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Year of the storm

thepiratebay.se

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Re: Year of the storm

#31

Post by sudonim »

Freedom is a threat to government. The promise of freedom gets governments elected. Exercising freedom makes governments resort to violence.

Censorship has always been around. How many of the books once banned by the US have you read?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governm...

How many of the wikileaks cables have you read?

99% of The Pirate Bay is people downloading entertainment. Sometimes it's entertainment not available yet in their region. Sometimes it's a show on cable that aired last night. Reducing the friction for consumers to get content is a business problem. The Pirate Bay thrives because big media fails to solve that problem.

But 1% of the time - maybe less, The Pirate Bay links to content that will have no other home. Where powerful people can't squash it. If we have no place outside the reach of national governments where things that make them uncomfortable have a chance to spread, then we have no freedom.

So, while The Pirate Bay is the seedy underbelly of copyright infringement on the internet, it also gives you freedom. We need to protect that.

Re: Year of the storm

#32

Post by diwank »

Erwin wrote: post #19

So the Pirate Bay is now a bastion of freedom that lets users in Syria and North Korea download the latest episode of Glee? (The current most popular torrent there). I'm a little confused about what their greater noble political purpose is. To me it sounds like a place where you can get your TV shows in a more convenient way than waiting until they appear on channels you have, or download that movie you can't be both…

The point you make is really important but I think its relevance here may be doubtful. Civil disobedience at a massive scale is surely a compelling way of protest though you have to keep in mind that civil disobedience is about voluntary display of indignance by EVERYONE participating (read here as the users.)

The Pirate Bay cannot take that decision on behalf of their users. It has to be an active and voluntary enagagement.

Further, this TPB post stands for something more than mere access to paid content. It is essentially a protocol infused with freedom. No bar on content; no censorship; no policing. How one uses it is immaterial but as long as it exists, it offers people that freedom. Dissidents, political prisoners, protesters can always look to it as a last resort to share things.

I think that coming out the way you describe is just not feasible for the TPB, the same way surrendering never made sense to Robin Hood.

Re: Year of the storm

#34

Post by VonLipwig »

Hmm.

"""What binds us all together is a strong belief that what we do is good."""

What is 'good' about the pirate bay? A site which is 95% dedicated to sharing copyrighted content?

The Pirate Bay exists to make money for its founders. This is why it has so many intrusive ad's constantly popping up. They aren't on any mission. They are just raking in money at other people's expense.

"""Our 3 friends and blood brothers have been sentenced to prison. This might sound worse than it is. Since no one of them no longer lives in Sweden, they won't go to jail. They are as free today as they were yesterday."""

Does this mean they are on the run? As they have been sentenced to 4-10 month's I would just serve the time and be done with it. Surely this is better than constantly watching your back and avoiding being extradited back to Sweden.

"""But what enrages us to our inner core is that the system, the empire, the governments, are still allowed to try to boss you and us around with one law crazier than the other"""

Yes.. the system.. the empire.. surprised they didn't mention the people in black suits? The pirate bay is such a target because the people who run it humiliate and insult people with very deep pockets. They aren't victims, they enjoy the attention.

Re: Year of the storm

#35

Post by dered »

microtonal wrote: post #9

It is sad, but I cannot read this blog post. The Dutch equivalent of the RIAA/MPAA, named Brein, sued two of the major Dutch ISPs for not blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Brein won the court case, and the judge required these ISPs to block The Pirate Bay starting yesterday. Now I am met with this when visiting thepiratebay.se: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/blokkade.png/ Internet censorship is now real in…

The PUSCII collective has set up a proxy especially for The Pirate Bay at: http://www.br3in.nl/

Re: Year of the storm

#36

Post by wladimir »

microtonal wrote: post #21
Erwin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often the filtering happens through your ISP's domain server rather than at a IP level. The server might have e.g. *.thepiratebay.se forced to return an IP address then showing the blocking page. The workaround is to use a DNS server outside of your ISP -- e.g. Google's 8.8.8.8 nameserver, or alternatively adding the known IPs to /etc/hosts (which might take precedence over a nameserver response depending on your con…

Unfortunately, they are filtering traffic to The Pirate Bay's IP adresses as well. This was part of the verdict, they have to filter the list of IP addresses (hosting TPB) that Brein provides. Edit: I, as most other people here, are perfectly capable of setting up a tunnel. Most people outside these small confines aren't.

Most people outside these small confines aren't.

Not yet. That will change as soon as they deem it necessary. A lot of technical people are willing to explain to less technical people, and there are suddenly a lot of easy tutorials on how to circumvent the blocks.

Just like previous tries by Brein, the effectiveness of this won't last a day.

Re: Year of the storm

#37

Post by wladimir »

rickmb wrote: post #29
warp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The closest thing to a dutch EFF is probably Bits of Freedom, https://bof.nl

Which does absolutely fuck all as soon as the magic word "piracy" appears. They're barely acknowledging this is happening. Ask yourself: what has BoF done for us lately? Or ever?

what has BoF done for us lately? Or ever?

Educate people about the need for internet freedom / privacy, which is a good way to get broader popular support.

Re: Year of the storm

#38

Post by rmc »

microtonal wrote: post #9

It is sad, but I cannot read this blog post. The Dutch equivalent of the RIAA/MPAA, named Brein, sued two of the major Dutch ISPs for not blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Brein won the court case, and the judge required these ISPs to block The Pirate Bay starting yesterday. Now I am met with this when visiting thepiratebay.se: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/blokkade.png/ Internet censorship is now real in…

Likewise, the major broadband provider, Eircom, blocks the pirate bay aswell.

Re: Year of the storm

#39

Post by masklinn »

microtonal wrote: post #9

It is sad, but I cannot read this blog post. The Dutch equivalent of the RIAA/MPAA, named Brein, sued two of the major Dutch ISPs for not blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Brein won the court case, and the judge required these ISPs to block The Pirate Bay starting yesterday. Now I am met with this when visiting thepiratebay.se: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/blokkade.png/ Internet censorship is now real in…

Does http://www.depiraatbaai.be/ work?

It's an address they've put in place due to court-ordered belgian ISP DNS blocks on about 20 of TPB's addresses.

Re: Year of the storm

#40

Post by JonnieCache »

In this year of the storm, the winners will build windmills and the losers will raise shelters.

I like this a lot. Is it a paraphrase or a quotation of something?

EDIT: apparently its a "chinese proverb."

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