The recent seizure by the Swedish police (with the collusion of the RIAA via the Swedish minister of justice) of the the servers belonging to thepiratebay.org[TPB] has been gathering much attention . This is because TPB is a torrent site , it hosts torrent files which point users to material downloadable with the bittorrent protocol but does not host the actual material itself. Under Swedish law TPB's site is legal but it is likely that the police where attempting to find some copyrighted files.
To me this is eerily reminiscent of the indymedia server theft by the FBI , except that apparently several other unrelated servers where also taken in this instance. I don't think anyone can be so cack-handed that they could not read the labels on each server or ask the staff who where not under suspicion, You can watch the cctv footage of the bust on you-tube (until the police cover-up the cameras with bags) and clearly see they have plenty of time to check. I think this is an attempt to scare the ISP and its other customers in to getting TPB shutdown because the RIAA realised they couldn't do it within the law.
The USA has a lot to answer in regard to its meddling preemptive strike policies and its use of foreign governments as tools. These seem to be at odds with its much vaunted position as 'guardian of the free world'. For me this approach raises a dangerous legal issue which is starting to test UK law , piracy is essentially a civil matter because it is a dispute between the licensor and the alledged infringer. In civil law the police have no business with seizing or arresting until a judge has decided that a crime has taken place. If powerful parts of society are allowed to use the police as bailiffs then we will be no better than the pre-magna-carta days where the wealthy few would tyrannise the majority of the population with impunity.
Apparently most Swedish newspapers and media are covering the story with a sense of disapproval and are set to make the whole episode as embarrassing as possible for the Swedish police and the weasely minister who ordered this. The site is up again so go get your torrents and boycott the RIAA/MPAA !
- http://tpbeng.blogspot.com/ - Translations of local news
- http://www.ccc.de/updates/2006/chaosradio-pirate-bay - Chaos Computer Club interviews the site admins
- http://www.thepiratebay.org/donate.php - Donate some money to help TPB fight for their servers back