"So, I log into the servers and everything was still alive so I took a backup and copied everything off and started trying to find what's actually going on" "So, well trying to get all of the information about what's going on and I find some legal advice" "I got a lawyer for us and you know trying to just keep everything cool and organized." "steal this film: peer to peer (yes I care if she brings me spring) networks have unleashed a massive (but don't care about nothing) wave of change on the (she brings the rain, oh yeah)" "world (she brings the rain) today tens of millions (in the dawn of the silvery day) of people use the (clouds seem to melt away) internet to share (she brings the rain oh yeah)" "media --- the entertainment industry (she brings the rain) says it's drowning and calls us (in the dawn of the silvery day) pirates (clouds seem to melt away)" "Part 1 --- Stockholm Summer 2006 (she brings the rain oh yeah)" "We started Pirate Bay in 2003." "It started on a shared server in Mexico where my colleague Gottfrid worked and it developed so that the internet connection of that company became so highly utilized, that we had to move it to Sweden." "And then we just kept growing and growing" "The Pirate Bay is the world's largest bittorrent tracker" "There's obviously a demand for a stable Swedish tracker, so well, it wasn't stable from the very beginning, but well they needed some place to host it, and that's when I first came into the picture" "back then I didn't even know how bittorrent worked, I had someone explain it for me, and ok, we'll do that - so" "I hooked them up with the web space on my server which was then hosted in the basement of the place I worked at then, and so I also got - after awhile - I also got involved in the" "setup and the maintenance of the site." "Right now ten million people are using bittorrent." "The Pirate Bay, I don't really know how they work, because they don't say very much to us all the time, but they seem to work a bit like a rock band" "I've been a great admirer of particularly" "The Pirate Bureau's work and even the Pirate Bay's work for several years" "One fifth of the is using the Pirate Bay" "We have about, a good approximation is about 1 - 2 million unique visitors per day." "About 150,000 copyrighted titles are available via the site" "They're running a bittorrent indexing site like the Pirate Bay wasn't, or isn't directly unlawful, under Swedish law or under - most copyright laws because it's not about direct involvement in transactions of copyrighted material, but only transactions of meta-data basically" "links and file names and check sums..." "The Raid" "The bureau was ready for a raid of some kind, so we basically just we had some sort of knowledge to how we should react and that's basically what I did" "May 31st 2006, Stockholm, Sweden:" "Police raid the Pirate Bay's server rooms" "Today Rapport can reveal that the raid was a result of political play at the highest levels between the Swedish government at Rosenbad and the White House." "The Global Avalanche of Piracy" "The world wide motion picture industry lost 18.2 billion dollars to piracy in 2005." "Internet piracy alone cost the industry 7.1 billion." "The primary source of newly released..." "The people running America's movie studios know that if they don't do something - and fast - they could be in the same boat as the record companies." "What's really at stake for the movie industry - with all this piracy?" "Well, I think - you know, ultimately our absolute future" "Peter Chernin runs 20th Century Fox, one of the biggest studios in Hollywood" "Somebody can put a perfect digital copy - up on the internet perfect digital copy right and with the click of a mouse send out a million copies all over the world - in an instant" "And it's all free - if that takes hold kiss Hollywood goodbye" "Hollywood is a business." "The "war on piracy"" "is a war to preserve profit." "I got a phone call from someone at my, well at the company that we shared office space with, that there was a lot of policemen there, and I asked "what the fuck"" "I mean, we have like 1 or 2 requests a year, that they want us to for example, give out the details of a specific customer, so I was like, OK so, I went there with a cab and the police actually stopped the cab with" "lights flashing and all." "Jackie and I are on a mission to stop piracy." "If this were a movie, we could take on the bad guys ourselves." "But this is the real world - we need your help" "When you buy pirated movies and music you support criminals." "Now those criminals are counterfeiting other things like electronics and medicine" " Take action" " Demand the Real Thing" " Help us stop piracy!" " Let's terminate it!" "There were already police officers present and they wanted to know who I was and I kept asking:" "Who are you?" "And they:" "Who are you?" "because they didn't identify themselves as police officers, and after a bit of" "Who are you-ing, they finally:" "Yeah, we're police officers." "We're here on investigations." "They first asked some stuff about the bittorrent protocol, then they asked some stuff about the Pirate Bay, and my involvement in it." "All servers, from all our server rooms were taken, in total somewhere around 250, 300 servers where the Pirate Bay is about 20 of those servers." "All the time I spent there, they only asked me questions about 25 minutes." "And it was mostly:" "How does bittorrent work?" "Do you know what the Pirate Bay is?" "Do you operate the Pirate Bay?" "I think the prosecutor had just written up this little script for them to follow." "Pirate Bay in Sweden got raided, for some reason, but I'm not sure" "I'm not really that much into it." "Well, the American lobby organizations told the" "Swedish police basically, to do it, to raid them - and to close them down." "The big companies told them:" "Do that." "This is what happened:" "The mighty film industry in Hollywood sent their lobby organization, MPAA to the White House in Washington." "The US State Department then contacted the Swedish Foreign Ministry demanding that the problem of Pirate Bay be solved." "They think that the US jurisdiction stretches around the world, that yeah it's illegal, according to" "US law, but it's not illegal according to Swedish law." "And the US should really appreciate it that we talk back to them - tell them that you don't decide over the internet we, the users do" "Before Easter a delegation representing the Swedish Police and the Ministry of Justice travelled to the US to hear what they demanded." "The US government made clear to the Swedish delegation how they wanted the problem solved." "When the delegation returned the question was handled at the highest political level by Thomas Bodstroem, the Minister of Justice who signaled that something had to be done." "The police and prosecutor answered to the cabinet that the legal issue was unclear." "They didn't have a case against The Pirate Bay a prosecutor had already come to this conclusion after an earlier investigation." "The cabinet wasn't satisfied with the answer." "The Ministry of Justice contacted the Attorney General and the national Chief of Police's office which in turn ordered the police and prosecutor to act anyway" "It's difficult to come any closer to ministerial corruption than this" "When the responsible prosecutor was called up to the department in Stockholm, the spring 2006, and he has been telling about this to the Swedish National Television later on that there was mentioned a threat of" "WTO sanctions against Sweden, and on the first hand, maybe about US putting Sweden on this thing called" ""The Priority Watch List"" "The fact that Eliasson has been deeply involved in the specific case of the Pirate Bay is clearly evident in a letter that Eliasson received in March" "Here it is also confirmed that the USA put pressure on Sweden." "This letter was sent by John Malcom at Hollywood's powerful lobbying organization, the MPAA" "He reminds Eliasson of their meeting last autumn." "We thoroughly discussed the organization Pirate Bay, acting from Sweden." "As you surely know, the American embassy has urgently requested the Swedish Government to act against the Pirate Bay." "I would urge you once again to exercise your influence, to urge law enforcement authorities in Sweden to take much-needed action against The Pirate Bay." "So it really got to a high level." "The Minister of Justice, were accused of committing crimes in the raid." "Because it's illegal for a Minister in Sweden to tell the police exactly what they should do." "Today the secretary of state Dan Eliasson confirms the information that Sweden has been exposed to threats of imposed trade sanctions" " I know that the USA has opinions on the efficacy of our system when it comes to copyright and that if Sweden and other countries aren't following their international agreements there are sanction mechanisms in the US, and this has been pointed out from their side." " This has been conveyed?" "I know there have been discussions regarding that if international treaties that apply to trade and copyright are not followed by Sweden and other countries there exists a sanctions mechanism." " Do you think it's a part of your work to report to a lobbyist from Hollywood?" " I do not report to a lobbyist in Hollywood." "I think it's a rape on the Swedish law." "The actions today taken in Sweden serve as a reminder to pirates all over the world that there are no safe harbors for internet copyright thieves." "Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America" "Directly after the raid, the MPAA sent out a press release, saying basically, mission succeeded." "And, that also shows, very clear I think, that the mission was not convicting people." "It was sabotaging." "Yeah, but they're online again after a few days." "Nobody thought we were actually going back online." "That was like the biggest question." "Are you actually coming back online?" "And, I was very clear that we are coming back online, if you stop calling me." "The obvious goal of the police was to get the Pirate Bay offline and get the internet supplier PRQ offline." "But they failed miserably." "After 3 days, the servers were back up, and most of the backups restored, so the site worked perfectly." "And, about a week after that everything was back up 100%" "Spectacular success for us." "When the raid happened, we got an enormous amount of media attention, so it definitely helped." "The days after the raid we had doubled our visitor numbers." "And also it awakened the debate about file sharing in Sweden." "Most people in Sweden feel pissed about the use of trade sanction threats to override national law." "A lot of different youth groups to the parties were active in our demonstration to show the support for the file sharing in Sweden." "I think we had four different parties attending the demonstration." "And also, three of them were speaking on behalf of their party at the demonstration, along with representatives of the Piracy Bureau and the Pirate Bay." "And also the newly formed Pirate Party also got a lot they doubled their members, member numbers in 2 days." "Everyone in Sweden somehow knows about the Pirate Bay today." "One month after the raid, we asked young people in Sweden which sites they use to download" "Pirate Bay, Bush Torrent and I also use DC to download music from the Pirate Bay mostly, then next Mininova." "I use Pirate Bay." "A place called Karagarga." "The Pirate Bay and internet." "Not one said the MPAA's efforts had stopped them." "I have gotten a lot of support from the ISP community" "And a lot of new customers calling us up and saying:" "Hey we heard about the raid." "We want to help you, we want to move our cool location to your place because they know that we stand for freedom of speech and we would like to defend it." "Opinion research show that a majority of young people think that this law against file sharing is stupid." "They consider it part of the Swedish right to public access." "Just as we older people look at lingonberry and mushroom picking on other people's land." "Every single political party in Sweden suddenly started to have realistic take on file sharing." "Quite suddenly realized that file sharers are also voters..." "Most parties said things that were actually quite, very positive towards file sharing, but at the same the couldn't say like" "OK we take away the copyright laws." "The whole thing is far from ended." "It will go on for probably several years in Sweden." "Obviously just shot themselves in the foot, because now it will be politically impossible for them to take an action against the" "Pirate Bay or something similar in Sweden again." "It was quite an eye-opener for them, that there's such a large base of popular support for file sharing and the general copyright issues." "Now the site is virtually impossible to take down, because we have implemented the redundancy everywhere" "So if something goes down now like for instance a new raid or something" "We're gonna be back up in a couple of hours instead of a couple of days." "The joke is over - smell the smoke from all around burn Hollywood burn" "Hollywood burn Hollywood burn Hollywood burn" "Hollywood burn Hollywood burn Hollywood burn" "The piracy of culture" "The culture of piracy file sharing is more than a free lunch" "Piratbyran was born from a very loose group of people communicating on the irc chat channels." "We were basically into doing different kinds of playful internet projects." "And re-appropriating the term of "Piratbyran"" "by cutting away the "anti"." "It was one of those playful impulses." "So we just did it." "People have very different backgrounds." "Everyone felt that this was something new and unexplored but at the same time something that we knew would definitely grow in importance for several years ahead." "What they did was to turn the public debate" "And actually give public opinion a counterpoint." "Where there had only been the copyright industry's point of view before, there was now a counterpoint." "So when the copyright industry had their voice in the public media, there was also" "The Pirate Bureau's voice - always." "I mean, that was unthinkable just five years ago." "I thought Piratbyran maybe represents some kind of new wave of criticism against copyright law, when like the first wave was more legalistic more based on American universities in fact." "Many people think we have, like an office and and staff and such things, but we don't" "We don't have a fixed location." "Well, we wanted to, like cover the news be a practical help for people that didn't know how do it - because there was no site in Sweden explaining how it's done." "It was spread by - from person to person." "How do you do this?" "So we basically we copied, I copied, a lot of guides from a" " Swedish biggest - internet magazine, like wrote them off." "That was the start." "The Pirate Bay has never been a core activity of Piratbyran" "As soon as the Pirate Bay got an important tracker it was cut off from Piratbyran, so that we could go on with our core activities, while the people who like to run a bittorrent tracker did that on their own, because that's - our basic principle is not about" "building empires, but branching off and create a multiplicity of projects." "Many international watchers are a bit astonished about how we - instead of taking a very defensive approach, are taking the offensive without being aggressive - in that way but using the term Pirate signals something that many people didn't think was possible at all." "If you buy bootleg videos or download illegal copies from the internet." "How are the people who bring you the movies supposed to pay for my glasses?" "get health insurance?" "and pay off my student loans?" "Because the movies we love are the work of hundreds of people." "Not just the actors you see on screen or directors but cameramen script supervisors fire safety officers costumers and countless others" "With your support" "We'll all keep on working." "I don't think that's the whole truth because I don't think they would earn much more money without people downloading." "Just trying to keep on making money by just selling small plastic discs with information on them is obviously something that won't last." "But they have to find new ways." "There were, like hundreds of really creative people, and if they think like, they can find out new ways." "It's not my job." "It's not going to happen tomorrow of course." "So I really hope that just and it will the society and all the the stuff around the music industry and the bands and everything, it will change - so it will be different, I think - and I don't think there's going to be - you know" "producers and pr people, and then the next day it's going to be everybody downloads, no one gets paid and all the musicians will die and starve to death and so on." "A lot of what the major media companies do today are so obviously based around the copyright model, I mean, in the US you speak about the tent pole model." "You find a space of intellectual property that hasn't yet been claimed and you put your tent pole down and raise a whole tent up around it, like for example if you make a movie you also sell plastic toys and such" "which kind of makes up the tent." "And obviously that sort of modus would be impossible with a different intellectual property climate." "They have managed to adapt historically when the first tape recorders came:" "Oh no!" "People will be able to copy our music!" "and such." "So and when the first video recorders came it was the same:" "Oh no!" "People will copy our property!" "And we wont make any money!" "But obviously they were able to adapt to that also." "The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." "Jack Valenti, Testimony to the US House of Representatives, 1982" "It's analogous to the complaint that was made against the video cassette recorder 20 years ago, 30 years ago when the industry did exactly the same cry-baby act and said, people recording films off television is going to put us out of business, well it didn't it actually" "created another revenue stream and they were able to sell video cassettes at the same time as people taped off air." "And in the end, the studios were proved wrong in the courts and the courts decided against them." "But 30 years ago, the courts were much more pro-consumer." "Now they're much more pro-corporate." "Home cooking is killing the restaurant industry - and it's tasty" "I think that the music we see on MTV and these music channels, that kind of music will disappear, more or less and I don't care, because I don't even like it." "And we will have music which is more - for the listeners and not just for people to make money on it, you know 25 million dollars per album, it's" "I think it's absurd." "I don't want to give money to them I think it's so wrong it's just it's against my moral and my ethics." "I think that the law is going to be rewritten as the technology insists that it is, you know it's not a question of right or wrong anymore, people will do what they want to do in order to get what they want, what's the line" "about - behind every great fortune lies a great crime?" "So, the guys who started this business all cheated somebody to get there and so now they're being cheated, perhaps." "File sharing is not a problem it's an opportunity." "There's a Chinese proverb, saying that:" "When the winds of change are blowing some people are building shelters." "And others are building windmills." "It's interesting in historical perspective, that up to the 70's recorded music was rather seen as a threat against musicians by - for example - musicians' unions, and collecting societies." "Instead, it was totally obvious to them that live performances was and remained the main revenue stream for musical performers." "Then, after the cassette tape explosion there was some kind of capitulation to recorded music and it was a golden age for recording industry with the cd." "but" "If we look backwards today, that rather looks like a historical parentheses." "And I would say that live performances are again turning to be the main revenue stream for most musicians." "It's one of the great ironies that our enemy in this is our consumer, and one of the rules that anybody in marketing knows is not make an enemy of your customer." "We have no choice, because frankly when the music is being consumed for free, they're no longer customers that we can look after, nor customers that we want." "It is ridiculous to believe that you can give product away for free and be more successful." "I mean it defies the laws of nature." "Would a clothing store sell - give all their clothes for free, a car dealership give all their clothes cars for free?" "Of course not." "Now it doesn't mean you don't do some promotions, and you don't use advertising creatively." "But nobody can make a" " If they don't make a profit in this world, they're out of business." "That's just the laws of human nature." "The market is not nature" "Hollywood can't outlaw social change" "The Matrix is a system, Neo." "That system is our enemy." "When you're inside and you look around what do you see?" "Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters " "The very minds of the people you're trying to save, but until we do these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy." "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged." "And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it." "(iShare:" "Downloading "Matrix.avi")" "Were you listening to me Neo?" "Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?" "I was" " Look again..." "Use it." "If you are not one of us, you are one of them." "(Burn, Hollywood, burn!" "Copying is not stealing!" ")" " What are they?" " They are guarding all the doors" "They are holding all the keys, but they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be." "(Filesharing is not a crime!" ")" "Politicians can never stop the file sharing movement." "It's always going to be that with the young people doing what they want." "If they don't think the laws are worth obeying, they won't obey them." "I don't think that the American government, or anybody else can stop, like - what's happening on the internet when it comes to downloading files." "Maybe in the short run, they can make some small ways to like - fight Pirate Bay, but I think in the long run that they cannot control it." "The internet, it's too big you can't fight against that." "There will always be possibility to share and download." "I don't think - no one can stop it." "It's new technique." "And I think people will find ways to use it anyway." "The technology is always evolving." "So, the lobbyists will have a hard time to catch up with file sharers." "I think they will always be one step behind." "I don't even believe in that police state crap, that they will get through with it." "People will always try to share ideas and share files." "I think file sharing will last forever." "People will network." "The center cannot hold." "The force of peers is loose upon the world." "Why must I be the thief?" "Oh lord, please won't you tell me..." "Why must I be the thief?" "He said to the hanging man" "And how come you're the only one who's black around?" "That always stares?" "Why must I be the thief?" "He asked of the hanging man" "And how come you're the only one who lived with an open hand?" "Now why must I be the thief?" "You've cursed a many cloud." "And the hanging man who bowed his head and looked beyond his heart..." "Now I am the thief, I am the thief" "And you may run, yes" "And you may hide" "But I'll get you, man." "Yes I will, cause you're cause it's just your pride." "Justified." "run, run. pride, pride." "We are not interested in compromises..." "We are interested in new things, not old solutions, that is compromises." "For quite long now, I've been involved in freedom of speech issues and this is a direct extension of that." "So personally, I see the Pirate Bay as a sort of organized civil disobedience to simply force a change of the current copyright laws and the general copyright climate." "The Pirate Bay is very fun." "It's a technical challenge to run it." "And I really don't care much about people telling me what I can and can't do."