The Pirate Bay punts BitTorrent cloaking device

The Pirate Bay's swashbuckling Swedes have launched their very own VPN service, hoping to combat a new Swedish law that would force ISPs to cough up the personal details of suspected copyright infringers.

The new law is called IPRED (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive). And the new VPN is an IPREDator.

"The network is under our control, not theirs," reads a post announcing the new service, designed to anonymize BitTorrent traffic. "The Pirate Bay likes and knows real kopimism. And waffles."

IPREDator is currently in private beta, and you can request an invite by supplying your email address. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) is slated for public release before April 1, when the new law takes effect.

The service costs €5 per month, and the swashbuckling Swedes say they will collect no personal data if you sign up. Um, well, other than an email address.

Based on the European Union's IPRED directive, the new Swedish law allows both cops and copyright holders to nab the personal details of an ISP's users who are suspected of swapping copyrighted content via the net. That includes phone numbers and email addresses.

In November, The Pirate Bay said it had 22 million active peers, up from 12 million just six months earlier. But for years, Swedish authorities have struggled to shut down the famous BitTorrent tracker. In 2006, the cops raided the site, and its brain trust is currently on trial for copyright infringement.

Clearly, they intend to fight this one all the way down the line. But here at The Reg, we question whether the IPREDator is much more than a play-on-words. Odds are, the average Pirate Bayer won't pay €5 for anything. ®