Monday, December 27, 2004

If BitTorrents Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have BitTorrents

A few days ago, writer and media analyst Douglas Rushkoff noted the recent disappearance of a couple of popular BitTorrent link sites. (At this point you may be asking, What's a BitTorrent?)

However, as is pointed out in the comments section, one of the largest BitTorrent-trackers in the world, Swedish-based The Pirate Bay, remains active. Though it has received plenty of legal threats, the site continues to operate, on the assumption that it does not violate any Swedish law. Requests to "remove" copyrighted material are met with derision:

As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America.

Please sue me in Japan instead. I've always wanted to visit Tokyo.

Hello and thank you for contacting us. We have shut down the website in question.

Oh wait, just kidding.


Just like Olympic athletes, file sharers remain one step ahead of legislation.

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