studio *should* ask to see the authorisation letter from the photographic studio before they print.

          Yes, there are a *few* musicians that could fill their baths with their favourite premier cru, but this creates a market to aspire to, the "millions of people are out there making very good music for beer money or for the sheer hell of it" would all like to be rich (wouldn't we all?), even if it's not why they got into the industry, you can't live on beer after all.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Pint

            "you can't live on beer after all."

            Now you're just being crazy.

  2. tas
    Thumb Down

    @John Oates - article writer

    Article time: 08h56 GMT

    Current time: 9h02 GMT

    "currently offline" - no it is not. I can browse and download from it...

    "apparently forced to close by a German court injunction filed last week" - how has this been verified by author? How did you verify any downtime is linked to a closure instead of a random or scheduled outage by the host just like any other site on the Internet?

    Is someone desperate to write *any* story perhaps and simply include a catchy/fashionable term in the headline?

    If so, this seems part of a recent trend (perhaps being exaggerated by Google News front page). It would be, for example, even more desperate than a recent UK BBC News article entitled "Suffolk school sealed off after gun drama" when if you actually listened/read about the story there was no relationship between the "gun drama" and the school whatsoever. It just happened to fall within the police public cordon!

    1. Squirrel
      Go

      The wonders of VPNs

      They're never actually hosted where the DNS resolved to. It's just a VPN end point, which is why they can move so quickly, all they do is change the DNS A records and point it at a new VPN end point.

      Obviously the lawyers don't understand this at all and will keep futilely attempting to take the head of the Hydra, missing the other heads and not realising that they almost instantly regrow.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Whac-A-Mole

        Yeah - the lawyers are playing Whac-A-Mole and losing. It's quite funny to watch.

        Then they still have other Torrent trackers to worry about, other P2P networks, file hosting sites like Rapidshare, encrypted Usenet services, etc.....

        1. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Whac-A-Mole

          > the lawyers are playing Whac-A-Mole and losing.

          The lawyers are probably charging their entertainment paymasters £300 - £500 per hour so are most likely very pleased to continue the futile game of whack a mole.

          It's the entertainment industry and media rights holders who are losing due to their greed, incompetence and resistance of setting up cheap and popular legal alternatives.

          The market for illicit file downloads will persist until it is convenient, reliable and sufficiently cheap for a majority of people to switch to legit sources.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not Sunk

    Its back online, guess it needs to be shot in the head like a zombie.

  4. Si 1
    Terminator

    Already back up

    Amusingly, they already appear to be back up, with a lolcat on the homepage taunting the various organisations for trying to take them down.

  5. Michael Souris
    Go

    Back already

    Piratebay.org is back already / still online at 10:10 BST.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    works for me

    funny enough, the site seems to work for me and even has a nice lolcat on the front page :)

    http://bayimg.com/image/gamcdaacm.jpg

    MAFIAA fail.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My heart sinks...

    ...at the thought of the state of play on the interwebs these days.

    I don't mind the death of 'the pirate bay' - it is after all mirrored all over the place.

    But I do mind Lawyers, politicians, governments, lobbyists, corporations, self appointed bodies all wringing hands and flailing around trying to restrain and control what was once a free and fun place to play/work.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What did you expect?

      That's exactly what happens when you put a random bunch of people together for long enough. Ever notice how the general reaction to *anything* new always has been ``are they allowed to do that? isn't there a law? there must be a law! let's make a law, whether we need one or not! we must!'' or something to that effect. It was quite clearly visible just after the start of september, when there was enough influx of non-techies for the my-dog-has-a-webpage-too cliche to become ubiquitous. ``Ordnung muss sein!'' is far less German than you might wish. Busybodies the world over gravitate to governments and stay there, just to make everybody else dance to their tune, for they clearly know best. Not so?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pirate

        What did you expect?

        > isn't there a law? there must be a law! let's make a law, whether we need one or not!

        Yes. Thats what lawyers do. And by holding a near monopoly, getting to invent the rules / move the goal posts they make a handsome living from it too.

        Technologists invent ways to help people share binary data across the planets interwebs and Lawyers attemp to make a profit by complicating things.

        1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
          Stop

          Lawyers.

          Lawyers do not make laws - thank god.

          That is left to governments (which may have non-practicing lawyers in them unfortunately), and policed by the police, and ruled on by the legislature.

          The lawyers are just skilled combative debaters, with a penchant for the law.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Your missing a part

            Technologists invent ways to help people share binary data across the planets interwebs, people find a way to exploite this for illigal gain and Lawyers attempt to sort it out.

            Fixed.

  8. WheresWardy
    Pirate

    Quickly you say

    Didn't take them long I see, there's even a cute captioned cat poking fun at everyone elses dissidence.

  9. Danny 5
    Pirate

    reminds me of the hackers manifesto

    specifically the closing statement is quite to the point :)

    The Hacker Manifesto

    by

    +++The Mentor+++

    Written January 8, 1986

    Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...

    Damn kids. They're all alike.

    But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

    I am a hacker, enter my world...

    Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

    Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

    I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."

    Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

    I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...

    Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

    And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...

    Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

    You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

    This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

    Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

    I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh yes?

      "we're all alike."

      So in other words they're all a bunch of sad little sheep conforming to a different standard. Doing what you think is expected of you does not make you any more of a rebel than Mr and Mrs Dull at number 12 with their mock georgian fron door, coach lamps with a 3 series and a MINI ONE in the driveway.

      Kids. Want to be a rebel? Want to stand out? Do somethign different. No piercings and pink hair don't count as different either.

      1. Danny 5
        Stop

        not very smart.....

        you SO completely missed the point.

        us nerds didn't ask to be different (i happen to be a nerd, not a hacker, but the same point is valid), we where deemed different by our peers, shunned by the popular kids and left to fend for ourselves, on the net, we found people who accepted us for who we where, not what we looked like, what god we worship and not what country we where from, just our interests and personality.

        we never wanted to stand out, al we ever wanted was to fit in and online, we found just that place.

        if you think that's sad, then you sir, are missing out. i've made tons of friends online, many of which i cherish as much as i do my offline friends, several of which i have visited, or have visited me.

      2. The Fuzzy Wotnot
        Thumb Up

        IN-DUH-VIDUAL

        Every time I seen teens and individuality mentioned I always remember a certain Harry Enfield sketch...

        "So your band is going places, that's great. I see you have a tattoo there, what is it?"

        "Oh this? Oh it runs right around my neck, it says INDIVIDUAL."

        " Great, why did you have that done?"

        "Well....all my mates did!"

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Down

          Gave up at

          "I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head...""

          Says it all realy. Arrogent little pricks. I've seen to many smart arses make fools of themselfs by thinking they can do things in there heads and then get to difficult stuff and have no idea how to do things the long way.

          Like writing code with no comments and it brakeing.

          Doing wave form calculations with no working and wondering why stuff keeps releasing the blue smoke.

          Best of all doing stress calculations and then finding stuff buckles because somewhere you have a decimal error but you don't know where.

    2. Thomas 4
      Thumb Up

      That was beautiful

      Nice find, good sir.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      @hackers manifesto

      You downloaded the 1080p rip of Hackers over the weekend as well then :)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Already back onlinee

    'Nuff said :D

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    So how long before our new Government......

    flexes their new DEB and blocks Piratebay from our fair and green shores.

    And who would challenge that decision in court?

    Oh well it was nice while it lasted........ not that I ever used Piratebay because it was crap!

    Stop buying new DVD's\CD's and music its the only legal way to bite back!

    1. John G Imrie
      Big Brother

      And who would challenge that decision in court?

      Me. 'Nuff Said.

      1. irish donkey
        Thumb Up

        Good man but I hope you have deep pockets

        And are ready to be branded a Pirate/FreeTard/Scum

        When I wrote to my MP to complain about the DEB I got a letter back saying that only the Pirate/FreeTard/Scum had something to fear, so if I wasn't one of those........

        It seems now when you disagree with their plans you are immediately branded and condoned. Something has changed and it's not for the good. I hope having the LibDem in Government might make a difference.

  12. Squirrel
    Happy

    nope

    online here....

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    They're up and lol'ing already

    Might be worth an update to the article

    What was the downtime total, an hour and a half or so?

    Haha

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    oh no they're not!

    ...and they're back up again in seconds flat... What a waste of effort that was lol

  15. Chris Hatfield

    I wanna see the kitten picture

    Hello El Reg,

    PirateBay.org is blocked from work.

    I would love to see the kitten with the humorous caption. Could it please be added to the original article?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      courtesy of AC

      http://bayimg.com/image/gamcdaacm.jpg

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Unhappy

        Re: Kitten piccy

        Zut Alors! That's blocked too.

  16. JetSetJim
    Grenade

    @All the "it's already back ups"

    The site was dead last night at around 6pm, for me anyway. No response from server, or some such error message. Strikes me that maybe this article was filed last night, but Ed was asleep and only woke up to it at 9am this morning :-)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Why target ISPs?

    Surely the answer to this is to target the domain name; if the domain can be "seized" by a court (following appropriate legal proceedings) then it can be taken off-line permanently.

    The current situation is just ludicrous, with the alleged "offenders" relocating after each successful action against the current service provider.

    Don't the domain registrars have a process for binning a domain name or awarding it to another party in the event of a dispute?

    (I've not kept in touch with this story, so this may already have been tried without success, feel free to comment)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Logical

      Targetting the DNS would seem to be the logical solution to a techy. It seems, however, that the RIAA and their lawyers have never thought to employ any techies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        DNS is distributed & decentralised

        so good luck with that.

    2. Mark 65

      Targetting domain name

      Wouldn't you then get thepiratecove or thenewpiratebay etc etc and just start all over again?

      How easy is it to seize it in the first place?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re. Targetting domain name

        You're correct that they could register a new domain, but all existing links to the site, and all user bookmarks would be instantly void; even better, if the domain is controlled by another party, a new site detailing the previous domain owners infringements could be put up.

        If the "pirates" register a new domain, the new site would take time to become established with users, and the "law" could then simply remove that domain in the the same way.

        the result would be cheaper than targeting ISPs all over the world and would be far more disruptive.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      Maybe....

      The laywers don't want this to end...they get paid too much?

      The RIAA don't want instant stop all this...they need to publicity?

      If anyone wanted to get PirateBay nailed, DNS shutdown, etc, they could manage it. There is far more going on behind the scenes that they let on.

  18. Danington the Third
    Happy

    lol

    good old pirate bay. You have to hand it to them; deys got BALLS. And lots of them it seems.

  19. Prof

    here you go

    http://clintweb.co.uk/random/2010_6nigerianprinceswantstheirmoney.jpg

  20. Arnie
    Go

    Pirate bay 10 - 0 Mafiaa

    all your internets are belong to us..... well not me I wouldnt touvh "the Bay" with yours. but still.

    AC/DC - Big balls

  21. Jazzman

    I wanna see the kitten picture

    @ Chris Hatfield

    Here you are: -

    http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9896/gamcdaacm.jpg

    1. Chris Hatfield

      kitten photo

      @Jazzman,

      That's adorable. Thanks

  22. Anomalous Cowturd
    Joke

    Mmmm. Nice pussy!

    Some-one had to say it...

    Sorry.

  23. 46Bit
    Happy

    Clever

    Love the abbreviation of Motion Picture Ass. of America, very subtle.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They just don't get it

    Long prison sentences should help them understand however.

    1. Rattus Rattus

      O RLY?

      Dear AC, I suggest you read this:

      http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19000

  25. JP19
    WTF?

    WTF !!!!

    $ 250,000 ( U.S. ) for EACH file in violation of copyright.

    Funny, it's ONLY $ 150,000 ( U.S. ) over here in America. Guess the ass. just needed a little more money. http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/wtf_32.png

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Good job they blocked it

    The takedown was very effective.

    It took me at least 10 seconds longer to find the torrent of the US TV show that I was looking for using Google rather than TPB.

    Well done copyright holders. I salute your effectiveness.

  27. Tony Paulazzo
    Big Brother

    Ah, screw it...

    Long Live The Pirate Bay, down with blood sucking lawyers and leeching copyright hoarders, Freetards unite - send me £5 to ...

    Oh wait, that won't work.

    Carry on then.

    The Illuminati are watching 'you'.

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