P2P badboy The Pirate Bay sets sail for the Caribbean
Torrent freaks are off to the tropics
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The Pirate Bay has fled to the Caribbean after Swedish authorities launched yet another attempt to seize its domain name.
Swedish prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad filed a motion at the District Court of Stockholm yesterday calling for the seizure of TPB’s Swedish addresses - thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se - as well as its Icelandic .is domain.
But it would seem that the Icelandic Domain Registry (ISNIC, the Icelandic counterpart of UK's Nominet) does not intend to abide by Swedish rulings.
The registry's chief technology officer was quoted by TorrentFreak as saying that ISNIC would not close down a domain based on a Swedish court order.
Marius Olafsson said: “When and if such an order is received by ISNIC we will refer that to our legal council and will of course respond – how remains to be seen. Remember that ISNIC is an Icelandic company operating under Icelandic laws.
“I am not a lawyer, but would think that in general Swedish courts do not have jurisdiction over Icelandic companies operating in Iceland. The only thing a Swedish court can do in this case is to order the registrant (who is Swedish) to delete the domain. I fail to see how they can order ISNIC to do anything.
“ISNIC will legally fight attempts to use the domain name registry system to police/censor the net. We believe that to be ineffective, wrong and dangerous to the stability of the DNS as a whole.”
The Pirate Bay was founded in Sweden, but is coming under increasing legal pressure in its home.
“There is widespread copyright infringement linked to these sites and these domains are used to assist in connection with crime,” Swedish prosecutor Ingblad argued.
As soon as the motion was filed, The Pirate Bay quickly established a base at ThePirateBay.sx, an address registered in the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten.
The Pirate Bay left for its new home just days after dropping anchor at a new Icelandic domain, fearing the Swedish copyright cops would seize its original address. ®
