AfterDawn: News

Pirate Bay to sue IFPI over access block

After having access to their site blocked in February, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is fighting back against the group that forced the block, threatening to sue the music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for monetary damages.

In February the IFPI accused the Danish ISP Tele2 of "aiding and abetting copyright infringement" and went to court to get the ISP to block access to the torrent tracker.



One of TPB's admins, Brokep, wrote in the official blog that the site would be seeking monetary damages for the access block if Tele2 wins its court appeal. The site remains DNS blocked until the court case is resolved. The block, in all its irony, has had a reverse effect. The Pirate Bay has jumped up 5 spots in Denmark's most popular sites traffic-wise, thanks mainly to all the media publicity surrounding the court case and the site.

If forced to sue the IFPI, Brokep says the money will go to setting up a fund to help aspiring Danish artists. "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more...)."

Two weeks ago TPB was in the news again, this time being sued for over $2.5 million USD by the IFPI whom accused them of sharing 24 albums, nine films and four games.

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Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Apr 2008 17:50

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• 14 comments

• Hardwyre

  Finally. The good guys are fighting back. Go Pirate Bay, we're on your side!

  16.4.2008 19:28 #1

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by camaro17:
  lol, i do agree with you about them fighting back, but they really arent the good guys, because they are providing copyrighted work for free, the musicians do deserve to get payed for what they do, but if canada gets that $5 a month for downloading shit that would be great.
  
  PeaceWell I do agree artists need to get paid for their work, labels take a huge chunk of the money from CDs, Concerts, etc., this and other reasons are why some artists are choosing to "cut out" the middle man and release albums without the help of a record company.

  16.4.2008 21:29 #2

• H0bbes

  Hilarious!

  16.4.2008 23:07 #3

• xempler

  These guys are awesome. They don't take any crap nor scare easy.
  
  Here's an actual email trail from Pirate Bay to
  
  Letter from DreamWorks:
  
  > This letter is being written to you on behalf of our
  > client, DreamWorks SKG.
  > DreamWorks is the exclusive owner of all copyright,
  > As you may be aware, Internet Service Providers can
  > be held liable if they do not respond to claims of
  > infringement pursuant to the requirements of the
  > Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
  Blah Blah Blah...
  
  Pirate Bay response:
  
  As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe.
  Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here.
  For your information, no Swedish law is being violated.
  
  Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium,
  will result in
  a) a suit being filed for harassment
  b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for
  sending frivolous legal threats.
  
  It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ....... morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.

  17.4.2008 11:49 #4

• varnull

  ^^ oh superb.. what a reply LMFAO!
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  17.4.2008 11:53 #5

• goodswipe

  Originally posted by varnull: ^^ oh superb.. what a reply LMFAO!Yea, they have this and all kinds of other legal letters on their website for users to look through. Pretty funny stuff.
  

  
  
  "look honey, it said goodswipe! oh wow, that's amazing."

  17.4.2008 12:02 #6

• varnull

  I need to check.. what with being a member.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  17.4.2008 12:22 #7

• goodswipe

  Err, sorry, I don't know what I was talking about! You don't have to be a member. What I meant by user was anyone using the site. Here's the link, http://thepiratebay.org/legal.
  

  
  
  "look honey, it said goodswipe! oh wow, that's amazing."

  17.4.2008 14:03 #8

• iluvendo

  Originally posted by xempler: These guys are awesome. They don't take any crap nor scare easy.
  
  Here's an actual email trail from Pirate Bay to
  
  Letter from DreamWorks:
  
  > This letter is being written to you on behalf of our
  > client, DreamWorks SKG.
  > DreamWorks is the exclusive owner of all copyright,
  > As you may be aware, Internet Service Providers can
  > be held liable if they do not respond to claims of
  > infringement pursuant to the requirements of the
  > Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
  Blah Blah Blah...
  
  Pirate Bay response:
  
  As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe.
  Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here.
  For your information, no Swedish law is being violated.
  
  Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium,
  will result in
  a) a suit being filed for harassment
  b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for
  sending frivolous legal threats.
  
  It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ....... morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.
  Priceless !!!!!!!!!!!

  18.4.2008 00:23 #9

• susieqbbb

  I dont care about piratebay.
  
  Here is why.
  
  Recently piratebay torrents have flooded the internet i know mostly to pirate but did you know that half of them are sting operations by the RIAA and MPAA to track your ip address and then file charges against you most of the piratebay torrent's listed that contain software from microsoft and apple and even adobe are infact produced by adobe and microsoft and apple to count how many people use illegal software and how many install it on there machines once this happens they can file charges against you.
  
  
  Here is a interresting story for you
  
  One of my friends was using a torrent from the piratebay to try out mac os x leopard before it was finalized and released to the public so he went online and downloaded the beta torrent before the beta torrent was even finished downloading 2 comcast cable company trucks pulled up at his house went across the street to check his internet connection at the junction box from where he was connected and started illegally searching his computers without a warrent this is mainly why we got the case thrown out of court because they had no legal right to violate my friends computers to search there machines we wanted to know how did they find out so fast we found out that the torrent file was produced by comcast to catch people illegally downloading software another reason this case got thrown out intrapment so this is basicly why i do not use piratebay.

  18.4.2008 01:08 #10

• Tashammer

  Originally posted by susieqbbb: I dont care about piratebay.
  
  Here is why.
  
  Recently piratebay torrents have flooded the internet i know mostly to pirate but did you know that half of them are sting operations by the RIAA and MPAA to track your ip address and then file charges against you most of the piratebay torrent's listed that contain software from microsoft and apple and even adobe are infact produced by adobe and microsoft and apple to count how many people use illegal software and how many install it on there machines once this happens they can file charges against you.
  Does anyone else smell fish? Really pongy, 2 month old codswallop?
  Have you ever noticed that sound echoes when you talk down a tube? Just like the message above kind of reverberates from an asshole, maybe?

  19.4.2008 23:18 #11

• ZooGrA

  Well, it makes sense about the piratebay sting operations, but, its really simple to avoid, just check the seeds and leeches,
  
  but idk...
  
  anyone have any ideas about different torrent trackers that work as good as the pirate bay,
  
  cuz lately it seems the bay has been spammed with more and more crap,
  
  but maybe thats just me...

  20.4.2008 00:24 #12

• qu1nt3n

  Originally posted by susieqbbb: I dont care about piratebay.
  
  Here is a interresting story for you
  
  One of my friends was using a torrent from the piratebay to try out mac os x leopard before it was finalized and released to the public so he went online and downloaded the beta torrent before the beta torrent was even finished downloading 2 comcast cable company trucks pulled up at his house went across the street to check his internet connection at the junction box from where he was connected and started illegally searching his computers without a warrent this is mainly why we got the case thrown out of court because they had no legal right to violate my friends computers to search there machines we wanted to know how did they find out so fast we found out that the torrent file was produced by comcast to catch people illegally downloading software another reason this case got thrown out intrapment so this is basicly why i do not use piratebay.That sounds really really really made up!! Are you sure you didn't see that on a southpark episode/ thought about it in a dream or something like that??
  
  What kind of CIA/KGB isp is Comcast then, to pull up with 2 trucks (really, 2? not 3 or maybe even 12?) in the street, check boxes... starting illegal searches on his computer....... (then they went in the house, beat up the kids, tied up his wife took the dog with them for questioning)....you believe it yourself?
  
  Good story though, made me laugh :)

  20.4.2008 10:14 #13

• varnull

  It's nothing to do with comcast is it.. They just forward a letter from the copyright holders threatening you will all sorts based on hearsay and supposition hoping you will settle for some extortionate amount of money instead of saying "prove it"
  
  If they want you for criminal stuff they come through your door at 5am with a warrant.
  
  They only circumstance I can see of comcast behaving like that is if there was a complaint to them from a copyright holder (or not even.. just a light on somewhere on a panel) and the ip tallied with a wire which wasn't supposed to be connected.. i.e. Stealing internet off them. Even then all they would do usually is quietly send a lineman out to pull the plug, and a cease and desist letter to the address that investigating the box showed the connection going to..
  
  Good laugh..
  
  I should check the news on the Bay more often.. I never seem to get around to it (too much good pr0n for us members)
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  20.4.2008 10:34 #14