The Raid of ThePiratesBay.org

Want to download a bootleg of X-Men: The Last Stand? Online Torrenteers will have to look a bit farther after Wednesday's raid of The Pirate Bay, a Swedish-run Web site that links entertainment junkies to free, illegal downloads.

Swedish police raided ten locations across the country Wednesday, collecting evidence and ultimately shuttering the popular piracy-enabling Web site called ThePirateBay.org, according to the International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers, a music industry trade group.

A message on The Pirate Bay's Web site acknowledges the raid, but the group has continually maintained its legality under Swedish law because no copyrighted material is actually stored on its servers. Instead, the group uses a file transfer technology called BitTorrent, which speeds up downloads by splitting transfer duties among several peoples' computers instead of a single source. This so-called "peer to peer" transfer method makes file sharing more efficient and minimizes the need for expensive, professional Internet servers
In the morning hours of May 31, 2006, approximately 50 officers from the Swedish National Criminal Police raided the data centers for Internet Service Provider Rix|Port80 in 10 different locations. Presenting a search warrant, the officers then prompted to carry out their primary objective: seize ThePirateBay.org.

The Swedish National Criminal Police were successful in their mission. ThePirateBay.org was knocked offline, the culmination of considerable investigative efforts aided by Antipiratbyrån (Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau), the IFPI (International Federation and Phonographic Industry), and the MPA (Motion Picture Association.)

ThePirateBay.org’s seizure was a welcomed turn of events for the entertainment industry. For three years, attempts to force ThePirateBay.org to comply with international copyright standards were met with mockery, contempt, and ridicule. With ThePirateBay.org offline, the various entertainment industries that assisted expressed their satisfaction. The entertainment industry, specifically the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) claims that over 2.3 billion US dollars were lost to Internet piracy in 2005. In their estimation, including the IFPIA and Antipiratbyrån, the elimination of ThePirateBay.org went a long way in rectifying piracy losses.