Pirates Bay raided by Swedish police and the website goes dark...but are they finished?

Like something out of a techno thriller movie with Justin Timberlake playing the lead, the doors were kicked in by police this morning and the hackers hauled off to jail, signaling the end to an era: Pirates Bay has fallen. You may not have heard of Pirates Bay, the Swedish file sharing site that came to be in 2003, hiding under a veil of secrecy and jumping international borders to dodge police as it grew to the biggest file sharing purveyor of music, movies, video games, TV shows, eBooks, and of course, porn, in the world.

That all came crashing down in an early morning raid on December 9, when an international coalition of law enforcement agencies and Swedish police launched a “crackdown on a server room in Greater Stockholm,” according to a police statement. They reportedly confiscated severs, computers, and other equipment connected with the illegal site’s operation. Shortly after, the website went dark, turning away would-be users.

It may sound like a futuristic spy novel but the peer-to-peer file sharing site had grown to such prominence – up to 22 million users from all over the world – that the Swedish technocrat founders felt they were above the law. Seeing themselves as the Robin Hoods of digital property, the three Swedish founders - Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Warg and Peter Sunde, recklessly violated copyright laws from America and other countries. They were a big thorn in the side of Warner Brothers, Sony, Columbia Pictures and just about every record company and musical artist on the planet, because of course movies and music were uploaded to the site and shared ad nauseum without permission – or profit.

The entertainment companies launched a counteroffensive in 2009, leading to the conviction of the Swedish company’s founders but not physical incarceration.

“Today’s ruling sends an important signal that online criminals who show such blatant disregard for the rights of others will be fully prosecuted under the law,” charged Mark Esper, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But surprisingly, the site not only continued after their convictions but thrived and grew in popularity. In 2012, the site began hosting its content on an online cloud, leading some to believe it operated in a gray area beyond reproach, though the entities they were defrauding didn’t see it that way.

But what the 2009 conviction of did accomplish is putting the founders on the run. Two of them headed on the lam to Southeast Asia where they tried to remain anonymous, even after their proposed sentences were reduced to four months from the original 1-year and $7 million in fines. That proved foolhardy.  One of the founders was later apprehended and arrested in Cambodia and slapped with a 3-½ year sentence. The other had been shuffling between Laos and Thailand for two years to evade detection, but was busted by immigration police at the Thai border after – get this: identified because he was wearing the exact same t-shirt he appeared in on his wanted poster.

So with two founders in custody, their offices raided, and their servers and other operational technology in police custody, it looks like the end of an ear for Pirates Bay. But just like there was Napster before this Swedish file sharing site, we’re sure to see its resurgence, in form if not in name.

“As for the future, it’s hard to image that this is The Pirate Bay’s final act,” wrote Gizmodo’s Mario Aguilar. “Even if it dies in name, torrents and piracy will live on under some other name.”