The Pirate Bay Takes Over Anti-Piracy Domain

palpatin writes to let us know that The Pirate Bay has now taken up residence at IFPI.com, a domain once owned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The Pirate Bay says the site will now promote the International Federation of Pirates Interests. IFPI can still be reached at ifpi.org. Torrentfreak has up a brief interview with Brokep, one of the administrators of The Pirate Bay, who says: "It's not a hack, someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it."

Let me be the first to say

Yaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!

Re:Let me be the first to say

Is this the first time a first post/anonymous coward combo has got anything other than an offtopic? Well done Sir!

Legality?

While I admire The Pirate Bay for taking advantage of Swedish law to freely host torrents, I wonder about the legality of this. How has Swedish law generally treated trademarks and domain names?

Re:Legality?

Makes one wonder what the legal mechanisms are for domain names and other international property like this if they are "unrightfully transferred"? I recall that the owner of sex.com was so worried about his domain that he had it on file at his registrar that they were not to transfer it without written request from the owner. Someone spoofed a letter and got it transferred anyway. He wasn't without the domain for very long, but just goes to show you that things like this are hard to make bulletproof.

If by chance, someone managed to get say, riaa.com, transferred to another registrar that was like the hosting we read about recently in Russia, where they don't care as long as they get paid, just how hard is it to get your domain back? I seem to recall "unlock codes" being required and there not being any by-legal-force way to get this. (remembering the recent fiasco of godaddy.com not providing unlock codes) I could picture such a transfer being irreversable if the thief was stubborn and knowledgeable enough. Or is there an angle?

Re:Legality?

Interestingly enough, this comes as a porn site was forced to give up acdc.com and give it back to the band. Here's an article [news.com.au]

Re:Legality?

I think ACDC actually bought the domain back. They didn't force the porn site to give it up, they paid for it.

Re:Legality?

Damnit, where am I meant to find my Asian Cutie Drunk Chicks now?

Re:Legality?

If by chance, someone managed to get say, riaa.com,

You mean, if The Pirate Bay got a hold of it?
well, sir, they would of course have it default to the Arrrrrrr-iaa.com site.

Re:Legality?

He wasn't without the domain for very long, but just goes to show you that things like this are hard to make bulletproof.

"Not long"? It took Kremen 5 years to get the domain back and 10 to finally see Cohen in a US prison (for other reasons, granted) where he could no longer escape his dues.

Re:Legality?

If I got it right, they founded the "International Federation of Pirate Interests" or something like that, which has (a happy coincidence, no doubt) the letters IFPI as its acronym.

You can have a trademark all you want, if someone has at least the same "reason" to have a domain, you have no case. Ferrero lost a case for the domain "kinder.at" (with "kinder" being their trade mark, before German legislation made trademarking common words illegal ("kinder" means "children" in German)) against (IIRC) some youth organisation. The court's decision was explained with the fact that there is no danger that the domain holder (the youth organisation) could be mistaken for Ferrero (a company making chocolate products).

Now, if the IFPI wants to claim that they could be mistaken for a bunch of 'pirates', this could be different...

I hate to point this out...

... but www.nissan.com [nissan.com] is still owned and operated by Nissan Computer Corporation. As approved by the USSC - a little light reading for you [nissan.com].

So Pirates have their Interests Protected...

What about those of us who are ninjas? Where is our coalition for the protection of our interests?

Re:So Pirates have their Interests Protected...

Only because Pirates get better recognition. I live in Tampa, which happens to have a pirate celebration every year. I get to dress up as a pirate and I'm not seen as 'weird', I'm seen as 'cool'. Try that with a Ninja costume and you'll get maced, beaten, and jailed after a cop plants drugs on you (also called 'Saturday Night' if you're from Detroit).

Re:So Pirates have their Interests Protected...

Try that with a Ninja costume and you'll get maced, beaten, and jailed after a cop plants drugs on you

Surely if you were dressed as a ninja, you'd be effectively invisible and they wouldn't know what to mace/beat/frame? :-)

Still, knowing some ninjutsu is also recommended for those awkward "so you really can see me, huh?" moments...

Let's face the facts...

Ninjas don't need to have their interests protected. They protect their own interests with a combo of martial arts and awesome.
 
Pirates are weak sauce with their "associations". Ninjas don't have associations. Ninjas have bloodbaths.

Re:So Pirates have their Interests Protected...

There are actually over 250 ninja-coalition domain names on the Interweb.

You just can't see them.

dotcom

Sure, but the .org one is still active.
.com must have expired and was registered by someone - maybe it wasn't really that popular? (Um, popular as in "under heavy use"/"meaning something to someone")
Hey, this IS funny - but not really such a big deal if examined closely.

Nononono

(IANAL)
"I'd let them buy it from me at normal cost"
That course of action would lead you to be a criminal, or at the very least instantly lose your legitimate title to the domain. Do *not* under any circumstances offer a price. That's how microsoft got Mike Rowe, and how other large corporations worldwide have gotten many other domains. As soon as you name a price you are a domain hijacker. This isn't just an american law; it has happened pretty much worldwide with the same consistent results, afaik.

Sweet RIAA Defense

It's not a hack, someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it.

Can I use that to explain the music on my computer?

"Umm yeah, some guy gave me a cd of this music. I have no idea how he got it, but it's mine and I'm keeping it."

Someone call Ray Beckerman - I think we have the new defense all worked out for him! I don't care if it was his to give or not - still my music as they gave it to me!

Ill gotten gain?

Does anyone else have a problem with the justification of:
"yes, this shipment of cigarettes just arrived at our doorstep, we figured we'd keep 'em".

Re:Ill gotten gain?

Well in the US if the owners of the cigarettes did that they are considered a gift, provided you had not requested them or they are mis-delivered, and you are free to keep them.

Pity they announced it

The Pirate Bay could have been rather more subtle about it:
1. copy the content of IFPI.org
2. change the content, subtly at first
3. publish ever more outrageous claims
4. wait for people to realize the site isn't owned by the IFPI.

Re:Pity they announced it

Right, because then they wouldn't have breached about a thousand copyright laws in the process and REALLY put themselves in the legal spotlight?

Re:Pity they announced it

A nice idea, but that would be a violation of copyright, and (let's be very clear about this) The Pirate Bay does not violate copyright laws.

GO, PIRATES GO!

The IFPI. I hate them. They tend to play in europe the same role as the RIAA in USA. With the difference that in Europe States have actual laws that private firms are bound to respect: trivial things like privacy and the concept that the State actually runs the law instead of mediadefender.

So far their intimidating letters and scary tactics have fired back all the way. (I have seen one they sent to the guy at the Network managment of my uni a few years ago). I can just hail to the new domain!

peta.org

I don't know how long TPB can hang on to that domain name (remember peta.org?) but it should be fun watching the fireworks.

huh? it looks like it's still for sale

If you actually go visit ipfi.com , it says it's still for sale: The domain name www.ipfi.com is for sale Prices in the region of US$4675

Re:huh? it looks like it's still for sale

maybe you should visit www.lysdexic.com as well...

I wonder how they got it...

Did they pirate the domain through bit torrent?

Time for a name change perhaps?

Having a name that always parses as "The International Federation of the Pornographic Industry" is not just silly but shows how resistant to change the recording industry really is. I mean when was the last time you actually saw let alone played a Phonograph?

Re:Time for a name change perhaps?

I mean when was the last time you actually saw let alone played a Phonograph?

About the same time as they had a viable business model.

Pirates are sweet and by sweet I mean awesome

I can see it now, Pirate Bay having the wind gauge, lufting up to the scurvy lubbers and giving them a full broadside of grape before setting the grapples and boarding, cutlasses flashing, pistols firing, blood in the scuppers. If they be called pirates, then by God, they be actin' like pirates! And don't nobody tell me they just paid a fee and transferred the domain legally, you'll totally harsh my visualization here.

You bastards !!!

That is so very "pirate" of you. "Piratisch" even. So did you use broadsides to make them surrender or did you board them ?

Makes me laugh

"It's not a hack. Someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it."

Sounds like a little kid who finds a lost puppy, and is upset when the owner comes along to reclaim it.

Really, they should just give the domain name back. It's not theirs. They are just encouraging lawsuits and more problems for themselves - and for what? Bravado?

If I was trying to better a competitor/critic, I would want to do it the big way; not peity tactics. Censoring there views is not the way to go...

I suppose I'd make a pretty shitty pirate!

And from the other ifpi site...

In news from

Earlier today the New South Wales Police, together with Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) raided the home of an illegal trader of country music in Kelso near Bathurst, seizing in excess of 2,000 pirated CDs, ...

Could his defence be, perhaps, to plead insanity? :D

It looks like it expired, not stolen

According to the whois:

Creation date: 28 Jan 2007 19:02:24
Expiration date: 28 Jan 2008 19:02:24

This looks more like the phonographers let the domain expire at the beginning of the year and someone else registered it on January 28th. This happens all the time, especially by spammers and registrars that turn it into a "search page" for a while.

Re:It looks like it expired, not stolen

Furthermore, if this is the way the domain was obtained, it may make it harder for the IFPI folks to take back. Since the domain was at one time legally owned by them, and then abandoned, the domain name arbitrator could rule that they relinquished any claim to the name when they abandoned it. After all, if they really wanted the domain name, wouldn't they have renewed it?

PETA.org

Reminds me of the mid-90's when "People Eating Tasty Animals [wikipedia.org]" registered peta.org

Archive of ifpi.com throughout the years

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ifpi.com [archive.org]

Being a pirate...

I was at the Ren. Faire festival over the weekend and the darn pirate song won't leave my head... So here is variation: Being a pirate is all fun and games Until someone gets sued (By MPAA, RIAA or some software alliance) Without any reason they'll put you in prison And then you'll be screwed But it's all part of being a pirate, You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be) Unless you've been sued; It's all part of being a pirate, You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate) Until we're all screwed! (Continue singing...)

Irony

Shouldn't it be TPB that has the .org (non-profit) and IFPI that has the .com (money-leeching corporate union)?

How about...

...just hosting some torrent files that don't point to broken torrents? I've given up on trying to watch some pay channel shows and just wait to rent the DVDs. If the video file doesn't generate countless errors, it's in some bugfuck "new and improved" video format or conatianer where the current player is at version 0.0.1 alpha. Is simple MPEG not esoteric enough for a stupid TV show?

Yeah, I know, it's not their responsibility, but I gotta rant somewhere.

Hey, Showtime and HBO and others. I'll happily pay a buck or two per show if you can make them available a week after initial airing. One engineer a few hours a week could do this. Or just ship it over to iTunes. I am not buying your channels to watch one show, so get a buck or two, or whatever fraction of a penny comes from my Netflix rentals.

The pirates were just recovering their treasure!

According to the Wayback Machine [archive.org], back in January 28th, 2003 it was up for sale: "IFPI.com is for sale. Asking price = $2000. Serious offers only to [e-mail]". By March 30th the phonographers had picked it up. (Don't be fooled by the March 19th 2003 anachronism--it's loading current frames.) And then by February 2007, they'd let it expire and it was picked up.

March 2003: owned by [e-mail]! "Hi Ho Silver"? Them be pirates!

.org address makes more sense anyway

Given that it's a noncommercial organization, the .org address makes more logical sense for it than the .com address anyway.

Re:At least they can call it theft now.

How can they steal it from them if they (anti-pirates) didn't own it in the first place?

They didn't steal anything

The IFPI use ifpi.org as their canonical domain.

Presumably IFPI let it slip (assuming that they once owned it), someone got it and passed it on to TPB.

I noticed that Virgin once let virgin.net slip back in the 90's - wish I had snaffled that ...

Where's the theft?

A domain was registered. This domain was transfered to TPB. Where is the theft?

Who said that IFPI.com was ever owned by the IFPI?
Who said that they still own it, provided they ever did?

You have to register domains to have them. Having "your" domain isn't some sort of human right or part of your intrinsic rights when filing for corporation. Just because those four letters are some sort of acronym for your company/organisation/whatever doesn't mean you have all rights to those four letters and nobody else may ever create anything that could use that acronym and (god forbid) even register a domain name that consists of those four letters. There are actually only 26^4 ways to create four letter acronyms, and some (like ANAL or FUCK) ain't really useful. At least to most businesses.

Re:At least they can call it theft now.

Considering the current state of the US government and it's apparent direction ... anarchy is a quality choice, at least there is some semblance of fairness. Go ... Pirates ... Go.