Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium and Brazil; just two letters of the alphabet and that’s already five countries that have implemented ISP blocking against The Pirate Bay.

The growing list, which continues with Denmark and persists through Finland, France and Germany, doesn’t stop until it reaches the United Arab Emirates and finally, the UK.

That’s around 30 countries overall, give or take, that have resorted to ISP blocking because no matter what’s thrown at it, The Pirate Bay simply refuses to die.

At least in part, the site is still alive after more than a decade of widespread blocking due to the existence of proxy sites. These sites tend to look and feel like The Pirate Bay but operate from different domain names that aren’t yet on ISP blocklists.

This means that otherwise blocked internet users get to enjoy broadly the same Pirate Bay experience as they did before. At least for a while.

Rightsholders Also Block Pirate Bay Proxies

As reported yesterday, one of the most popular Pirate Bay proxy indexing sites recently disappeared from GitHub.

ProxyBay was a significant player, one that had helped dozens of millions of users gain access to The Pirate Bay by directing them to active Pirate Bay proxy sites. However, in common with The Pirate Bay itself, proxy sites are also subjected to ISP blocking, which can render some of them redundant, not to mention inaccessible.

Given that proxy sites and proxy indexes contribute to the overall health of the Pirate Bay ‘hydra’, that got us thinking: Is the hydra alive and well? Or has it lost a few too many heads over the years?

Data Sources Used

While we’re aware that proxy sites face blocking in several countries, until today we’d never drilled into the details. It quickly became apparent that a complete overview would require significant time and resources but our short report today should help set the tone.

To weigh rightsholders’ responses to strictly Pirate Bay proxy sites, we obtained domain blocking lists used by ISPs in the UK, Denmark and Italy. The original plan was to include Portugal, India and a handful of other countries but the volume of data was soon overwhelming.

Instead of including those additional countries, we used data from the Infringing Website List (IWL) operated by the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.

Proxies Face Massive Blocking

After merging data from all four sources, we removed any duplicate proxy domains, any domains that weren’t clearly dedicated or directed at the Pirate Bay, plus any domains where their key role could not be identified due to downtime or other reasons.

The final total of Pirate Bay proxies, all of which are subjected to blocking and/or restrictions on business due to their appearance on the IWL, is 670 to 690 domains, give or take. While that remains a large number, including other countries’ blocklists would’ve inflated that number considerably.

The big question is whether all of those domains are live, in business, and helping to unblock The Pirate Bay. The simple answer to that is ‘no’. While we were able to test whether sites were active in some way, we couldn’t determine exactly what they were doing, unless we visited every last one and took a screenshot for proof.

…..So That’s What We Did

The image below is comprised of roughly 670 screenshots featuring obviously live proxies (mostly white), a lot of seemingly dead proxies (dark), and a surprising number of domains up for sale (mostly blue). (click to enlarge)

It’s not possible to determine the exact reasons why so many proxies appear to have thrown in the towel, in some cases on multiple domains. That being said, it’s highly likely that ISP blocking played an important role in dampening enthusiasm for spending more money on yet another domain.

Since the data was at hand, we decided to throw all of the live domains at their DNS and then wait for a list of IP addresses to come out. We fed those into an IP location service which produced the map in the image below.

The large blue blob on the left, representing the location where most Pirate Bay proxies point, is the home of Cloudflare and another kind of proxy – a reverse proxy.

That means that in all likelihood, the Pirate Bay proxies are hosted somewhere else entirely, not unlike The Pirate Bay itself. At least for now.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The Pirate Bay has been around for nearly two decades, which is quite an achievement considering the immense legal pressure it has faced over the years.

Swedish police tried to shut the site down , twice, raiding dozens of servers. This ultimate goal failed but local authorities did prosecute the site’s three co-founders, who all served time in prison for their involvement.

The notorious torrent site stood tall in the midst of this turmoil and continues to operate from thepiratebay.org until this day. While it is no longer the largest piracy site online, anti-piracy forces haven’t forgotten about it.

Pirate Bay Targeted in New Subpoena Wave

This week, we spotted yet another attempt to uncover the current operators. Through the Motion Picture Association, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) requested a DMCA subpoena at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

These subpoenas are not uncommon and are typically directed at third-party intermediaries, Cloudflare in this case. The Pirate Bay is a Cloudflare customer and through the court, ACE requests all useful information the California company has on its illustrious client.

“The subpoena requires that you provide information concerning the individuals offering infringing material described in the attached notice,” ACE informs Cloudflare.

“[Y]ou are required to disclose […] information sufficient to identify the infringers. This would include the individuals’ names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account history.”

These DMCA subpoenas don’t require any judicial oversight. In most cases, they are swiftly signed off by a court clerk. The legal paperwork is then sent to Cloudflare, which typically replies with all relevant information it has on file.

Actionable Intel?

Whether this will result in any useful information for ACE is hard to tell. The Pirate Bay knows all too well that these subpoenas exist so likely anticipated this request. After all, ACE targeted the site with a similar request three years ago.

In addition to The Pirate Bay, ACE subpoenas target a variety of other domain names as well. These include thesoap2day.com, cuevana2.biz, seriesflix.is, and more than a dozen others.

The domain tor.cat appears to be an odd entry, as that’s merely a redirect to a .onion domain on the dark web. The .onion domain belongs to DonTorrent, which previously taunted ACE by listing the anti-piracy coalition’s boss Jan Van Voorn as the site’s owner.

Van Voorn and his team hope that their new subpoena requests will help to pinpoint the owners of the listed sites. While results are not guaranteed, this strategy has proven to be effective in the past, at least in some cases.

“Disclosure requests have been a very effective way for ACE to expand its investigations,” Van Voorn previously told us.

“Through these processes we target all relevant intermediaries that have customer information that can help us identify the operator of a pirate site or service, including hosting providers, payment processors, advertising networks, etcetera.”

Fabricated Data

The information in Cloudflare’s administration isn’t always useful. Many operators of pirate sites and services use fabricated or inaccurate details to sign up, but ACE says that it often gets something useful out of it.

“While the information obtained does not always instantly identify the individual running a pirate operation, there are almost always leads we can follow that either give us investigative insights or that help confirm prior suspicions.”

Even if the information turns out to be useless for direct enforcement purposes, it can still prove helpful. After all, it can help ACE to argue that online intermediaries should have stricter Know Your Business Customer (KYBC) requirements.

—

Copies of the subpoena requests filed this week are available here ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ). A full list of all the mentioned domain names is available below.

– thesoap2day.com
– tor.cat
– thepiratebay.org
– cuevana2.biz
– cuevana3.ai
– cuevana3.mu
– compucalitv.com
– seriesflix.is
– filmisub.com
– filmi7.com
– fmoviesfree.to
– topflix.fm
– filmeshdtorrent.com
– photocall.tv
– multicanais.vc
– megacamais.com
– furiaflix.net
– moviehdapkdownload.com
– download.teatvapkdownload.com
– tv.tvzon.tv

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Two years ago, reports began to surface about a new six-part TV-series on The Pirate Bay’s turbulent history.

The project was initially scheduled to start last year but after an apparent delay, filming is now expected to begin this fall.

Pirate Bay TV Series

The inception and early years of The Pirate Bay are definitely a worthy subject for a series. While most pirate sites hid in the shadows, Pirate Bay’s founders were public figures, who openly taunted the entertainment industries.

Speaking with Variety , head-writer Piotr Marciniak explains that his screenplay is based on a wealth of archive material as well as interviews with the site’s founders.

“It’s a classic rise and fall story, a tragedy about flying too close to the sun, but also a timeless story of a generational conflict,” Marcimiak said.

The people involved in the “The Pirate Bay” series are clearly looking forward to getting the project running. The production is in the hands of B-Reel Films , working for the Swedish broadcaster SVT, while the American distribution company Dynamic Television scooped up worldwide rights.

Selling The Pirate Bay ‘Rights’

Indeed, the rights to The Pirate Bay series are actively traded. The same will likely happen to pirated copies of the episodes when they’re illicitly posted to The Pirate Bay, but it’s unclear whether the rightsholders have plans to crack down on unauthorized sharing.

It’s nonetheless interesting to read that the story about a site that rebelled against the exploitation of copyrights, is being copyrighted and sold off. Would The Pirate Bay founders approve of that? Are they even involved?

The Pirate Bay series aims to tell the history of the notorious pirate site and co-founders Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Gottfrid Svartholm, but none appear to be actively involved.

Founders Deny Involvement

TorrentFreak spoke with both Sunde and Neij, who both confirm they were not interviewed for the upcoming series, even though it aims to document an important and hectic part of their lives.

“Nope, they didn’t interview me for the TV series,” Fredrik says. “Also. I’m not sure who they bought the rights from… They didn’t pay me at least.”

“And I know Anakata would have had nothing to do with it,” Fredrik adds, referring to co-founder Gottfrid, who prefers to live his life away from the public spotlight in recent years.

Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde previously said that he was flattered by the idea of a Pirate Bay series, adding that it’s also a bit nerve-wracking. This week, however, Sunde confirmed that he is in no way involved either.

Pirate Bay’s co-founder actually discussed the TV project idea with the show’s writer Piotr Marciniak a few years ago but declined to sell his story. Instead, he was, and still is, working on a potentially competing film project.

Later on, Sunde also met with the series’ director and someone from the production company B-Reel Films, who told him that they had no one from the Pirate Bay team who wanted to cooperate. That didn’t convince him to change his mind, however.

F*ck Off

As mentioned earlier, the Variety piece mentions that the upcoming Pirate Bay series draws from key interviews with Sunde and Svartholm. However, the Pirate Bay co-founder says that he wasn’t interviewed for the series.

“I have not given any deep interview, and when I met with them they said that Gottfrid had told them to fuck off. Which sounds more true to his character..,” Peter Sunde tells us.

We also reached out to B-Reel Films to hear their side of the story, but the company didn’t immediately reply. However, based on the comments from Sunde and Neij it is safe to conclude that they are not in any way involved.

Of course, the rightsholders of The Pirate Bay TV series are free to send some of the revenues to the founders of the site, who ultimately paid for their ideals with their freedom . Sunde doesn’t expect to get paid anytime soon, however.

“Movie studios moved to Hollywood since they didn’t want to pay for stories. They were the original pirates,” Sunde says.

“It’s been ironic to see them going after pirates in court for years and even more ironic to see them pirate the pirate story. Hoping it will turn out nice so I can pirate a copy of it. Maybe I’ll get sued for downloading the story about us.”

Update April 8:

Fredrik Heinig, founder and managing partner of B-Reel Films was kind enough to clear up that, indeed, none of the TPB founders were interviewed in detail for the series. The production team did speak to several people who were close to TPB, as well as its adversaries.

“We interviewed more than 20 people around and in TPB, Piratbyrån, and Antipiratbyrån for our project,” Heinig says.

“Piotr talked to Peter and I and the director Jens met and spoke to Peter in Malmö, I have also talked to him two more times on the phone, but Peter never wanted to do a deep interview, as you know has ambitions to tell his story in a film by himself. Piotr met Gottfrid and had a very short talk.”

“We tried to reach both Gottfrid and Fredrik for longer interviews without any luck. So it’s a misunderstanding from Variety to say that our series is based on interviews with the founders, it’s based on heavy research and interviews with people around them and others.”

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The Pirate Bay has had its fair share of technical issues over the past years, sometimes resulting in hours or even days of downtime.

When the notorious torrent site goes offline, the associated SuprBay forum usually remains online. This is helpful, as the forums have a dedicated page where outsiders can check the status of the main site.

More recently, the tables have been turned. At the time of writing The Pirate Bay is online but the forums are unreachable. People who try to access SuprBay get a connection timeout instead, which has been the case for several days now.

Dark Web Message

The Pirate Bay website doesn’t have any information on the issue but on the dark web, the .onion domain shows a little more information.

“Moe is still playing with himself, but we are slowly getting things sorted,” the brief notification reads.

Hacked

The message doesn’t reveal much but suggests that if Surpbay admin “Moe” takes action, the site will eventually make a full comeback. This is confirmed by fellow administrator Spud17, who explains that the server was compromised.

An outsider reportedly hacked and messed up the server but Spud17 says that user data was not compromised in the process. The main Pirate Bay site was unaffected by the whole ordeal.

The good news is that there are recent backups in place. This means that the forums can be brought back online with relative ease. According to the SuprBay team, that should take a week, or perhaps two.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

JustStream, HDStream, Cocostream, Wikiserie, Filmoflix, Wow-films… Plusieurs acteurs de la culture ont réussi à obtenir le blocage de sites majeurs de streaming par les opérateurs français. S'y rendre avec une connexion française sera bientôt compliqué. [Lire la suite]

Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/

Various courts around the world have come to the conclusion that The Pirate Bay is a copyright-infringing website.

As a result, Internet providers in dozens of countries are required to block access to the site. This works well, but blocking measures are also quite easy to circumvent.

Some people may resort to VPN services, for example, or replace the default DNS resolver provided by their ISP with independent alternatives. Dedicated ‘proxy’ sites have also become quite popular.

These proxies act as a copy of The Pirate Bay, making the site accessible through an alternative domain name. These platforms are thorns in the sides of rightsholders, who fight back by adding proxy site domains to existing blocking orders targeting The Pirate Bay.

This cat-and-mouse game inspired the development of sites that provide an overview of working Pirate Bay proxy sites. ‘The Proxy Bay’ is just one of many similar examples.

Police Take proxybay.github.io Offline

The Proxy Bay has been operating in the ‘proxy information’ niche for many years. Aside from its main domain name, it also uses a proxybay.github.io version, which is linked to the Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub. This variant has also been available for years, but last month found itself abruptly pulled offline.

The takedown was requested by City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit ( PIPCU ). On behalf of music group BPI, PIPCU sent a takedown request to GitHub, alerting it to the alleged criminal activity taking place on its domain.

“This site is in breach of UK law, namely Copyright, Design & Patents Act 1988, Offences under the Fraud Act 2006 and Conspiracy to Defraud,” PIPCU wrote.

“Suspension of the domain(s) is intended to prevent further crime. Where possible we request that domain suspension(s) are made within 48 hours of receipt of this Alert,” the notice added.

DMCA Counternotice

GitHub honored the takedown request and proxybay.github.io was redirected to a 404 error. However, The Proxy Bay operator clearly disagreed with this decision and responded with a formal DMCA counternotice .

“The person claiming DMCA doesn’t understand, that there is no content hosted on proxybay.github.com hence why it is wrong to send a DMCA request for it,” the site owner wrote.

“There are no content/media of any kind hosted on proxybay.github.com, if there is – again ask mister DMCA robot to provide with exact links of media files which were infringed and I will be glad to remove them from repository.”

That ‘mister DMCA robot’ was none other than the UK police didn’t seem to impress The Proxy Bay operator. Since there are no links to copyrighted content, the domain should be reinstated, they argued.

The legality of these sites can be debated. In the UK, thepirateproxybay.com and similar sites have been added to court-sanctioned blocklists in the past, making this a tricky situation when blended with DMCA notices relevant under United States law.

GitHub Restores The Proxy Bay

Despite the sensitivities, the DMCA counternotice was successful and this week GitHub decided to restore the domain and the site. As a result, proxybay.github.io is available once again to the public at large.

The reinstatement doesn’t mean that GitHub has taken sides. The DMCA simply dictates that disputed content has to be restored between 10 and 14 business days , unless the rightsholder takes legal action.

Apparently, no legal action was taken in this case, so the logical response was to reenable the domain name.

Interestingly, GitHub had an easy out if it wanted to keep The Proxy Bay offline. The counternotice listed the wrong domain name, as it referred to proxybay.github.com instead of proxybay.github.io. This .com domain doesn’t exist, which could render the DMCA takedown protest moot.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Notable for their rise and public demise, piracy-related brands such as Napster, LimeWire, and Megaupload are still widely recognized today, despite their shutdowns long ago.

Then there’s The Pirate Bay, a site that has endured almost 20 years of chaos yet still hasn’t fallen, largely due to the groundwork of three instantly recognizable figureheads – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm.

Part of their remarkable story is told in the excellent Simon Klose documentary ‘ TPB AFK ‘ but despite that being a great film, in some respects it fell a little short. For example, the Pirate Bay co-founders were never shown in an armed shoot-out with police in Stockholm.

Admittedly, that never actually happened but in this day and age, there’s less need for facts to get in the way of a good story. Especially when that story is about another infamous torrent site, one that in spiritual terms is the closest thing India has to The Pirate Bay.

Thrill, Drama, Crime: Tamil Rockers Has it All

Tamil Rockers launched as a torrent site in 2011, offering all of the usual types of pirate booty. In common with The Pirate Bay, over the years Tamil Rockers gained a cult following, with folklore recalling the group’s humble beginnings in a Chennai shed, a great setup for any movie.

Like its Swedish counterpart, Tamil Rockers soon became enemy number one for the local movie industry and in 2015, there was even talk of movie releases being suspended to ensure the site had no content to pirate.

Since then the site has been blocked by ISPs and numerous proxies, mirrors, clones, and copycats have emerged. Police have also made many arrests, often claiming to have detained key Tamil Rockers staff .

In 2020, however, it was still one of the most popular torrent sites in the world so the next logical step for irritated entertainment companies was to make a Tamil Rockers TV series with glitz, glamor and chaotic police shoot-outs – obviously.

Tamil Rockerz – The TV Series

Headquartered in Chennai, allegedly just 15 minutes from the original Tamil Rockers shed, sits AVM Productions , the veteran movie and TV show company behind the upcoming series ‘Tamil Rockerz’.

“Tamil Rockerz deep dives into the dark side of the piracy world and unravels the industry’s constant battle against identifying the group that is involved in releasing pirated content,” AVM says.

The series will be released on streaming platform SonyLIV and promises to ask the big questions right off the bat.

The plot seems to center around Rudra, a cop struggling with an inevitably troubled past. His mission – should he choose to accept it (spoiler: he did) – is to stop the TamilRockerz piracy group from leaking an upcoming, big-budget, blockbuster movie.

A movie called ‘Singadurai’ is mentioned in the trailer but whatever the movie’s name, Rudra has just 10 days to prevent a looming disaster for the local movie industry. The rumor is that TamilRockerz, whoever they are, might be invincible.

TamilRockerz stars Arun Vijay and Vani Bhojan , who was once voted the most desirable woman on Indian TV. It will stream on SonyLIV but a firm release date is yet to be announced.

AVM Productions is clearly aware of the nature of its target audience so has presumably made peace with the 100% chance the series will appear on TamilRockers sites and thousands more like them.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Two decades ago, when the file-sharing boom was just getting started, many people saw piracy as a mystical treasure hunt.

At the time, record shops and video stores still dominated the street scene. That would soon be over, as offline entertainment swiftly moved online.

Instead of listening to a CD at a local store, people started to sample music from the convenience of their own homes. It could take a few hours for a download to complete, but for many, this anticipation was part of the excitement.

Supply and Demand

Despite the potential legal repercussions, it was instantly clear that millions of people were eager to consume pirated content. However, in order for the system to work, a steady supply of uploaders was also required.

Warez groups were already sharing pirated content in their own secretive ecosystems long before Napster and BitTorrent were invented but, when torrent sites took off, a new breed of uploaders began to emerge. These people curated pirated files and shared them publicly for the whole world to enjoy.

The Pirate Bay has always been a breeding ground for uploaders. Some have professional setups with automated bots, but many take a much more casual approach. Not much is known about these hobbyists but we were able to find one willing to share his views.

Vtwin88cube

The uploader in question is “vtwin88cube,” who shared his first torrent on The Pirate Bay in 2010, well over a decade ago. Like most uploaders he has his own niche, in his case specializing in high-quality music releases. As a former radio DJ, this isn’t a coincidence.

Vtwin88cube first heard about The Pirate Bay in the mid-2000s, still using a dial-up connection at the time. He was blown away by what the site offered and when the bandwidth constraints were sorted, a download spree began.

“Having been introduced to the biggest ‘Candy Store’ in the world was a life-changing experience for me. I started downloading MP3 music from the Bay. However, half of the time the tags were messed up or song titles were misspelled.

“I’m a former radio DJ and in radio stations, there’s little room for such inaccuracies. I thought to myself, I can do better, and decided to start uploading properly tagged music. It quickly grew into an addiction.”

3,000+ Uploads

From one moment to the next, Vtwin88cube progressed from basic user to Pirate Bay uploader. Back then everyone could sign up for an account so it wasn’t all that special. But it wasn’t a fluke either.

After more than a decade Vtwin88cube is still uploading FLAC music releases and he now has more than 3,000 uploads on record. These are not all albums he personally ripped. On the contrary, most uploads are recycled hard-to-find torrents he collected over the years.

It’s impossible to find out how many people downloaded the torrents, but it will easily be over a million, if not many more.

Like most uploaders, Vtwin88cube is well aware of the legal risks. Getting caught can lead to life-destroying legal trouble. Meanwhile, being an uploader doesn’t bring in any money, it only costs time and effort. So what does he get out of it?

Vtwin88cube says that he sees it as a way to help other people access music they may be unable to enjoy otherwise.

“I get a sense of satisfaction that maybe in some small way I’ve made someone’s life a little more enjoyable. TPB was and still is to some degree vital for people getting music. Times are tough, just because someone can’t afford to buy music, are they any less deserving? I don’t think so.”

The Green Skull

There are probably other motivations involved as well. After uploading for 12 years, Vtwin88cube is now considered a VIP uploader at The Pirate Bay. This is a ‘trusted’ status that comes with a green skull, which is shown on all uploads.

“I’m very proud of my VIP uploader status on TPB and other sites also,” Vtwin88cube says, noting that he also shares torrents on 1337x, Demonoid, Prostylex, and TorrentGalaxy.

Another major feather in the cap of Vtwin88cube is the fact that one of his releases was apparently downloaded at The Élysée Palace a few years ago. The Élysée is the official residence of the President of the French Republic.

“I’m also proud that former French President Sarkozy liked my FLAC rip of the Beach Boys- Greatest Hits – only the best quality will do for the Palace!” Vtwin88cube tells us.

The prolific music uploader has also spotted his work in other unusual places. In the renowned music database Musicbrainz, for example, his “ The Very Best of Guns N’ Roses ” compilation is listed as an official album release, complete with homemade album art.

A Family

These credits and the ability to ‘help’ others can be motivations to continue uploading, despite the risks. And perhaps there’s a third factor as well; a sense of belonging and the friendships that were formed along the way.

“I’ve developed numerous friendships with other VIP uploaders and crew members over the years, we’re a family.”

Vtwin88cube says that there’s a dedicated group of uploaders who stay in regular contact but not all people stick around. Some uploaders disappear without a trace and, sadly enough, there’s an obituary list as well.

“Occasionally, real-world family members will reach out on the forums or by PM letting us know that someone has passed away and won’t be uploading anymore. Usually the wife or children. Very sad indeed.”

As a seasoned uploader, Vtwin88cube has learned to take precautions in order to remain relatively anonymous. He uses a VPN to log in to the site and while seeding his torrents.

But copyright holders are not the only threat. Vtwin88cube also had his Pirate Bay account taken over by hackers who used it to upload German movies, likely scam-related. Eventually, he managed to get the account back with help from other TPB VIP uploaders, but it was a wake-up call for sure.

The Old Vessel That Keeps Sailing

In recent years The Pirate Bay has decayed somewhat. It is impossible to register new accounts and the comments have been closed. But many uploaders have remained loyal, including Vtwin88cube.

“TPB has definitely changed a lot over the years, she’s an old vessel with maintenance issues. The bilge pumps are running 24/7 keeping her afloat thanks to the tireless work of TPB crew.”

As the site has grown older, its uploaders have too. Vtwin88cube is no exception. His release output isn’t what it used to be but he says that stopping is not an option.

“My production output isn’t what it used to be for various reasons though. I’ve been on the verge of burnout for several years, but I hope to make it another decade!

“It’s my online family and the competition that keeps me going. I guess I’m trying to set a longevity record. The only thing that can make me stop is for the internet police to pry my keyboard from my cold dead hand!”

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The cryptocurrency landscape has been hit hard this week.

Bitcoin is down more than 50% from its high a few months earlier and even some ‘stablecoins’ have started to disintegrate.

This type of volatility is not unexpected and the early adopters have already lived through a few of these crashes. This includes The Pirate Bay.

The notorious torrent site is somewhat of a crypto pioneer. In 2013, it was one of the first to add support for Bitcoin donations , with Litecoin and Monero following shortly after. Later on, TPB also popularized website-based mining , something that not all users were in favor of.

The PirateToken

Last year The Pirate Bay added another crypto project to its list with the launch of PirateToken (TPB) . Initially, we assumed that this was some type of advertising deal for a third party, but the site swiftly reassured the public it was serious.

“It’s a soft launch to a new thing we want to try and we have many ideas,” the TPB team wrote, noting that the token might be useful to donate to moderators and uploaders, or to purchase VIP content.

“Much Ideas. Much Wow. So Great,” they added, hoping that the site’s users would hop on the bandwagon.

This week, exactly a year has passed since the Pirate Token went live and, thus far, the project hasn’t been particularly successful. At the time of writing the token trades for little over $1 , far off the $15 high that was reached soon after it went public.

Needless to say, the recent crypto crash hasn’t helped but the price had already begun to tumble while Bitcoin was making new highs, so that’s not exactly an excuse.

478 Holders, 5 Transactions

The price isn’t really the biggest concern either. From what we can see, there is simply very little interest in the project. In fact, the number of people owning some TPB tokens is dropping. There are currently just 478 holders left , which is a tiny fraction of the site’s userbase.

These holders aren’t very active either. Over the past 30 days, there have only been five transactions.

Another bad sign is the fact that 99.98% of the 100,000,000 tokens are still held by the creator of the project. So while the theoretical market cap is over $100 million, the public only owns roughly $20,000 worth of TPB.

None of this should come as a surprise really. The token has no utility at the moment and The Pirate Bay isn’t promoting it in any way either. Yes, there is a dedicated link to the “token” page on the site, but that’s currently redirecting to the homepage.

Perhaps all of this will change when the TPB team spurs into action, but holders shouldn’t get their hopes up. Right now, it’s certainly not the digital pirate treasure they’d hoped for but the same can also be said for other niche tokens, including BitTorrent .

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.