Swedish court orders The Pirate Bay shutdown

Days ahead of The Pirate Bay's supposed takeover and lawful reform, Swedish authorities are playing wack-a-mole with the notorious BitTorrent tracker's bandwidth suppliers.

Stockholm's district court today ordered The Pirate Bay's largest ISP, Black Internet, to stop serving the website's traffic or face a penalty of 500,000 kronor ($71,000, £43,000) a day. Black Internet pulled the plug saying it had no choice but to comply - making TPB unavailable for just under a handful of hours.

Unsurprisingly, The Pirate Bay was able to quickly relocate and return online. Access is still a bit spotty and the tracker is down — but it's expected to be back at normal capacity by tomorrow morning according to a TPB insider gabbing to TorrentFreak.

The shutdown was intended to disconnect TBP pending an outcome of a civil lawsuit filed by the usual gang of angry rights-holders, including Columbia Pictures, Disney, NBC, and Sony Pictures. The coalition demands TPB be shuttered to prevent the alleged illegal distribution of roughly 100 films and television programs.

Hollywood's latest attempt to sink TPB comes just three days before the website is allegedly set to be purchased by the Swedish software firm, Global Gaming Factory X (GGF). The lead-up to the acquisition, however, appears to have been scheduled by an Advent calendar with failure hidden in each compartment rather than chocolate.

The latest turn of the screw is that GGF's chairman has jumped ship. The now-former chairman, Magnus Bergman, filed documents with Swedish officials on Friday indicating he's leaving. But GGF's chief executive Hans Pandeya told the BBC on Monday he wasn't aware of Bergman's resignation, although the company knew he had plans to shove off soon.

The company's trading was halted Friday after Swedish stock market authorities said GGF hadn't provided proof it has the necessary financing to acquire The Pirate Bay. GGF is also under investigation for insider trading following an unusually large jump in trading volumes a week before the planned TPB acquisition was announced.

GGF has plans to transform The Pirate Bay into a legal business by signing deals with copyright holders and charging users for access. It will also offer site credit to users for hosting and seeding files. ®