Pirate Bay Torrent Site: ISP Terminates Connection

Yesterday brought another major setback for The Pirate Bay, the prolific Torrent site that for years has faced accusations that it enables the piracy of movies, TV shows, video games, and other media. The Pirate Bay's Swedish Internet service provider (ISP) Black Internet recently severed the site's connection to the world.

The Pirate Bay last made news at the end of July, when a Dutch court ordered traffic to the site be blocked. Although Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi referred to the decision as rubbish, it appears Holland was only the beginning of the site's many troubles.

$70,000 Fine Too Much for ISP

As for the Swedish decision, ISP Black Internet had little choice in the matter -- had it failed to comply with the order, it would have soon found itself on the wrong end of a 500,000 Swedish kronor, or $70,000 USD, fine. (Source: crn.com)

According to Black Internet CEO Victor Moller, the Internet service provider simply didn't have the resources to help protect Pirate Bay, if it had so decided. "The decision was made by the district court on Friday, but reached us today and we have decided to comply...We are a small operator and we haven't got the financial resources to pursue such a matter." (Source: computerworld.com)

October Brings Further Challenges

Black Internet is not the only operator selling capacity for Pirate Bay, but it does carry the bulk of the load. Without it, there's simply not enough capacity to keep the popular Torrent up and running, which is why visitors could have trouble navigating to the page -- although making the connection was easy enough early this morning at the time of this writing.

However, visitors who do reach the site will be greeted by Pirate Bay's latest advertising pitch: a defiant t-shirt for resale that reads "I spent months of time and millions of dollars to close down The Pirate Bay and all I'll get is this beautiful t-shirt!"

Although Pirate Bay was able to prevent a decision like this one in Italy, October will bring similar challenges for the site in a Norwegian court.