💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 2276.gmi captured on 2024-08-25 at 06:15:57. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-05-10)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
2010-09-07 16:21:49
But Wikileaks weathers the storm
By Lawrence Latif
Tue Sep 07 2010, 15:17
POLICE RAIDS across Europe have managed to take down popular Bit-torrent tracking website The Pirate Bay.
The website, which is hosted by the same firm that houses servers for Wikileaks, was hit hard by the authorities as they moved in on alleged filesharers armed with nothing more than IP addresses. According to Torrentfreak, police in 14 countries throughout Europe were involved, including the United Kingdom.
Talking to the web hosting site PRQ, the firm that provides hosting services to The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks, it said that five coppers tipped up asking for the persons using certain IP addresses. The chap from PRQ admitted to handing over email addresses but added "it is rare that our clients have email addresses that are traceable".
At the time of writing The Pirate Bay's website is down, though as its tracker operates on a distributed hash table (DHT), the outage will merely serve to stop the acquisition of torrent files and not cease actual file sharing itself.
Torrentfreak also got word from a Swedish prosecutor that the raid had nothing to do with Wikileaks. While The Pirate Bay's website is down, Wikileaks is still operational, suggesting that for once it isn't the centre of attention for law enforcement authorities. It is being reported that the police seized a number of servers during the raids.
Given the noise The Pirate Bay made about the resilience of its hosting, one wonders how long it will take before the resourceful lads get it back on its feet.
--- Mobile internet site for reading on mobile phones, smartphones, small screens and slow internet connections. ---http://mpggalaxy.mine.bz/www/BB/mobile_news/threads/index_last.html
Posted: 2010683@834.65
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
stranger
poof!: prostitution will disappear
close down pirate bay... poof!: piracy disappears
right, right?
regardless of your stand on media piracy or prostitution, simply from a law enforcement point of view that assumes these "vices" are simply something illegal to be fought: i don't understand why you want to shut the hubs down
its not like shutting down craigslist or pirate bay is going to make piracy or prostitution go away. instead, you allow craigslist and pirate bay to continue, and you do your law enforcement job, and monitor the hubs. like shooting fish in a barrel: just respond to what's there. but without craigslist or the pirate bay, these "problems" are harder to catch and monitor
its almost as if law enforcement wants to drive these problems back underground again so they don't have to deal with them. out of sight, out of mind
which shows you the ambivalency with which modern society views stuff like piracy or prostitution: they are on the cusp of acceptability. its not like murder or rape, where the illegality of the actions are obvious and therefore the mandate and willpower to punish perps is 100%. instead, with stuff like prostitution and piracy, the willpower wanes, the commitment lapses, because the immorality of the actions is not clearcut
such that the law enforcement campaigns consist less of going after perpetrators, but just making them go underground and disappear from prominent view
my use of the word "pirate" is with full knowledge of the discrepancy you refer to
we are after all talking about the PIRATE bay. we both know the guys who run that site know full well that the traditional meaning of piracy is a poor descriptor of what copyright infringement is, but they wear the epithet "pirate" with pride on the name of their site. when someone smears and insults you, a good tactic is to take that insult or epithet, and use it yourself with pride as a descriptor. therefore nullifying the supposed power of the negative word. a negative becomes a positive. so i proudly call myself a pirate, when i know the sharing media is nothing like swashbucklers and theft. in this way, words are always constantly shifting in meaning and implication in popular culture, and this eventually filters down to dictionary terminology years later
the same can be found in the gay rights movement: "queer" is now a word of pride. or even right here on slashdot: "nerd" and "geek" are words which were meant as insults but are now marks of honor. there are many sociological and political arenas where insults menat to smear, scapegoat, and prejudice are turned around and used as marks of pride
for example, lately i am trying to proudly refer to myself as a socialist, here in the usa. socialism in europe is just obvious common sense. but in the usa it takes on mythic ridiculous proportions of evil, by people who barely understand the concept (ever hear of library? a highway system? social security? hellooooo?). such that using the word, as a mark of pride and a self-descriptor, is almost revolutionary and controversial, here in the usa at least, when of course, according to a strict interpretation of the meaning of the word, its completely humdrum