Co-founder of The Pirate Bay calls to close the tracker

During his trip to Brazil, Tobias Andersson, one of the founders of The Pirate Bay, said that in his opinion the tracker should cease to exist in order to make room for something better.
“The Pirate Bay in its current form should cease to exist. The tracker was created without taking into account the future that is approaching us. Tomorrow's fighters for free file sharing will need something better, safer, and faster, ”he said.

Those who have been following The Pirate Bay for the past decade know that it was founded by the Swedish pro-culture organization Piratbyrån .
Piratbyrån, which translates as "The Bureau of Piracy", was formed by political activists and hackers in the early 2000s. Many of them have already launched other Web projects that challenge the abuses of politics, morality and power. All members of Piratbyrån were friends and “friends of friends,” one way or another knew about Pirate Bay, but the Piracy Bureau actually had no clear structure.
Early on, Tobias Andersson was the press secretary for both Piratbyrån and The Pirate Bay. Despite the fact that Tobias did not deal with technical issues, he was one of the founders of the tracker. For many years, Tobias has been involved in the development of the tracker, then moved away from work. Four years ago, after the birth of his first child, he stopped taking an active part in the life of Pirate Bay and devoted himself to his family.
Last year, he asked the then tracker administrators if he could use The Pirate Bay main page to promote his idea. This project soon became known as Promo Bay, a platform that allows independent artists to put their work on display for millions of users around the world.
After that, Tobias “lay down on the bottom” for several years, but now he has again come out of the shadows. Not to buy in the glory, but to announce its final “dismissal” and send a farewell message to the tracker.
Co-founder Pirate Bay, who spoke last week at the 14th International Forum on Free Software in Porto Alegre (Brazil), said that he also left his volunteer work at Promo Bay. At the same time, he urged the tracker administrators to follow his example and close The Pirate Bay.
Tobias believes that in the near future, The Pirate Bay will no longer be able to match the important role that it plays today. The tracker must disappear so that new technologies can take its place.

"No, I'm not joking. I am serious. The Pirate Bay in its current format should cease to exist. The tracker was created without taking into account the future that is approaching us. Tomorrow's fighters for free file sharing will need something better, safer and faster. Something that does not depend on the desire of several people to sacrifice themselves. The world needs something that it is impossible to cover up with no raids, no laws, no scare tactics that will overwhelm us, ”Tobias said.
“I believe that The Pirate Bay is preventing the creation of something new. Not directly, but due to the fact that the tracker has created too comfortable conditions for people by its constant presence, ignoring threats, etc. If The Pirate Bay decided to close, I am sure that something new and better would soon be realized. Of course, besides The Pirate Bay there are other trackers, but it is the largest, and hundreds of other sites depend on its torrents. ”

The concept of centralized BitTorrent sites is vulnerable to outside pressure, and the stronger the pressure from law enforcement, the more difficult it becomes for them (sites) to maintain. New domains are still easy to find, but the hosting situation is already becoming problematic.
Tobias believes that the situation will get even worse when other industries feel threatened by 3D printing.
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“From the MPAA, the RIAA and the like, there were no major issues. In fact, sites are much more likely to go down because of drunken spree admins than because of police raids. But when car manufacturers, oil companies and country leaders feel threatened, we need something better. Something autonomous and maintaining its position regardless of raids and repressions. ”

Co-founder of Pirate Bay stressed that he believes that The Pirate Bay has done a lot of good things: from supporting artists to providing information to people suffering from despotic regimes. However, this does not mean that the site should develop in the same direction. Just the opposite.

“Don't get me wrong, I love The Pirate Bay. Memories of the work on the tracker will remain with me forever. And I REALLY believe that Pirate Bay made the world better (and still does). And precisely because The Pirate Bay is so important now, you understand why we will need something better soon, ”said Tobias.

Whether the current administration of The Pirate Bay agrees with Tobias will show the future. However, this is not the first time that one of the founders of the tracker has urged The Pirate Bay to close. Three years ago, Peter Sunde (Peter Sunde) made a similar proposal .

“We need some new technology. This is a kind of future Pirate Bay: to rest in a Bose, so that it is replaced by something better, because Pirate Bay really sucks, ”Peter Sunde said at the time.

Will we witness the imminent death of Pirate Bay? Time will tell…

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Epilogue and gag

Lenta.ru has already published a retelling of this article: The co-founder of The Pirate Bay urged him to close . But I wondered what exactly they wrote on torrentfreak . I hope not to me alone.

Tobias’s statement did not come as a revelation to me. Not so long ago, a wave of murders / suicides of trackers swept the world. It began, perhaps, with a loud closing Demonoid. Then UG, HDRoad, GazelleGames left ... Quite recently, the p2p world was saddened by the news about the closure of SuperTorrents. This list can complement each of you.
Russian-speaking resources are also being closed. Recall abcool.ru (specialized in audio books), it is not known that with ironclub ...

Apparently, it's time to leave on the words of Dima Revyakin "back to the cellars." In the underground. In anonymity and decentralization. In the future ? ..

PS
Will we have to go down I2P (or analogs), will the concept of torrent trackers survive the next round, or will something completely new appear?
If it is wider, will we be able to defend file sharing in the form in which it exists today, or will we be driven into an online reservation? What do you say, habra people?