WEBVTT - Ahoy, Pirate Bay Part 1 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.480 Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from Hastaff 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:15.680 Work stock Yard and welcome to tech stuff, be Jonathan Strand. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.960 I'm Lauren Focam. I don't I don't know if you 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.720 play now, I don't know. I'm sorry. Well, today, obviously 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:24.920 we're going to be talking about the Pirate Bay, one 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.680 of the most blocked sites on the Internet. And uh, 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:30.479 I know it's a little early for talk like a 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.960 Pirate Day by more than a month, but you know, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.400 I couldn't resist really, I mean, they called themselves the 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.680 Pirate Bay. Their logo is a pirate ship sailing on 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.600 the high seas. There may be one or two moments 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:45.120 where I cannot resist the urge to speak in a 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.360 stereotypical pirate voice, which is, by the way, not the 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.600 way pirates talked, and not really Swedish either. Oh that's 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.360 another point. So the Pirate Bay is a Swedish website. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.080 It is run mostly by Swedish people, and and we 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:02.840 we do not know the Swedish language. We are we 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.880 are going to make a very earnest attempt at pronunciating. 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.800 Pronunciating that was This is off to a terrific start. Yeah, 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.360 So one first thing, this is way earlier than when 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.040 we normally record our show, so we're coping with that 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.320 right now too. We are going to be speaking some 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.360 words that are in Scandinavian, including people's names, and we're 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.640 going to try to pronounce them as closely to the 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.800 actual pronunciation as possible. But know that we're gonna be 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.280 mangling stuff because mostly our knowledge of Swedish comes from 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.240 the Swedish chef, yeah, from the Muppets, So which is 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.680 not We do make a solemn promise that except for 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.679 this moment right now, we will not follow anything with work, work, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.080 work and then throw utensils in the air well. I'll 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.760 be throwing utensils in the air well. Utensils may be flying, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:53.960 but the work work work thing, apart from that second 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.200 one that I said was not going to happen, it's 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.120 not gonna happen again, all right, Right, So let's talk 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.440 about the part of bit. Yeah, so it's kind of 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:03.440 a big thing. It is. It is one of the 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.840 most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet. It has so much, 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.640 so many torrents, all of the torrents, right, and of 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.680 course we just did an episode about bit torrent and 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.040 how bit torrent works. So for a large part of 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.280 this conversation, we're really going to be focusing on the 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.400 story of the Pirate Bay and we're not gonna concentrate 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.760 too much on the technology, although that will come into 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.040 play it parts. But as the Pirate Bay has updated, 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.960 UM has started making use of newer technologies than we 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.480 were talking about in the bit torrent episode. Right But 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.960 if you want to know basically how bit torrent works, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.560 just go listen to the episode that we published immediately 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.040 before this one. I believe that's the one that should 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.799 be airing before this one, and then you can catch up, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.880 uh and and know that that's the basic technology that 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.040 underlies at least the early days of the Pirate Bay UM, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.760 which which has a big deal that they're about to 0:02:54.760 --> 0:03:00.520 celebrate their tenth anniversary in September. I believe they're holding 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.320 their tenth anniversary party on August tenth, which is like 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.440 two days from when we're recording this. It will have 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.560 already happened by the incredible future that you listened to 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.320 this episode, So tell us how it was, because UM, 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.560 right now we just know how it will be. That's 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.600 going to happen in Stockholm right now. Five d and 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.280 fifty four people have r s VPD on Facebook, which 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.880 is about UM seventy thousand more people than the venue 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:31.200 that they have set up can accept. UM and I 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.720 suspect that most of those are are just like, yeah, 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:40.280 you go, pirate baby excitement. Would I would? This is 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.760 just me thinking outside the box here. If I were 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:48.200 to attend an event held by a website that has 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:54.280 been prosecuted successfully as we'll discover for UH, for assisting 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.760 in the theft of intellectual property, and had been under 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:03.640 intense scrutiny from numerous law enforcement agencies, I'm not sure 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.920 I would use Facebook to say yes, I want to 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:10.440 go to this place. Just thinking about, you know, being 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.040 tracked easily. I'm just you know, throwing that out there. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.120 That is a thing to consider. But anyway, so let's 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.160 let's talk about what the pirate bay is and how 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.159 it got started UM also and and and kind of 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.919 talk about the reputation that the site has not only 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.000 among its users but among its critics. Right like correct 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.719 dot com wrote up a really a really humorous piece 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.920 UM that was not entirely kidding and and they said, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.159 according to the r I, a pirate Bay rates somewhere 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.880 between Nazi dinosaurs and the League of Extraordinary Evil on 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.880 the global threat scale. Yeah, so this is a that's 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:47.960 kind of the perception I think that's out there in 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.200 the in the content creation industries. Oh sure, yeah, because 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.320 you're talking about a site that facilitates file sharing. Now, 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:01.200 on its face, file sharing is not necessarily various. It's 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.400 not illegal. It's not that it's stealing. It's a way 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.920 of getting its transmitting. Yeah. I mean, it's just sharing files, right, 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:14.440 that's all it is. It's when those files contain intellectual 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:19.960 property or our material that belongs to a party. Yeah, 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.200 and that normally that party would sell that material or 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.640 otherwise make money off of it through licensing or whatever. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.919 And the perception is that by sharing it, you are 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:34.680 essentially taking money out of that content creator's pocket. Um oh, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.520 and I We've gone on quite a bit, and I've 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.720 meant to mention this at the very beginning. We are 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.640 going to do a two part series on this. It's 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.080 gonna be The Pirate Bay is going to be a 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:47.120 two part episode so that we can really concentrate on 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.720 two different segments of the history of the Pirate Bay. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.400 So this is part one, obviously, and Part two will 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.279 focus on taking it from the point where the legal 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.080 system really got involved up to present day, starting back 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.480 onto the very early days of the the Pirate Bay. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.719 You have to go back to September fifteen, two thousand three, 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.719 and that was when the pirate based site was founded 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:17.240 by UH, an organization called Pierrot Byron UH. Pierrot Biron 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:22.760 is UH the anti copyright organization in Sweden UH, and 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:24.920 that was a group that was formed to kind of 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.599 just oppose the concept of copyright in general, and also 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.840 the anti Pierrot Biron group in Sweden, right right, there 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:37.640 were a lot of anti piracy lobbyists happening in Sweden 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.600 or lobbying happening in Sweden at that point in time, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.360 and so and so, you know, they were just saying, hey, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.800 there's another there's another side to this. UM. Pierrot Bidon 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.960 means Bureau of Piracy way right, So the Piracy Bureau 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.600 was very much opposed to this blanket approach to to 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.040 UH anti piracy and we're saying They were saying it, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.680 there are there are things that are wrong with copyright law. 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.160 You know, they some people in this group feel that 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.840 copyright in general just should not even be a thing. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.320 Many say, it's not that shouldn't be a thing. It's 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.680 that in its current form, it's a system that is 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:23.440 punishing people, uh to ridiculous levels, or it's really holding 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.400 back the ability of people to show creativity. Like you know, 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.559 this goes across all sorts of things, not just file sharing. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.280 Let's say that you are someone who likes to remix 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.760 music and you are you're really talented, you make really 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.840 good remixes, and it's stuff that is that that that 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.480 resounds with people. People really enjoy it. They they seek 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.360 out your work. But because what you're doing is taking 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.840 the work of some other artists and then applying your 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:57.400 own talent to changing that, uh, there are there are 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:59.640 organizations that will go after you because they're saying you 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.600 don't have the right to that original work that you 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.640 took and then transformed it. Um. There's also all these 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.520 arguments about fair use and if it's transformative enough, does 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.200 that mean it's fair use of that material material? But 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.240 that's that's tip that's difficult stuff, right. It's something that 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.680 only gets determined if it goes to court. So it's 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.280 not like you can just say fair use and you're Okay, yeah, 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.840 you've got to be able to defend that in a 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.400 court setting, and a lot of people can't. So this 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.239 has given rise to a culture not just in Sweden 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.120 but around the world, uh, to say that, you know this, 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:33.920 this is something that we really need to talk about 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:39.400 and not just have the government cater to enormous organizations 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.480 that spend millions or even billions of dollars to lobby 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.320 the government officials and say, look, let's let's protect this. 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.920 Let's make copyright ninety six years now after the original 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.640 creation of the work and um, and then the other 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.000 side says, is that really necessary? I mean, how long 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.200 does this protection have to last before you can say 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.480 this belongs to the world. So this is it's not 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:10.199 a dialogue because both sides have extremists who tend to 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.679 dominate the conversation. It's not that the extremists make up 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.319 the majority of the population, but they are the loudest 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.280 and they tend to end up being the ones that 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.520 everyone associates with. Those organizations, so things like the Recording 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.360 Industry Association of America the r A double A is 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:32.640 representative of content creators. And then the most hardcore pirates 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:39.120 are the most quotable things. But you know, most of 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.920 us tend to fall somewhere in the middle, and some 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.640 of us are well, we'll get into that discussion towards 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.679 the end. We can talk about our own personal kind 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.400 of perspectives. So Pirate based starts in two thousand three, right, 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.360 that was kind of the whole purpose of it was 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.559 to create a file sharing service that used the bit 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:00.400 torrent protocol that was there in Sweden that could have 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.720 uh that the folks in Pierrot Bran would have the 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.880 control over, so that they could end up supporting it 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.720 and not just have it disappear. And the founders included 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:19.480 uh pater Sunda whose handle was broke Up, uh friedrich 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:24.680 Nay Tiamo Tiamo Yeah, and Goldfried's vat holm Vari who 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.000 was Annakata, and they wanted to create the Scandinavian bit 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.800 torrent community. They started off by saying that they had 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.000 a very simple policy really, which was that this site 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.000 is for you to be able to share stuff. We 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.760 don't care what it is. We don't really want you 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:44.719 to care what it is. If you know, if you 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.280 find stuff on there that you don't like, don't report 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.360 it to us. We're not going to take it down, right. 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:53.280 They're essentially saying, we built this road system for you 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.679 to drive on. We don't care what you put in 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:57.560 your car. We don't care what you bring back in 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.360 your car. We don't want to know what's in a car. 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.040 All we're doing is providing you the ability to get 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.760 from point A to point B and back again. Um. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.720 And so you know that that's a that's a policy 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.680 that they have stressed time and time again and used 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.600 as a defense as well. Absolutely, because you know what 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:20.480 when some uh, when some content that isn't only under 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.839 copyright but but is but is controversial and controversial in 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.200 another way. Um, there's a lot of pornography that happens 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.880 on on or that has classically happened pirate bay. Yeah, 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.160 there's a lot of like a lot of the stuff 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.120 that you can find, the torrents that you can find 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.839 on pirate Bay relate back to material that is either 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:43.000 controversial or illegal in some places, and not just because 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.480 it may be stolen or you know, intellectual property that 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.160 doesn't belong to the person who's sharing it, but because 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:54.079 the actual content. Um, they will remove files if UM, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.360 if the name and the content don't match up, right, So, 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.000 in other words, they want you to be straight up 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.840 with whatever the torrent is supposed to be. Right, So, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.839 if if I upload a copy of Jurassic Park, or 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.120 I say it's a copy of Jurassic Park, but it 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.120 turns out it's actually Howard the Duck, then they would 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.880 remove that torrent because it was improperly improperly labeled or 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.720 improperly uh presented and uh and people would end up 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.480 missing out on the great cinematic masterpiece it was Howard 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.959 the Duck. Or or if there's malware that is not 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.440 just Howard the Duck, right, right, Let's say that I 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.320 uploaded a file that says it's Jurassic Park, but in 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.240 fact it's a virus design to create an entire botan 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.760 net zombie army that I'm going to control so I 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:43.400 can attack another companies, you know, servers that would be 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.280 taken down, not because I was playing on attacking those servers, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:51.800 but because it wasn't. So it's not an ethical thing. 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:53.839 It's more like we just want people to be able 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.080 to get the stuff that they are searching for, So 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.120 it has nothing to do with the ethics of the 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.320 actual whatever that piece of content. It's just accuracy that 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.840 they're concerned with. But so, but so, the very first uh, 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.880 the pirate base server. And I'm still not I don't 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:14.120 know the language t PBB is probably I probably just 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.040 I usually just say pirate Bay. I even leave off 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.960 the rebel um. The very first server to host it 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.400 was located in Mexico. This server belonged to a company 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.720 that that Gottfried was working for. And um that that 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.480 original server is now in a computer museum in a Lynching, Sweden, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.280 which has has created this. They took off one of 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.800 the original walls of it and then scripted it, you know, 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.120 so that people could see inside. This was the original 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.720 pirate uh. And and there's a there's a little history 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.240 that is currently unscripted in that glass now that that 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:52.680 talks about, uh, the significance of it. And yes, it 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.400 was a revolution that began in a dark gray metal 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.440 box under a bed if according to one of the 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.120 sources I read, it's specifically had a seller on one 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.240 point three giga Hurts processor with two d fifty six 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.040 megabytes of RAM, and that was the bit torrent tracker. Now, 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:09.800 if you've listened to our bit Torrent episode, you know, 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.440 the tracker is essentially kind of like the traffic controller. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.680 It's when it when you get a request for a 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.199 specific kind of file. It is sort of what allows 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.080 the software to know what other computers in that network 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.920 host that file. So that was the first one. Uh. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.520 It eventually moved from Mexico over to Sweden and um 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.040 it you know, things were kind of moving along this way. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.120 It was getting the pretty popular pretty quickly, especially within Sweden, 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.360 but the real breakout would happen shortly thereafter. In fact, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.200 in two thousand four, that's when the Pirate Bay grew 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.520 to more than one million peers. Now piers are the 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.320 computers within the network that are hosting files, right, so, um, 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.400 you know they're not hosting all the files, they're hosting 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.600 whichever files the users are interested in for their particular use, 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.040 but if they remain connected to the network, then those 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.480 files can then be downloaded by other users. Uh. There 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.160 were more than sixty thou torrent files at that point, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.560 and it was interesting that the Pirate Bay founders discovered 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.480 something that that surprised them. They saw that eight of 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.920 the traffic that was coming to the Pirate Bay came 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.320 not from the Scandinavian countries that came from the rest 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.120 of the world, and that's when they realized, wow, this 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.040 thing and that was one year after they had founded Yeah, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.800 so so this at this point, you know the purpose 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.480 of the site originally was to create this bit torrent 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.920 file sharing service within Scandinavia. There was never any intent 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.240 and those days for it to become something larger than that. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.680 But the way the internetworks, it's a global network of networks. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.200 So as people discovered that there was this resource for 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.760 getting uh you know, thousands of different types of files 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:01.080 across multiple categories, you know, music, television, move movies, text files, 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.800 video games, all sorts of stuff was being shared on 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:09.200 through this this system. The the popularity began to explode. Yeah, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.560 they had to add a bunch of new servers that year, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.600 um as they were relocating to Sweden. Yeah, and that's 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.040 also when the Pirate base split from being run by 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:22.840 Pierrot Biron and became run by quote unquote dedicated individuals. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.520 They they've been a little bit um uh secretive about 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:28.880 who exactly has been. I mean, they realized that what 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.920 they were doing was potentially problematic, even if they didn't 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:35.840 think it was illegal. They knew that people would come 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.760 after them, absolutely because of the nature of the files 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.560 that were being shared, even though again their their position was, hey, 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.680 you know we sure we call ourselves the Pirate Bay, 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.760 and sure we advocate the the file sharing, and sure 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.960 we advocated even if it's intellectual property. But we're not 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.480 the ones putting it up there, We're just facilitating it. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:58.600 They were. They were political activists. You know, I think 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.280 that they knew what they were doing. Yeah, heah, and 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.879 boy that the story gets so much more complicated when 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.639 we get into the illegal stuff. But yeah, that this 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.000 also freed Peter Beran up right. They no longer had 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.280 to administer this site, which was growing and becoming more 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.720 of a full time gig, and so instead the organization 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.720 went on to focus on debating copyright issues within the 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:28.400 Swedish government rather than maintaining a file sharing site. So 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.359 that was, um, you know, really early on, like you said, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.399 one year after it had been founded, it had already 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.399 grown so large that the founding organization was like, we 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.560 should probably hand this off so that we can focus 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.679 on what we want to do and not be distracted 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.359 by running a service. Moving up to two thousand five, 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.239 that's when the Pirate Baby got a redesign and was 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.399 became available in multiple languages, because they, you know, they 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.439 would said, well, we've got the whole world coming to us, 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.960 we should start to cater to them, so that, uh, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.440 to make it more possible for them to use our serve. Yeah, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.160 I mean, we're we're peddling not files, We're peddling a philosophy, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.800 and that philosophy should be open to the entire world. 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.480 So by the end of the year, that side had 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.480 more than two point five million users, and that was 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:19.679 about the time when some folks out on California A 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.480 Hollywood and the record industry both started taking notice and um, 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.479 I think serving them with them takedown notices, which, by 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.520 the way, the pirate base response to take down notices 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:37.480 is essentially this, Yeah, alright, getting back into the piracy 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.440 I was I was just going to note that that usually, um, 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.639 they are a little bit more snarky than you're. Extremely 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:47.200 loud laugh just right. I was just summing it up. Yeah, no, no, 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:53.320 they have been very vocal and very not politically correct 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.159 in their responses and saying, uh, no, we are not 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.320 taking down our service, and what a going to do 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.399 about it, Yeah, and come at me, bro, that's essentially 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:07.240 their response. Um, or they just ignore it, that's the 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.159 other choice. So all right, so this sets up what 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.720 is going to become the legal the beginning of the 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.359 legal portion of our episode about the Pirate Bay. But 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.199 before we get into that, we're going to take a 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.800 very quick break. Alright, we're back. So two thousand five, 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.040 two thoour Big Years. Two thousand six, something pretty major 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.160 happens to the Pirate Bay. Right, the Swedish police rated 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.440 their data center, one of their data centers in Stockholm. Yeah, 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.520 sixty five Swedish police officers raid the data center in Stockholm, Sweden, 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.320 and uh, they had this very specific job, right, Their 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.399 job was to shut down the pirate base servers. And uh, well, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:50.119 one of those founders, Frederick, kind of learned that something 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:52.880 something was up in the middle of this. He got 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.800 a little bit of a little birdie told him that 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.959 perhaps he might need to take some measures to prevent 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.159 something I'm happening to the site. Yeah, he um made it, 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.320 made it, stopped for a couple of minutes to make 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.119 a full backup of the site, and then trotted on 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:09.800 down to the data center to see what was up 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.200 and was you know, greeted by sixty five Swedish police officers. 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.359 And had he not stopped for those couple of minutes 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.720 to make that backup, um, this story might go very 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.000 differently because because as it turned out, that happened on 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.119 My thirty, two thousand and six, they had the site 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.600 back up by June three. Yeah, they had a backup 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.359 online hosts one, a news server in the Netherlands, and 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.360 the founders renamed the site temporarily the Police Bay. Yeah. 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.080 They were essentially saying, ha ha, you tried to get us, 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.240 and look, you shouldst down for three days, for three 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.680 whole days, for seventy two hours, and then we're back. 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.520 But you know, it was I think it was really 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.920 thanks to Frederick's um uh foresight of making that copy. Yeah, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.679 and then the logo they ended up changing that temporarily 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.120 again to a part ship that was firing cannonballs at 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.960 Hollywood at the Hollywood Sign. Yeah, and then eventually they 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.480 changed it again so that it kind of looked like 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:04.960 a phoenix, which of course is the mythical bird that 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.320 every now and then bursts into flames and parishes and 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:12.120 then a new from dashes. Yeah. So they're again they're 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:13.840 saying like you can, you can try and kill us, 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:15.919 but we'll just come right back. That was the message 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.680 they were sending. And the media loved this story o. Yeah. 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.840 And and also they pointed out happily they happily pointed 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.639 out that because of this police action and because of 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.480 the media response to everything that was going on their site, 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:34.680 traffic exploded. Yeah. So essentially, the other message they gave 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.159 was every time you try and take action against us, 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.840 you're just bringing more traffic to us. So really, every 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.360 time you try and stop us, you're making mate unquote 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.800 problem worse. Yeah, so uh not credit does that message 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:54.720 make the organization stop? So moving up to two thousand seven, 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.119 that's when the pirate base starts to really look around 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.240 and say, what can we do to prevent us ROUM 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.760 having to deal with this, you know, problem of a 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.440 government coming in and shutting us down because it's kind 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.440 of irritating, not that it's gonna stop us, but it 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:11.720 slows us down. And it would wouldn't it be nice 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.359 if we could locate our servers someplace beyond the reach 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.160 of law. So how can we do that? How could 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:20.880 we get to the point where no government could come 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:24.280 after us. Well, if we form our own country, Yeah, 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.080 what if we What if we just you know, bought 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.760 an island somewhere, declared ourselves a sovereign nation. Let removed 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.720 ourselves from pretty much any other government influence, and then 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.240 you know, operated out of there. Wouldn't that work. Let's 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.280 take a look online, see if you know, in Craig's list, 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:43.840 if there any if anyone's selling like a major island 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.159 or something. And it turns out, yeah, there was a 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:48.520 there was an old British naval platform out in the 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:53.560 North Sea, Yeah, called called renamed Sea Land. Originally it 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.639 was just a naval platform, a military platform that the 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.280 British Navy had pretty much abandoned after World War Two, 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:07.760