ThePirateBay

[ghost53574]

I don't care if you care or not about piracy or thepiratebay (or any of its affiliates for that matter), I just want to spread the word about a report so those that care somewhat about net neutrality and/or pirating can be informed with a non-bias opinion as well as a bias opinion later on. Enjoy!

TL;DR- Titled Lies

The Pirate Bay is offline after Swedish police allegedly seize servers
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/12/09/pirate-bay-offline-swedish-police-raid/

Youu might have noticed that The Pirate Bay is offline today; the site has disappeared after Swedish Police reportedly raided premises in Stockholm containing the service’s servers.

According to Torrentfreak, Swedish authorities confirmed that local police completed a raid in Stockholm this morning. Paul Pintér, police national coordinator for IP enforcement said “There has been a crackdown on a server room in Greater Stockholm. This is in connection with violations of copyright law.”

Fredrik Ingblad, an expert file-sharing case prosecutor said that “There were a number of police officers and digital forensics experts there. This took place during the morning and continued until this afternoon. Several servers and computers were seized, but I cannot say exactly how many.”

The Swedish Metro said police would not confirm if the raids were to target The Pirate Bay directly or not, nor if there were any arrests made at the scene.

In November, police arrested the third and final founder of The Pirate Bay after attempting to arrest him for some time.

According to is it down right now, the site went offline around 2am Pacific Time today and hasn’t come back online since. The last time an outage like this occurred, the site had lost its domain name.

[img="[url]http://cdn1.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/12/thepiratebay.org_.png[/url]"]

Back in September, The Pirate Bay claimed that it ran the site on 21 “raid-proof” virtual machines that meant if authorities raided one location the service would be OK. In this situation, it appears they weren’t quite raid-proof after all.

Other torrent sites including EZTV are also offline at time of writing, although it’s not clear if this relates to the same police raid.

Peter Sunde, co-founder and ex-spokesperson for The Pirate Bay wrote on his personal blog today that “few seem to care [that TPB has been raided]. And I’m one of them.” Sunde says the site was supposed to be closed down on its 10th birthday and expresses his disappointment that nobody took the site further, instead filling it with more and more ads.

Sunde finished by saying “it feels good that it might have closed down forever, just a real shame the way it did that.”

Update: At 12:15 PST, reports emerged that the site was relocated to two new domains, however it’s unknown if these are legitimate sites.

Update 2: Torrentfreak reports that it has learned at least one person was arrested in relation to the site today.

Update 3: The Swedish Rights Alliance says that it made a complaint about The Pirate Bay as it is an “illegal commercial service that earns big sums on posting other people’s films and music” which led to the police raid this morning.

Update 4: Whether by coincidence or not, Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij’s Stockholm-based web hosting company has also been seemingly taken offline today.

Now for those of you that have no clue how any of this works please do not comment about anything technical in response to how mainly 'theypiratebay.se' was actually shut down, just respond strictly about the discussion.

 

[ghost53574]

The process

If I want to have direct access to the internet backbone today, and I had the money, I would have to create a company that issues addresses to other users which in our case is a service provider that provides internet addresses (hence the term ISP).

"IPv6 address space is eligible for allocation to ISP/LIRs and assignment to end-users. If you offer IPv6 transit or assign IPv6 addresses to other organizations, you are an IPv6 ISP (also known as a Local Internet Registry, or LIR, in IPv6 policy). If you do not offer IPv6 transit and do not assign IPv6 addresses to other organizations, you are an IPv6 end-user."-https://www.arin.net/resources/request/ipv6_initial_assign.html

We read the webpages for "END-USER INITIAL IPv6 ASSIGNMENTS", "ISP INITIAL IPv6 ALLOCATIONS", and "ARIN NUMBER RESOURCE POLICY MANUAL".

https://www.arin.net/resources/request/ipv6_initial_assign.html
https://www.arin.net/resources/request/ipv6_initial_alloc.html
https://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html#two4

These webpages outline the information that we would need to just create an LIR/ISP:IPv6 in the United States, the major requirements are outlined here:

5. Policies for allocations and assignments

5.1. Initial allocation

5.1.1. Initial allocation criteria

To qualify for an initial allocation of IPv6 address space, an organization must:

a) be an LIR;

b) not be an end site;

c) plan to provide IPv6 connectivity to organizations to which it will assign /48s, by advertising that connectivity through its single aggregated address allocation; and

d) have a plan for making at least 200 /48 assignments to other organizations within two years.

5.1.2. Initial allocation size

Organizations that meet the initial allocation criteria are eligible to receive a minimum allocation of /32.

Organizations may qualify for an initial allocation greater than /32 by submitting documentation that reasonably justifies the request. If so, the allocation size will be based on the number of existing users and the extent of the organization's infrastructure.

5.2. Subsequent allocation

Organizations that hold an existing IPv6 allocation may receive a subsequent allocation in accordance with the following policies.

5.2.1. Subsequent allocation criteria

Subsequent allocation will be provided when an organization (ISP/LIR) satisfies the evaluation threshold of past address utilization in terms of the number of sites in units of /48 assignments. The HD-Ratio [RFC 3194] is used to determine the utilization thresholds that justify the allocation of additional address as described below.

5.2.2. Applied HD-Ratio

The HD-Ratio value of 0.8 is adopted as indicating an acceptable address utilization for justifying the allocation of additional address space. Appendix A provides a table showing the number of assignments that are necessary to achieve an acceptable utilization value for a given address block size.

5.2.3. Subsequent Allocation Size

When an organization has achieved an acceptable utilization for its allocated address space, it is immediately eligible to obtain an additional allocation that results in a doubling of the address space allocated to it. Where possible, the allocation will be made from an adjacent address block, meaning that its existing allocation is extended by one bit to the left.

If an organization needs more address space, it must provide documentation justifying its requirements for a two-year period. The allocation made will be based on this requirement.

5.3. LIR-to-ISP allocation

There is no specific policy for an organization (LIR) to allocate address space to subordinate ISPs. Each LIR organization may develop its own policy for subordinate ISPs to encourage optimum utilization of the total address block allocated to the LIR. However, all /48 assignments to end sites are required to be registered either by the LIR or its subordinate ISPs in such a way that the RIR/NIR can properly evaluate the HD-Ratio when a subsequent allocation becomes necessary.

5.4. Assignment

LIRs must make IPv6 assignments in accordance with the following provisions.

5.4.1. Assignment address space size

Assignments are to be made in accordance with the existing guidelines [RFC3177,RIRs-on-48], which are summarized here as:

- /48 in the general case, except for very large subscribers

- /64 when it is known that one and only one subnet is needed by design

- /128 when it is absolutely known that one and only one device is connecting.

RIRs/NIRs are not concerned about which address size an LIR/ISP actually assigns. Accordingly, RIRs/NIRs will not request the detailed information on IPv6 user networks as they did in IPv4, except for the cases described in Section 4.4 and for the purposes of measuring utilization as defined in this document.

5.4.2. Assignment of multiple /48s to a single end site

When a single end site requires an additional /48 address block, it must request the assignment with documentation or materials that justify the request. Requests for multiple or additional /48s will be processed and reviewed (i.e., evaluation of justification) at the RIR/NIR level.

Note: There is no experience at the present time with the assignment of multiple /48s to the same end site. Having the RIR review all such assignments is intended to be a temporary measure until some experience has been gained and some common policies can be developed. In addition, additional work at defining policies in this space will likely be carried out in the near future.

5.4.3. Assignment to operator's infrastructure

An organization (ISP/LIR) may assign a /48 per PoP as the service infrastructure of an IPv6 service operator. Each assignment to a PoP is regarded as one assignment regardless of the number of users using the PoP. A separate assignment can be obtained for the in-house operations of the operator.

5.5. Registration

When an organization holding an IPv6 address allocation makes IPv6 address assignments, it must register assignment information in a database, accessible by RIRs as appropriate (information registered by an RIR/NIR may be replaced by a distributed database for registering address management information in future). Information is registered in units of assigned /48 networks. When more than a /48 is assigned to an organization, the assigning organization is responsible for ensuring that the address space is registered in an RIR/NIR database.

RIR/NIRs will use registered data to calculate the HD-Ratio at the time of application for subsequent allocation and to check for changes in assignments over time.

IRs shall maintain systems and practices that protect the security of personal and commercial information that is used in request evaluation, but which is not required for public registration.

5.6. Reverse lookup

When an RIR/NIR delegates IPv6 address space to an organization, it also delegates the responsibility to manage the reverse lookup zone that corresponds to the allocated IPv6 address space. Each organization should properly manage its reverse lookup zone. When making an address assignment, the organization must delegate to an assignee organization, upon request, the responsibility to manage the reverse lookup zone that corresponds to the assigned address.

5.7. Existing IPv6 address space holders

Organizations that received /35 IPv6 allocations under the previous IPv6 address policy [RIRv6-Policies] are immediately entitled to have their allocation expanded to a /32 address block, without providing justification, so long as they satisfy the criteria in Section 5.1.1. The /32 address block will contain the already allocated smaller address block (one or multiple /35 address blocks in many cases) that was already reserved by the RIR for a subsequent allocation to the organization. Requests for additional space beyond the minimum /32 size will be evaluated as discussed elsewhere in the document.

Basically this is just another bullshit dream that a community board came up with to restrict the amount of companies who can control the world wide web as we know it today. The basic requirements for a IPv6 only LIR is that you may only serve out /48 address blocks to non-end users, for example businesses like CloudFlare, and you need a plan to give out 200 /48 assignments within 2 years. This can be done easily if you are already a huge LIR but unless you are one you probably are out of luck.

Once you meet the requirements and set up your theoretical plan of action, then you are ready to request and most likely obtain at least one assignment of /48 of IPv6 addresses for use. Mind you that you would have to already have set up your routers, switches and servers. Specifically your EBGP-IBGP-IOSPF/IIGRP routers, core-distribution-access layers for switch assignment, and your varying servers dedicated to user management and allocation (i.e. SQL-DNS-QoS(mainly hardware oriented)-IPS etc). Then once you configure all of your services then you have effectively became a part of the internet backbone as we know it today.

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[ghost53574]

Point of no return

How this system works is you control globally recognized routers at the edge of your company that routes information along the internet backbone, these routers are called Autonomous Systems and every AS has an assigned number (ASN) that ARIN gives you. These routers are all documented and if the United States government really wanted to they could forcibly block traffic to your ASN. In the case of 'thepiratebay.se', since the domain is controlled by a Swedish internet service provider the Swedish government had to work with the parent LIR/IR's to route traffic around the ASN's that would route traffic directly to servers that condoned 'thepiratebay.se' domain. Since the affiliated were scared to lose customers due to one seemingly one domain, they would of course oblige to the demands of the Swedish government.

This means that full cooperation with LIR/IR's and end-users were in effect to shut down the domain 'thepiratebay.se'.

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Lies

So what do governments want that people have? Hopefully the answer to you is control because who ever has control over the information controls that information. If a body of people can effectively take down a domain because they are scared of that information then what is stopping them from taking down more domains for the same blurred reason?

Big brother wants you to believe that the only reason for the take down of 'thepiratebay.se' was because of illegal software piracy, also known as copyright violation, but I'll bet there is more to this story then just what is seemingly on the cover. Sadly the only way we will know of it is if someone else becomes a whistle blower only to serve time in prison for doing the right thing.

But that isn't all of it is there. Snowden, mainly, was an idiot for blowing the whistle in the way he did it, but what other options did he really have? I still have mixed feelings about Snowden specifically because what other options did he really have. He could not go just anywhere with the information he had, and the friends he did have were as dark and shady as the "dark internet" bullshit that you hear about (really just #irc and private servers).

The reason I am reporting this is because 'thepiratebay.se' is well known for what it harbors, and is also well known for what it stands for. One question remains though...

What if your website was sharing information that another body of people deemed illegal, those same people forcibly took down your website and seized your hardware. What would your reaction be?

 

[Montoya]

TPB down again?

Wait 24hrs, its a game of wackamole with them, they always pop up again.

 

[ghost53574]

Personally I just posted this for a discussion mainly around net neutrality, not a two sentence description of the obvious past.

If you so dearly need to get to 'thepiratebay.se' though you can use something called Google Hacks (which your just using the search engines keywords efficiently) to browse thepiratebay's cached pirated software, thanks Google.

For example:

 "funny"+site:thepiratebay.se

returns

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q="funny"+site:thepiratebay.se

Thanks to reddit for reminding me of keywords and the fact that Google caches everything, just make sure you are using FrootVPN or something other then TOR when downloading.

 

[ghost53574]

duplicate

 

[Black Sunder]

Post this in Random Spam because it has nothing to do with SC?

 

[Shar Treuse]

It's gonna' happen, I don't think many lives are going to be significantly changed.

 

[ghost53574]

Post this in Random Spam because it has nothing to do with SC?

Then get it moved.

It's gonna' happen, I don't think many lives are going to be significantly changed.

True about 'thepiratebay.se' not true about other websites that will fall to the same fate if unchecked by the people supposedly running the world (the people).

 

[Scarthian]

Thread moved to Random Spam as it is the forum made for things along these lines.

 

[CaptainRichard]

TPB will never die!

 

[Shar Treuse]

It's actually a good thing for old school pirate sites to die. Even the founders of TPB have clearly stated so. The battle between freedom and power is a struggle that is constantly escalating and evolving, and outmoded tech like torrents are anachronistic.

Directly pertaining to gaming, consider that a lot of game companies used to provide trial versions of their games. When was the last time you saw a trial version of a AAA game? Game piracy is the only way people on a budget can try a game out before laying out cash for it. If I had pirated StarCraft II before laying out $84 for it, I would have known it was a piece of shit and never bought it. Imagine a world where game companies, all of them, had to really work at making quality, satisfying games that people thought were worth the money. They wouldn't have to worry about anyone actually trying their games and finding out that they suck and aren't worth paying for the full, non-trial version. If you ask me, this is the real reason game publishers fight so hard to shut down pirate sites. It's cheaper to bitch about piracy and pressure governments into trying to stamp it out than actually make good games.

Fortunately, there are things like YouTube gameplay videos, forums and other ways to learn about games, but there's really nothing like playing a game for yourself to decide whether you really want to give someone money for it. I have a bookshelf full of PC game boxes to attest to that, spanning the history of computer gaming from the 90s to now. At least two thirds of them weren't worth the money I paid for them, and lots of those were bargain bin buys for $10 or less.

 

[ghost53574]

Yep, p2p is old as shit. What's worse is that because these producers bloat up a game that really is shit the only way we truly know is through demo's but without demo's we don't know until we buy it. The it's unfortunate that many companies, including CIG, are making you pay for a final product (I know it's pre-alpha, it'll be alpha when FPS/PU is released, I'm talking about the final product that CIG will make you buy) there's no trial. The reason I know this is because of the way this game is being made, right now I stand at 20.4GB at pre-alpha, do you really think CIG will allow you almost 25GB of software without something in return? I love Chris Roberts and what he is doing but he is apart of that problem.

Personally I would love for a company to allow you to purchase the game for one day to try it out, once you start the game your timestamp is sent to a server and starts ticking away. If you cannot connect of your game crashes because you either have a shit computer or a shit connection then oh well. But with this comes the fact that you would then need a smaller installation with only one mission, a bunch of files that were built around being a small game of Star Citizen rather then a branch off of the full game. This costs more money and takes more time.

So if you want the solution you better have the money and you better want to wait the time for that solution to be created. I sure would.

On the note of Net Neutrality and Black Sunder, this topic really does consume every piece of Software that you own because anything can be pirated and anything software wise can be subject to Net Neutrality (software mainly, hardware is still involved though). So this topic is as valid in the General Discussion section as anything, but it is what you make of it which is why I let you and your mod friend move it. Direct implications...

 

[Scarthian]

On the note of Net Neutrality and Black Sunder, this topic really does consume every piece of Software that you own because anything can be pirated and anything software wise can be subject to Net Neutrality (software mainly, hardware is still involved though). So this topic is as valid in the General Discussion section as anything, but it is what you make of it which is why I let you and your mod friend move it. Direct implications...

Just to clarify so as to there is no "Implications" this was moved to this forum due to the fact it belongs here rather than in General Discussion. Not because it is in anyway a bad discussion and I fully hope it breeds some good thoughts on the whole matter but due to the fact that Black Sunder was actually correct. You can actually look on the General Discussion forum and see that almost every post is either directly or in general about Star Citizen itself. Which is the purpose for that forum however, if in any way you feel this was moved unfairly in any way I would highly suggest taking the matter up with the other Staff. I am not here to be all cloak and dagger or anything I agreed with the reasoning and simply moved it based on that judgement. As always though if you don't agree with something the Staff does including myself I fully support bringing it up to other Staff members so if need be the person in the hot seat can be called on their bs.

On topic with this though last I read PB is back up which again is not surprising and while I agree with you on the growing trend regarding Net Neutrality. I feel it is not only the companies to blame but the people themselves as well. Folks are willing to Pay on a large scale just to play a game before even knowing how it would be. This game included but another big recent example being Archeage which I believe was what $150 bucks buy in? Many folks willingly paid that and from what I hear having not played it myself there is a huge shit fest going on about how that game turned out. Same could be said for Preordering, etc. the companies see the people willing to pay so they take advantage.

Hence the reasoning behind either waiting for a trial or at least giving a game (mainly a major MMO) a minimum of two months being out to sort of test the waters before getting into anything. In the end though if change is going to happen it has to start at the consumers wallet because it sure as shit not starting at the company level. While there are a few good ones out there many will be more than happy to take your money and deliver a sub par product before you have a chance at realizing you got swindled. In the end the days where you used to get a playstation 1 disk with demos on it to try with your monthly magazine are sadly long gone.

 

[Shar Treuse]

Star Citizen is the first and likely only game I will ever donate to, because Chris Roberts...am I right? Yeah, thought so.

Everything I have ever played that had CRs hand in it has been worth it, so I have no problem supporting it.

Consider: Would you hand EA $20 bucks for a game you haven't seen yet? Or $500+ like a lot of us have with Star Citizen? Yeah, thought not.

Copy protection companies make it even worse because they drive the fear that publishers and developers feel, their tactics are subversive and quite honestly disgusting, yet they have the nerve to criticize the pirates. And so piles of money go towards feeding this bastardized industry (DRM) that doesn't even faze the pirates, but creates big problems for legitimate, paid users. This money could have been put towards more design and development time, or creating a position to liaison with potential users (/customers), towards making a better product but instead it goes towards protecting crap.

Too many game publishers and dev studios are focused on the almighty dollar over everything else. Every company is in business to make money, but the good ones provide a valuable product or service for that money. It's the entire focus of their business, and by doing so they earn it. If game companies were more open and honest, provided trial versions, and devoted themselves primarily towards putting out good games, there would be no need for pirates! The companies would make money, the customers would get good games, and I could go rant on other subjects. :)