Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

thepiratebay.se

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 301 posts

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#31

Post by Cushman »

astrodust wrote: post #19
chimeracoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that people in the DPRK refer to themselves as the 'Republic of Korea' in an attempt to deny/disqualify the existence of any other 'Republic of Korea'? (ie, 'The one true Republic of Korea' or something like that).

Why do communist countries insist on calling themselves "democratic"? If you're such a firm believer in that philosophy, why not have some pride?

Communism and democracy are orthogonal. Your question is why dictators represent themselves as democracies, but I don't think that's a very complex question; it's propaganda 101.

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#33

Post by rmc »

astrodust wrote: post #19
chimeracoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that people in the DPRK refer to themselves as the 'Republic of Korea' in an attempt to deny/disqualify the existence of any other 'Republic of Korea'? (ie, 'The one true Republic of Korea' or something like that).

Why do communist countries insist on calling themselves "democratic"? If you're such a firm believer in that philosophy, why not have some pride?

There's a joke about how many "democratic"'s or "repulic"'s are in the countries name that the more un-democratic and un-republican they are. :P

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#34

Post by ryusage »

astrodust wrote: post #19
chimeracoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that people in the DPRK refer to themselves as the 'Republic of Korea' in an attempt to deny/disqualify the existence of any other 'Republic of Korea'? (ie, 'The one true Republic of Korea' or something like that).

Why do communist countries insist on calling themselves "democratic"? If you're such a firm believer in that philosophy, why not have some pride?

Communist countries aren't the only ones that use nicer sounding terms than what they really are.

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#36

Post by EliRivers »

chimeracoder wrote: post #15
kyllo wrote: post #12

>"...we have been invited by the leader of the republic of Korea..." That's the wrong one, though. Republic of Korea = South Democratic People's Republic of Korea = North

Is it possible that people in the DPRK refer to themselves as the 'Republic of Korea' in an attempt to deny/disqualify the existence of any other 'Republic of Korea'? (ie, 'The one true Republic of Korea' or something like that).

I have been to the DPRK on holiday and whilst I was there it was explicitly made clear that the people of the DPRK (or at least, the ones I met who are presumably on-message) do refer to "Korea" as one Korea.

That's not denial of the existence of other Korea, and not "we're the true Korea"; it's more that there is only one Korea, it's the entire peninsula, and this unfortunate state of affairs where there are currently two separate governments isn't an indication that there are two Koreas. There's one Korea. The whole thing.

I asked the guides specifically so I think I've got it more or less right.

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#37

Post by Wilya »

So.

A traceroute to thepiratebay.se is kind of amusing.

From my home (Sweden), the packets seem to go to Frankfurt, then New York, take a link via an ip which reverses to intelsatone.net to a cambodgian ip (500ms latency right here), then reach the ip 175.45.177.217, assigned to Star Joint Venture Co Ltd. Who seem to be a legitimate North Korea internet provider (or, well, as legitimate as it gets, coming from North Korea). The rest of the traceroute doesn't ping back (edit: 6 hops, which could stay in NK, or lead you back anywhere in the world).

If it's a joke, it's a very elaborate one.

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#38

Post by binarymax »

This makes me upset. Its upsetting because while yes, information freedom is a very important topic and needs to happen, but it does not trump human freedom. I'm not sure if this is a straw man or not - but how can they justify working with an entity that has such a horrid human rights record?

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#39

Post by astrodust »

rmc wrote: post #33
astrodust wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do communist countries insist on calling themselves "democratic"? If you're such a firm believer in that philosophy, why not have some pride?

There's a joke about how many "democratic"'s or "repulic"'s are in the countries name that the more un-democratic and un-republican they are. :P

Surely the "Holy Roman Empire" was the thought leader in this regard, being neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

Still, if it's a case of wishful thinking, why "democratic" and not "The Awesome, Glorious Empire of North Korea Death to America"?

Re: The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea

#40

Post by jfb »

chimeracoder wrote: post #29
notahacker wrote: post #18

Well it's nice to know that "one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship" wouldn't let concerns over something as insignificant as totalitarianism deter them from "forming a special bond" with a state to distribute warez.

They acknowledge the irony in their own post - the only way that they can promote freedom of speech is by forming a partnership with the least free country in the world, not by forming an alliance with the supposedly 'free' countries in Western Europe/North America. In other words, the Western countries' belief in 'freedom of speech' is starting to seem as shallow as the word 'Democratic' in the 'Democratic People's…

Alternately, you know, it might just be that their conception of "freedom of speech" does not jibe well with that of the "supposedly free"?
Post reply on HN