The Pirate Bay is back online, ahead of schedule

By David Nield January 31, 2015

pirate bay back online ahead schedule the — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The world’s most well-known torrent site the Pirate Bay is back, seven weeks after a police raid knocked it offline. The portal has been brought back to life slightly earlier than the February 1st date shown on a countdown clock that was put up on Tuesday. At this stage it’s not clear if the site can reach the scale it did previously, but torrent exchanges have already started.

The raid by Swedish police on the Pirate Bay back in December was in connection with “violations of copyright law” according to a special prosecutor for intellectual property cases, and that investigation is ongoing. It appears that the data that was present when the site went down is still in place now, though there’s been no official confirmation from the Pirate Bay team itself. It’s evidence of just how difficult it is to permanently take down a site of this nature, with servers mirrored in concealed locations all across the world.

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TorrentFreak reports that internal disagreements may have led to some mods and admins being locked out of the new site. Those in charge of the relaunched Pirate Bay are said to be keen to run a tighter, more streamlined operation that’s less easy to knock offline — and these changes have caused conflicts with many of the site’s original members. Some of these disgruntled users are rumoured to be launching alternatives of their own.

Whatever the internal politics behind the relaunch, the Pirate Bay is now back online for those who’d like to make use of the torrenting index service it provides. Even with law enforcement operations such as the one we saw in December, it’s proving difficult for authorities to stamp out piracy on the Web, as the interest in Sony’s The Interview proved over Christmas. Internationally, some ISPs have opted to block the Pirate Bay and similar sites in response to government requests, though it would seem the Pirate Bay is going to last for a few more rounds yet.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

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