A German court injunction temporarily left file-sharing site The Pirate Bay without a bandwidth provider, but thanks to the Swedish Pirate Party the site came back online Tuesday.
This isn’t the first time The Pirate Bay has been taken offline, because it was left without a bandwidth provider. However, it has always managed to bounce back. The Pirate Bay’s blog had a clear message to its critics: “Please learn, TPB can’t be shut down.”
The Pirate Party decided to provide the bandwidth because it has grown tired of the movie and music industry’s “cat and mouse game” with the file-sharing site, according to a statement. The site is legal, it said.
The battle between The Pirate Bay and the entertainment industry continues in various countries. This week a case that led to the site being blocked in Denmark heads to the Supreme Court there, for example.
Pirate Bay’s return made its fans cheer: “Go forth ye brave maties,” wrote someone using the screen name Catalyst123 at the site’s blog. The return could also give The Pirate Party some much needed attention.
The party has seen its popularity dwindle since it won 7.1 percent of the votes in elections for the European Parliament last year, according to a spokesman at market research company TNS SIFO. Its popularity has dwindled because, for example, copyright issues haven’t been high on the political agenda, but if that changes the Pirate Party’s fortunes could also change, the spokesman said.