Why is thepiratebay still up?

[john]

It's obviously illegal...how in the heck does it not get taken down when good websites like Megaupload have been taken down in the past?

[Sonic]

because being a torrent provider is not enough to convict and shutdown and piratebay is managed in another country where the laws are very different.

megaupload was charged with harboring illegal files, although kim was found innocent of any actual crime.

torrent providers dont hold the file data of the illegal program, the torrents only direct the torrent program to the ip addresses of the people harboring the data.

other torrent providers have shutdown because they just dont wanna deal with being in court (they caved in to pressure), piratebay is resisting being shutdown so easily thus they are still running today.

[Computers]

Thepiratebay is based in Sweden. They have no copyright laws there, so that's why it's not shut down. The US government can't take it down.

Megaupload however, was based in US, which is why it was able to be taken down.

[William]

You should watch their documentary, TPB AFK, it's really good.

Also check out the lawsuits they have gotten and their replies, it's hilarious.

The number one reason they don't get caught is because they live in Sweden, "a country with sane copyright laws," according to them.

MORAL OF THIS ANSWER: do your research.


Hope I helped!

[MrKnowItAll]

Because the US government can go suck it.

[William C]

Thepiratebay no longer has actual torrents on its site, it uses 'magnet links' which tells your client how to find the torrent info from the network carrying the torrents. Since the link is only a unique identifier for a torrents name and isn't directly connected to anything to do with the file it's a legal loophole that many countries don't enforce. Even so they frequently have to move to new servers in new counties fairly regularly to keep ahead of the laws.