Andre Yoskowitz
10 Aug 2013 19:00
The Pirate Bay, despite the best efforts of Hollywood and other content owners to shut it down, has made it to their 10th anniversary.
Sponsored by an energy drink company, the infamous torrent tracker threw a party in Stockholm to celebrate.
TPB was founded on August 9th, 2003 and launched a month later in September. At launch, the founders muse the site was powered by just four Linux servers.
By 2008, The Pirate Bay was in the crosshairs of every content trade group and Swedish prosecutors filed charges against the four founders for facilitating unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material.
The next year, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundströmwere were found guilty and sentenced to prison time and a large fine, $3.5 million at the time. After appeals, the sentences were reduced but the damages were increased. The Swedish Supreme Court has refused to hear any appeals.
As part of the case, many ISPs around the globe have been ordered by their host governments to block access to the site but it remains one of the most popular destinations on the Web.
TPB's statement:
Oh look, we made it.
A decade of aggression, repression and lulz.
We really didn't think we'd make it this far. Not because of cops, mafiaa or corrupt politicians. But because we thought that we'd eventually be to old for this shit. But hey, running this ship makes us feel young.
And we're gonna stay young til we die.
Thank you for everything. We would not be anything without you.
Tomorrow, The Pirate Bay plans to throw a party in Stockholm to celebrate its decade-long existence.