For workers in the film, music and games industries, this is the gateway to hell. All other people consider it paradise on earth: The Pirate Bay, one of the first, most famous and most popular swap sites on the Internet. Here you can find the latest cinema strips, the latest music albums and the hottest games – for free! Legal? Founded 20 years ago, the media industry keeps trying to take “The Pirate Bay” off the internet – so far without success.
Not even the Swedish pioneers Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Hans Fredrik Neij know how it all began. In the early 2000s, the three Swedes were part of a community on the internet that took up the cause of breaking the power of media companies.
The Beginners of “The Pirate Bay”
The community takes the view that copyright in the form it was back then is no longer up-to-date. In 2003, the idea became a concrete project. The anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån – English: pirate office – opens its doors on the Internet.
This is a so-called BitTorrent tracker.
What does that mean?
The online platform offers so-called torrent files. These are tiny files, sometimes only 1 kilobyte in size, which allow access to specific peers.
What are peers?
Peers refer to normal computers. This is the crucial trick. The files or file packages to be sent do not have to be downloaded from a single server point, which can quickly become tight. The torrent file gives users access to a peer-to-peer network, i.e. a connection between many computers.
This means that large files can be downloaded extremely quickly, despite the lack of bandwidth. Hence the English term ‘torrent’, which translates as ‘torrent’ or ‘torrent’.
The ingenious thing: The data flows at enormous speed through the many cross-connections between computers. The system also doesn’t care whether a computer has all the files or just small data snippets. This guarantees maximum download speed at all times.
Also interesting: When is it illegal to stream content on the Internet?
A purely Swedish project
The operators themselves, in this case the Swedish Pirate Agency, are not liable to prosecution under Swedish law. Because there are no complete albums, films or games on the servers. The service only allows users to access the mentioned peer-to-peer network. Clever.
However, the legal departments of music and film publishers around the world will soon be shuffling their hooves. But more on that later.
Even if the portal starts in Sweden, the first server is in Mexico. The reason for this is simple: one of the founding members works for a company with contacts in Mexico.
In the early days, the pirates received financial support from Swedish entrepreneur Carl Lundström. He is known as the heir to the Wasabröd crispbread empire.
The name “The Pirate Bay” – German: Piratenbucht – results simply from the name relationship with the pirate office. The swap meet is initially a purely Swedish project. All content on the website is in Swedish.
Spain discovers “The Pirate Bay”
More torrent sites will appear on the web over time. This circumstance will make “The Pirate Bay” famous in one fell swoop. Because when a popular, large torrent provider in Spain was taken offline by the authorities, Spanish users were looking for an alternative. Coincidentally or not, media fans in Spain will come across unknown data land: The Swedish “The Pirate Bay”.
Suddenly, countless Spanish films, music albums and other media pop up on the Pirate Bay side. The most popular downloaded torrent in this boom period: A Swedish language course.
Spanish traffic pushes “The Pirate Bay” forward worldwide. In more and more countries, people are becoming aware of the service. As a result, the website will soon appear in English, which will further fuel the exchange of data from computer to computer.
Lawyers initially powerless
Of course, this development does not go unnoticed by the affected media companies. They put their lawyers in position. However, there is no concrete legal basis for shutting down “The Pirate Bay” forever in one fell swoop.
From the mid-2000s, individual servers are regularly shut down. However, since The Pirate Bay has grown so large, servers that have been shut down can be replaced with new servers elsewhere in the world within a few days. A cat-and-mouse game begins between lawyers and pirates under what is – under Swedish law – a legal flag.
What cannot be concealed: As always on the World Wide Web, the topic of sex is also driving the platform’s popularity. Because the number of torrent files from the pornographic sector is increasing immeasurably.
The porn industry probably didn’t care as much as possible. Video store owners, on the other hand, suddenly look down the drain. Because friends of the pornographic film culture find their way into the adult department less and less often.
Lawyers are less interested in the dirty stuff. Above all, they represent the legal interests of the major film studios and music publishers. There you can see in amazement how millions in sales don’t just flow into your own pocket anymore.
Also interesting: What Google and Facebook learn about porn viewers
First penalties against “The Pirate Bay”
In 2009, there does appear to be a legal criminal offense. The Swedish judges see it that way too. The three initiators Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Hans Fredrik Neij are sentenced to imprisonment and fines for aiding and abetting copyright infringement. The crispbread king Carl Lundström also has to go behind Swedish curtains for a few months.
The end of “The Pirate Bay” is not heralded. On the contrary. After the verdict, the Swedish hacker scene paralyzed official computers and the website of the World Association of the Phono Industry (IFPI) with targeted attacks.
The organization behind “The Pirate Bay” now works like the many-headed monster Hydra from Greek mythology: a switched off server in one country leads to at least two new servers in other countries.
Media companies set up their own sales channels
However, the headwind for “The Pirate Bay” is increasing. In some countries, governments reacted from the 2010s and banned access to Pirate Bay, including Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Austria and Spain, which once (unintentionally) made the portal famous.
In addition, the importance of these special torrent exchanges, which no longer trade with torrent files, is also decreasing. So-called magnet links, which can connect computers directly to one another – without a host server, work technically better.
Attempts to legally drain “The Pirate Bay” are also decreasing. Media companies have now realized that it is much more efficient to set up their own sales channels.
Thanks to Apple and iTunes, the music industry has had a working model for some time. Thanks to growing bandwidth, streaming services established themselves as a viable option for the film industry from the mid-2010s.
The IT giants Apple and Google are now also involved in the rental or sale of Hollywood blockbusters. Due to moderate pricing, film fans no longer necessarily have to resort to file-sharing platforms such as “The Pirate Bay”.
Read Next: Video Streaming Services Big Comparison
Copyright now reformed
However, the portal is still not dead even after 20 years. The founders of “The Pirate Bay” started out because they felt that copyright reform was absolutely necessary. Only in 2019 agreed the EU to amend copyright law. The new rules replace the previous standards from 2001.
It remains to be seen whether The Pirate Bay will be satisfied with this and whether the idea behind it will die. There are still various similar providers that allow access to different computers. The exchange of individual file packages will continue until then. Thanks to the company’s own sales channels, media companies’ anger at Pirate Bay has at least subsided.