The Pirate Bay
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Type of site
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Torrent index, magnet links provider |
|---|---|
| Available in | 35 languages available, primarily English and Swedish |
| Created by | |
| Revenue | Advertisements, donations, merchandise |
| Slogan(s) | "The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site" |
| Website | thepiratebay |
| Alexa rank |
 89 (January 2017[update]) |
| Registration | Optional, free |
| Launched | 15 September 2003 |
| Current status | Online |
The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated to TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software, founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, where visitors can search, download and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.
In April 2009, the website's founders—Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm—were found guilty in The Pirate Bay trial in Sweden for assisting in copyright infringement, sentenced to serve one year in prison and pay a fine. In some countries, Internet service providers have been ordered to block access to the website. Subsequently, proxy websites have been providing access to it. Founders Svartholm, Neij, Sunde and Lundström were all released by 2015 after having served shortened sentences.
The Pirate Bay has sparked controversies and discussion about legal aspects of file sharing, copyright, civil liberties and has become a platform for political initiatives against established intellectual property laws and a central figure in an anti-copyright movement. The website faced several shutdowns and domain seizures, switching to a series of new web addresses to continue operating.
The Pirate Bay was established in September 2003 by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån (The Piracy Bureau); it has been run as a separate organization since October 2004. The Pirate Bay was first run by Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, who are known by their nicknames "anakata" and "TiAMO", respectively. They have both been accused of "assisting in making copyrighted content available" by the Motion Picture Association of America. On 31 May 2006, the website's servers in were raided and taken away by Swedish police, leading to three days of downtime. The Pirate Bay claims to be a non-profit entity based in the Seychelles, however this is disputed.
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