DISQUS

Technology Liberation Front: Muted Responses All Around to ‘Pirate Bay’ Shutdown

  • Tim · 3 years ago
    Andrew,

    I've been meaning to write more on this and just haven't had the time to do so. Here are my quick thoughts:

    I came down on the industry's side in Grokster, so I'm hardly an apologist for peer-to-peer sites. If I were a Swedish citizen, I'd probably be on the same side in that debate, although I don't know enough about Swedish law to evaluate the claim that the Pirate Bay isn't illegal.

    To my knowledge, I've never "pooh-pooh[ed] rights holders' efforts to go after users who have made the works they own available online," although I've occasionally pointed out that it doesn't appear to be having the desired deterrent effect. To the contrary, I've criticized folks like EFF for not taking the problem seriously.

    Finally, my criticism of DRM is based largely on the fact that DRM doesn't reduce P2P sharing. If it did, I might be more sympathetic to claims that it should receive legal protection, but why give special legal protections to a technology that doesn't perform as advertised? (DRM may discourage "meatspace" infringement, but that no more justifies prohibiting circumvention tools than banning CD-R drives in the 1990s or VCRs in the 1980s--which would have had similar deterrent effects)

    I think the really interesting thing about this case is the implications if the courts should find the Pirate Bay is legal under Swedish law. That would effectively overturn Grokster, and it's not clear what the appropriate legal response by the United States would be.
  • Ed Felten · 3 years ago
    As you point out, it's hard to offer much commentary about the raid without knowing whether PirateBay was violating Swedish law -- a point on which almost everybody is unqualified to speak.

    Surely you wouldn't approve of the Swedish police mounting this kind of raid against a lawful site?
  • Doug Lay · 3 years ago
    The Pirate Bay site is back up, at least partially. The search engine was not operational as of 2:30 EST, and the title bar bears the ominous title "The Police Bay." Yest there appear to be plenty of torrents available via the browsing interface, and the logo has been modified to include a set of cannonballs aimed at a crumbling (or sinking) HOLLYWOOD sign. Apparently they are set up with new servers in the Netherlands, while the Swedish police continue to figure out what do do with the old servers. If nothing else, these guys are sure entertaining. They are even making noise about suing the Swedish police.
  • Dogan Tuna · 2 years ago
    I will update this post if any good commentary turns up.