Piratebay.Org Sold For $50,000 At Auction, ThePiratebay.com Up Next

Several Pirate Bay-related domains become available again this month after their owner failed to renew the registration. Yesterday, Piratebay.org was sold in a Dropcatch auction for $50,000 and ThePiratebay.com will follow soon. Both domains were previously registered to the official Pirate Bay site. TorrentFreak reports: Over the years the Pirate Bay team had many 'backup' domains available, just in case something happened. That included various exotic TLDs but the site also owned Piratebay.org and ThePiratebay.com. We use the past tense because both domains expired recently. The domains listed Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij as the registrant and until recently the same Swedish address was listed in Whois data. For reasons unknown, however, the registrant let both Piratebay.org and ThePiratebay.com expire. This isn't a problem for the torrent site really. The domains were never used as the site's main address. ThePiratebay.com did forward to the original .org domain at one point, but that's about it.

None of this means that the domains are not valuable to outsiders though. This became apparent in an auction yesterday, where Piratebay.org (without the the) was sold for $50,000 to a bidder named 'clvrfls.' The bid below ended up being the winning one. The Piratebay.org domain failed to renew earlier this month after which the professional 'drop catch' service Dropcatch.com scooped it up. They auctioned the domain off, which is a common practice, and it proved quite lucrative. What the new owner will do with the domain is unclear. It has a substantial number of backlinks and there will be plenty of type-in traffic as well. [...] ThePiratebay.com is expected to drop later this week and is listed at a pending delete auction, and ThePiratebay.net and Piratebay.net will drop in a few days as well.

What a relief!

[youngone]

The domains were never used as the site's main address. ThePiratebay.com did forward to the original .org domain at one point, but that's about it.

Phew! I thought I might have to pay for a Netflix subscription there for a minute.

Pirate bay org

[cygnusvis]

thepiratebay.org seems to be operating normally.

Rather than let them expire

[knoledgesponge]

Why not sell them for extra money?

But after I purchased it....

[theendlessnow]

It was stolen.

Re:But after I purchased it....

[thegreatbob]

You wouldn't download a website, would you?

Re:

[kurkosdr]

Oh for f... sake, domain names are not property, and neither are copyrights (despite the Content Cartels doing their best to convince people they are). Property doesn't need to be "renewed" and doesn't "expire", but domain names and copyrights (accordingly) do. Property might get taxed (unfortunately), but it doesn't need renewal and doesn't enter the public doman. So, please stop using the word "stolen" to things that aren't property.

Re:

[kurkosdr]

I don't want to be the word police, but this is one of those cases where the words you use affect what you consider acceptable. If domain names are property, then blocking malware sites is barring access to property, and if copyrights are property, then the CBDTPA was a reasonable piece of legislation.

Obvious targets for domain typos

[pipedwho]

What the new owner will do with the domain is unclear.

Gee, I wonder.

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

At best they’ll try to sell some lame merchandise there, or host an also-ran fire sharing service whose only redeeming feature is the well known url. At worst, it’ll turn into an ad ridden landing page, or one laden with malware. And that’s still worth $50k for some automated process had scooped up the expired domain.

I can still remember when the internet wasn’t quite so... sleazy.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

At worst, itâ(TM)ll turn into an ad ridden landing page, or one laden with malware. And thatâ(TM)s still worth $50k for some automated process had scooped up the expired domain.

I can still remember when the internet wasnâ(TM)t quite so... sleazy.

That's exactly what's going to happen. At best it will wrap the official site with ads, at worse it will be one of the billions of sites that will basically load you with tons of malware then redirect you to the real site after ensuring you load "the

Re:

[coastwalker]

Ideal permanent home for QAnnon, the Anti Vax movement and assorted White Nationalists. You may laugh, but they appear to have the money behind them to hoover up anything that "furthers the cause" whatever that is this week.

Turn it into a legit streaming service

[xack]

Similar to what happened to Napster and a few other services.

Winning bid

[gosso920]

With $50,000 as the final bid, that price was a

(-_-)

( -_-)>#-#

(#_#)

steal

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

'drop catch' should be banned

[Anonymous Coward]

Dropcatch.com buying non-renewed domain and then auctioning it off should be banned and criminalized.
Just like domain squatting should be banned and criminalized.

Re:

[Excelcia]

Dropcatch.com buying non-renewed domain and then auctioning it off should be banned and criminalized.

They got one of mine once after I let it lapse. The day after they got it, they graciously offered to sell it back to me. But I still had the .ca, which as far as I was concerned was really the primary domain, the .com just pointed to it. So it was annoying, but more because they were being greasy about it and not because of the loss. I told them to get stuffed and that as soon as they realized the domain was worthless to anyone but me to go ahead and let it lapse and I'd take it back.

Funny thing is tha

Similar URLs should not be allowed

[ath1901]

This is exactly the problem with the whole system. The Pirate Bay is a well known entity and these domains will most likely be used to profit from that, most likely by unethical means. Perhaps by phishing, url mistakes etc.

Sites with similar names should simply not be allowed. Once coca-cola.com is registered, coca-coIa.com, cocacola.com, coka-cola.com etc should not be allowed to be sold to anyone else. This is such a stupid and unnecessary security risk.

Re:

[Computershack]

The Pirate Bay is a well known entity and these domains will most likely be used to profit from that, most likely by unethical means.

Finding it hard to muster up even the slightest bit of sympathy for anyone who gets fucked over as a result given the whole reason they're looking for TPB is because they're quite happy to fuck over everyone in the movie, TV and music sector from the artists who create it down to the small mom and pop stores retailing it.

Re:

[ath1901]

TPB is just an example of the stupidity. The same thing happens with banks and ordinary companies. I just pinged both coca-coIa.com and coke-cola and both exist.