Those pirates are a wily bunch. Following the UK ban of the Pirate Bay, a group of Brits calling themselves the Pirate Party set up a proxy that kept access alive to the torrent search engine. That too was shut down this week, but now the Party's international pirate chums have come to the rescue.
Pirate parties in Luxembourg and Argentina have set up proxies of their own, and are urging UK torrent fans to use them to access the search engine, The Verge reports. The Argentinian one is available from anywhere in the world, proving that regulating the Internet is like playing whack-a-mole -- the minute you close one thing down, another springs up elsewhere.
Us Brits had access to the Pirate Bay curtailed this week, after the proxy by the Pirate Party was shut down following legal threats from the music industry. The Pirate Bay is already banned in the UK, after a ruling back in April that forced ISPs to cut it off. Though that didn't really hurt the site at all. The proxy certainly proved popular, with recent stats showing the Bay was the 133rd most popular site in these isles.
The Pirate Party punted out a statement after its proxy was taken down, claiming it would "continue to fight for digital rights" but that "the law at present is clear and makes any decision to continue hosting the proxy untenable."
But that hasn't stopped its piratical counterparts extending a helping hand. (Or should that be a helping hook?) Sven Clement, president of the Luxembourg Pirate Party (one of those helping out the UK's) said in a statement: "Due to pressure from lobbyists, politicians all over Europe are seduced to expand the censorship infrastructure to prevent freedom of expression, the right to information and the free exchange of culture. With our proxy, we help circumventing the Internet censorship of European countries!"
As I say, the Internet is a tricky place to regulate. Do you think the Pirate Bay should've been blocked in the first place? Are we entitled to the "free exchange of culture", or should we have to pay for our movies and music? Let me know what you reckon in the comments, or on Facebook.
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Comments 13
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anonymous 24 December, 2012 13:48
Downloading from 'pirate' sites can't be stopped the music industry needs to learn this. The Pirate Bay is just one of several hundred similar torrent download sites, as soon as one is shut another opens. The Pirate Bay has been closed down here in Ireland for at least a year now, people simply use one of the other sites or a proxy server.
anonymous 24 December, 2012 19:06
As tempting as it is to get free music because let's face it everyone likes getting stuff for free but these artists and film makers put a lot of time into their music and films and deserve to be paid. Those in work at the moment would you be happy if at the end of the month you got less money because someone had stolen from your company. I was tempted to download a discography of a band I like but instead chose to buy.
anonymous 24 December, 2012 19:31
People have been using places like this to acquire music, films & software for at least the last 14 years.If it wasn't Napster, it used to be newsgroups. Yet these industries and the people in them are still making millions in profits despite what they have lost through pirates.
It's sad to see these companies grasp on control of the 'free' internet being tightened every day.
E.g the UK government FORCES isp's to block access to Piratebay, yet refuses to make accessing adult sites harder to protect children.
Again, it's all about who's pockets are deepest and lines the government with the most cash, wins.
anonymous 25 December, 2012 01:46
One day they will say 'hang on, how much do we pay these lawers, isn't it better that we keep it ?!' and the sorry merry-go-round will end.
Emperors new clothes.
anonymous 25 December, 2012 06:08
correct me if im wrong but the issue is not free dowload but the simple fact we got too many musicians and tooo many movies these days that before. another facts is that reality tell me in the last 5years big movies earn minim 500 mill even bigger movies 1 bil. yet they still lose money. ok thats means someone is doing maths wrong
anonymous 26 December, 2012 11:52
The problem with the media industry is that they've done actually very little to counter piracy other than fruitlessly chasing download sites (shutting them down or blocking them at a slower rate than they are appearing). Why not improve the legal services for downloads/media purchases and then you'll get less piracy and a much happier public. Examples include:
* Only offer DRM-free downloads. It took a looooong time for the music industry to finally offer this. Sadly, the movie/TV industry are stuck with their heads in the sand and only do DRM downloads/streaming, which really does force people to find DRM-free video downloads.
* Offer a range of encoding qualities at a sensible range of prices - some people want 128Kbps MP3s, some want FLAC and ditto with the encoding qualities of video (DivX vs. MP4, SD vs. 720p vs. 1080p).
* Stop copy-protecting CD, DVD and Blu-Ray. If you make it harder for people to personally rip optical media, they'll just go and download it instead (and often tell their friends how to download it too or give them a copy of their downloads). Remember that protected optical media is far less durable and convenient than a DRM-free download, so there is an incentive to download even when you have the "real" thing in your hand.
* Stop blocking people from other countries from playing/downloading your content, especially for paid services. Great way to limit your (possibly paying) audience. Yes, I know about digital rights etc. but these really should be purchased internationally, particularly for a paid service as I said.
* Stop delaying the release of content from country to country - this is a *guaranteed* way that people from delayed countries will pirate the "early" country's release. Look at "Cloud of Atlas" for example - already out as a high quality pirate download from a Russian BluRay rip and many European countries haven't even had it at the cinema yet - ludicrous!
* This will never happen: Offer a one-off download or a subscription service for a large range of TV, music and movie downloads. Must have international coverage please - particularly the US and the UK - that are tiered based on how useful they to the consumer:
Cheapest: Everything is DRM'ed and only streamed, in SD quality, full of ads (yes, unskippable and even in the middle of video or music), has a logo in the corner for video.
You then pay to remove the irritations one by one, including removing the DRM, allowing for permanent downloads, increased picture quality, no ads, no logo. You can also pay for a one-off movie or album or pay a monthly subscription that works out cheaper. Technically, all of this is possible right now, but media companies won't do it because they're so greedy, the cost per download would be much higher than even buying, say, the BluRay version.
So I put the blame mostly at the foot of the media companies for not actually delving into the reasons why the public pirate in the first place. Sure, there's *always* the "free" element to it, but I think you'll find most people don't like the DRM and the price of existing products (whether they're online or offline) and this is the prime motivator to pirate.
anonymous 27 December, 2012 16:22
Your idea of paying for music to support a band/director/actor/etc. is repectable and I do so, but only if the band has consistently good albums like Zeppelin, The Beatles, Floyd, etc. But you got to think about how much these people make, we're talking several million dollars and some several hundred million dollars. For a working stiff like me, who only makes $10.50 an hour and less 20,000 a year, it's impossible to buy the things that make you happy (music,movies) and have enough to live and pay for college, housing and other necessities . What I'm saying is these people are sitting nice and comfortable on millions of dollars for doing something they absolutely love and cherish, meanwhile people like me are dreading going to work everyday and doing laborious work and getting paid literally pennies compared to what these musicians/actors make. The ritch get ritcher the poor get poorer or the ritch remain ritch and the poor remain poor. I prefer the latter.
rustyimtiaz 28 December, 2012 06:44
in 3rd world countries there is no way to buy music other than downloading it from torrents!!!!
anonymous 8 January, 2013 11:08
https://tpb.partidopirata.com.ar/
&
http://tpb.piraten.lu/
anonymous 25 January, 2013 19:52
stealing is stealing your karma will come around and someone will break in your house steal your computer with all your ripped off stuff and just say i dont make enough to buy one and so it goes on and on you dont need anything thats worth stealing for.
anonymous 24 March, 2013 13:21
iTunes proved that if you get the service right, people will still pay for music. The music industry lost money only because it resisted the internet rather than embraced it. They finally had to accept that their business model has changed, and they are still able to make money. The film industry needs to do the same. Trouble is, they got so fat under the old system, so vastly rich, that they are resisting change. They'll get it eventually, they'll have to.
Yes, I download some movies for free. But I also still buy loads of DVDs, and I have a lovefilm subscription, so I'm paying something in to the system every month, even if I don't watch a film.
Blocking torrent sites? Won't work, doesn't work, can't ever work.
anonymous 20 April, 2013 04:57
Everybody deserves to get paid for their copyright and hard work. No one can argue that fact, however its not going to change anything by banning access to torrent sites. Ive used them to check stuff out, if I like it I'll go and buy it, i get fed up with buying music for one good song and finding out the rest of the rest of an album was disappointing.
So lets say they do manage to close them all down - will that mean that we will see rocketing attendance figures at cinemas? Increased DVD and CD sales? err...I doubt that very much. And what about me lending you my genuine DVD, CD, mp3 or media stream recording, what! you cheeky thing, you copied it! Call the firing squad!
anonymous 11 May, 2013 20:58
Yawn... call me crazy but it took about 5 seconds to get back onto these torrent sites after they went down.. and that's because i don't type all that fast.