In the wake of this past winter’s seizure and forced closure of Megaupload (one of the most popular torrent websites), as well as the arrest and indictment of its owners by the US Justice Department, a number of similar sites have closed shop or restructured to no longer allow the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials. The Pirate Bay (often abbreviated TPB), however, remains steadfast in its commitment to allowing users to trade and share any information they have at their disposal. Despite already having been raided and fined several years ago, and banned outright in multiple countries, the site has managed to stay up and running through various means.
For some time now, The Pirate Bay has kept its servers in multiple undisclosed locations throughout the world. The purpose and effect of this tactic is that if a server were discovered or raided in one country the others would remain active and keep the site running despite whatever consequences may follow in the country in question. Ideally, this would prevent the website from being brought down outright unless all of these hidden locations were found.
Not wanting to wait and see just how well the ploy will work should any particular government try to take the site out as the US did Megaupload, TPB has already developed a new method to keep it even further out of physical reach and clear jurisdiction. They are now toying with GPS-controlled drones that can soar kilometers high in the sky and house as much equipment as possible to effectively make the site’s servers airborne. Thanks to the creation of miniature, WiFi capable computers such as Raspberry Pi these drones can be kept so small that detecting them will be almost impossible by conventional means. The project is still in its infancy, and there is no guarantee that it will keep The Pirate Bay out of legal trouble, but it should be interesting to watch mature nonetheless.
We at LongIsland.com cannot, of course, condone the use of torrents to illegally share copyrighted materials, but we are as fascinated by new technology as anyone. Why not share your thoughts on the aerial drones with us on our forums’ Lounge?