History of Computers - The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content which allows users to search, download and contribute magnet links and torrent files with peer-to-peer file sharing through the BitTorrent protocol.

Overview

The Pirate Bay was founded in 2003 by Swedish group Piratbyrån. The website was the most visited torrent directory from 2003 to 2014. In 2014 the website was temporarily shut down and forced to change its domain name. During that period an American based torrent directory, kickasstorrents took to the top spot; however, kickasstorrents was to later completely shut down by the United States government in 2016 and the Pirate Bay became the most visited torrent website once again. The Pirate Bay is banned in many countries around the world; however, that does not stop access is these areas because of proxy servers. Surprisingly, The Pirate Bay is not blocked in the United States. (Even though they forced the shut down of kickasstorrents.to).

Funding

Up until 2006, the website had poor funding as it was funded solely on user donations. Once the platform grew, however, adversing became available. It is estimated that The Pirate Bay generates $169,000 a month from advertisements.[1] In 2007 it was rumored that the website had received funding from renown Swedish entrepreneur Carl Lundström.

Significance

The Pirate Bay is the most view torrent index of all time and it has revolutionized how people use the internet. Since its release, 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 property laws and a central figure in an anti-copyright movement. After numerous law suits, jail time for the founders, forced website shutdowns, and even military raids on the headquarters, the Pirate Bay is still thriving today, with a very large and active community of about 280 million users per month.[2]

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay 2. http://en.yibada.com/articles/158598/20160909/pirate-bay-pirate-bay-traffic-the-pirate-bay-shutdown-thepiratebay-org-the-pirate-bay.htm