ThePirateBay.org Raided - Servers Seized

“…The police right now are taking all of our servers, to check if there is a crime there or not (they are actually not sure),” ThePirateBay.org spokesperson “brokep” told Slyck.com.

The seizure of ThePirateBay.org’s entire server farm will guarantee this BitTorrent tracker will remain offline until the police complete their investigation. The uncertainty on the part of the police may stem from the fact ThePirateBay.org's servers only host .torrent files, not actual copyrighted material. As a tracker, ThePirateBay.org's function is to index .torrent files and to direct BitTorrent traffic and maintain the swarm (uploads and downloads.) The downloaded .torrent file contains all the necessary information to locate and download the queried file. The legality of indirectly linking to copyrighted material has yet to be tested by Swedish courts.

Whether this will keep ThePirateBay.org offline indefinitely is another matter.

“We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” brokep said.

ThePirageBay.org, a longtime fixture of the BitTorrent community, is currently under investigation. Apparently, their servers were seized and shut down earlier today - their headquarters were raided by 50 officers, placing 2 members of the piratebay personnel under arrest. The one thing that surprises me the most - they raided the servers without even being sure if pirate bay is "technically" illegal, as it does not actually host the copyrighted material.

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