Andre Yoskowitz
9 Apr 2009 14:19
On March 24th, the founders of the giant public torrent tracker The Pirate Bay rolled out a new way to browse the Internet anonymously, using a virtual private network (VPN), and began giving out beta invites.
Users could submit their email address to http://ipredator.se/ in hopes of receiving a beta invite before the service goes public this month.
Today, TPB founder Peter Sunde said over 113,000 would-be users have signed up to test the service, with about 80 percent coming from Sweden. The service would already be live, added Sunde, however the unexpected high demand has caused delays.
The service, when it does go public, will cost 5 euro a month, and will "allow the user to protect his Internet connection with encryption while “tunneling’ data in privacy through the servers of a VPN provider, usually located in another country. The user’s ISP-designated IP address remains hidden, revealing only a second IP address provided by his VPN company."
On April 1st, Sweden's controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) went live making easier for content holders to get personal details of suspected pirates. Within two days, Sweden's overall Internet traffic fell 30 percent.