Andre Yoskowitz
16 Apr 2008 17:50
After having access to their site blocked in February, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is fighting back against the group that forced the block, threatening to sue the music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for monetary damages.
In February the IFPI accused the Danish ISP Tele2 of "aiding and abetting copyright infringement" and went to court to get the ISP to block access to the torrent tracker.
One of TPB's admins, Brokep, wrote in the official blog that the site would be seeking monetary damages for the access block if Tele2 wins its court appeal. The site remains DNS blocked until the court case is resolved. The block, in all its irony, has had a reverse effect. The Pirate Bay has jumped up 5 spots in Denmark's most popular sites traffic-wise, thanks mainly to all the media publicity surrounding the court case and the site.
If forced to sue the IFPI, Brokep says the money will go to setting up a fund to help aspiring Danish artists. "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more...)."
Two weeks ago TPB was in the news again, this time being sued for over $2.5 million USD by the IFPI whom accused them of sharing 24 albums, nine films and four games.