The Pirate Bay has taken refuge in friendlier waters

Following mounting legal pressures, ISP Black Internet was forced by court order to stop servicing the site, or risk fines. On 24 August 2009 Black Internet stopped hosting The Pirate Bay, but true to form, it was back up with another host within 24 hours. In true Holloywood style, complaints began rolling in immediately after the new host went up.

A man going only by the name of Patrik, who was indirectly involved with supplying bandwidth to the new Pirate Bay host, spoke to Swedish online publications regarding the legal threats he was subjected to. “It took just 20 minutes before the Hollywood companies telephoned the new host who took over operation of The Pirate Bay.”

Initially defying the legal threats, the service providers soon succumbed to the legal onslaught and on 1 October, were forced to once again shut down The Pirate Bay on their servers. Sweden is no longer a safe refuge for the site, but seemingly prepared for this eventuality, the site was back up immediately.

It is all but officially confirmed to be currently hosted in the Ukraine, a country that has lately become notorious for hosting such P2P services. Against the background of the failed attempts by Global Gaming Factory to purchase the website, times are looking tough for every pirate’s favourite port of call.

The saga is bound to continue – the mighty ship is not scuppered yet. While it hides out in the Ukraine caulking the damage to its hull, the copyright debate will continue to rage. In the upcoming appeal to their conviction, one of the judges has been declared unsuitable to sit as he works for the Swedish digital music service Spotify.