back to article Pirate Bay 'seeks asylum' in, er, 'North Korea'

The Pirate Bay says it is relocating to either North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) - if you go by the flag in its sails on its homepage - or South Korea (the Republic of Korea), if you go by its statement.* If the file-sharing site's claim relates to the former, it certainly looks spurious given the nation's …

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  1. Cipher

    N. Korea?

    I've tracerouted a dozen times today, Germany seems to be the last stop. Not one instance of Korea, north or south...

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: N. Korea?

      It's fake. Lots of fun though.

      1. Turtle

        @Ole Juul: Re: N. Korea?

        "N. Korea? It's fake. Lots of fun though."

        Not if you live there.

        1. Ole Juul

          Re: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

          I was referring to TPB pretending to be hosted there. Sorry, I thought that's what the article was about.

          1. Alfred
            Happy

            Re: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

            Quick, duck! *WHOOSH*

            1. Turtle

              @Alfred: Re: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

              "Quick, duck! *WHOOSH*"

              No, I "got it". I just didn't "like it", if you know what I mean - and you may not. There is nothing funny about North Korea at all.

              But if the Pirate Bay would move to North Korea it would be altogether appropriate: in the same way that North Korea's ruling clique considers that everything produced by North Korea is their property to do with as they please, so does the Pirate Bay consider all music, movies, games, and software produced by the labor of others, to be their property to do with as they see fit. North Korea and The Pirate Bay share a modus operandi: maximally exploit the labor of others and return nothing.

              And considering that this "fun" is being generate on behalf of the Pirate Bay and the neo-Nazi who owns it, perhaps you don't see the irony (and hypocrisy) in it. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lundstr%C3%B6m - Lundstrom was a very wealthy man even before The Pirate Bay. Showing once again that not only has the internet degenerated into a tool for the rich to get richer but that freetards are also "tools".)

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @Alfred: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

                "but that freetards are also "tools"."

                Not surprising. Most of the pirate bay supporters are young and naive. Teenagers and people in their early 20s don't really have much of a concept of hard work so don't see the problem in ripping off the hard work of others. Its only as they grow older that realisation dawns.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: @Alfred: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

                  Wasn't the demographic that uses filesharing the most, in its 30s and 40s? I seem to have read reports on research stating just that..

                  AC since I have no sources and am too ar$ed to search for them

                2. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: @Alfred: @Ole Juul: N. Korea?

                  Whoa there... not everyone who supports the Pirate Bay is young and naive. That's just a bit of blatant shite, based on your assumptions and not fact. Some of the biggest pirates I know now are in their forties.

                  I went through a large freeloading phase which mostly coincided with me being extremely poor and extremely bored, and when it came down to the crunch I was significantly happier being just extremely poor. Once I could afford to pay, I did... and have done for many years now and extensive libraries of DVDs, games and music would attest to that.

                  It would also be the naive person who did not see that piracy has massively influenced digital distribution as a medium

  2. Katie Saucey

    1st of April again?

  3. LinkOfHyrule
    Coffee/keyboard

    Late night cup of tea spat all over keyboard at seeing this....

    WTF? Is my plonker being pulled here?

    Oh well, if its true at least the American rights collecting rackets can go shouting "If you download a movie, you're downloading terrorism directly into your home!" and all the rest. I can't wait for the public service announcement showing Korean terrorists jumping out of computer screens and nuclear missiles shooting out of iPads!

  4. tkioz
    Pint

    Well I'm almost certain it's a piss take, but you never know when it comes to the nutters running tPB or Best Korea for that matter.

    1. Throatwobbler Mangrove
      Gimp

      Just as an aside - is the lack of a submarine cable actually a big deal? The Norks have got land borders with Russia (not a zillion miles from the Vladivostok-Japan submarine cables) and China (which is relatively well-connected to the outside world - once you get past the Great Firewall). Given how few users they have it wouldn't add much to those countries' bandwidth needs to have everything flow through them - and in fact they might quite like to help the Norks because they'd be able to monitor the traffic.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NK will welcome them with open arms, then take their gear and use it for their own purposes.

  6. Steven Roper
    Pirate

    If copyright enforcement is TPB's problem

    then they would be a lot better off hosting their servers in Iran. Iran has good connectivity (a hell of a lot better than the DPRK) and they've made it perfectly clear that they will not respect or enforce US or western copyright laws or interests in any way, now or in the foreseaable future. In fact, they're actively encouraging infringing activity in their country.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-United_States_copyright_relations

    So now your piracy really can support terrorism! ;-)

    1. Hungry Sean
      Coat

      Re: If copyright enforcement is TPB's problem

      so, if TPB got fiber hookups in both Iran and DPRK, would those be the coaxes of evil?

  7. virhunter

    May not be North Korea, but Cambodia

    Some of this is a little bit beyond me, so it could be BS, but maybe it's worth a look:

    https://rdns.im/the-pirate-bay-north-korean-hosting-no-its-fake

    1. John Deeb
      Boffin

      Re: May not be North Korea, but Cambodia

      It's BS in the sense that it assumes it needs BGP/AS spoofing at all. It seems TPB just owns a host quite close to the backbone and forwards some traffic to another distant host someone provided them close enough to North Korea which is able to generate the correct replies. But it's more like a joke, they probably have their hosting for now legally somewhere [i]around[/i] last known HTTP destination.

  8. Sandtitz Silver badge

    The obvious solution

    TPB should relocate to Antigua.

  9. ukgnome
    Joke

    TPB should relocate to Caroline, they could get Tony Blackburn to host the servers

    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Happy

      Caroline?

      Now that would certainly be piratey-enough, if not rather damp.

  10. DrXym

    BS story

    It's not like North Korea has the capability of hosting such a site, and even if it did, it's not like it would be hard to disrupt or block it.

  11. g e

    Actually

    They only need to mirror critical infrastructure in NK, so it can't be touched and can be used as a master replication point or similar. Other servers can still live wherever they fancy.

    Note it says 'Virtual Asylum' which implies they're not upping sticks and going NORK in entirety. Though if true what NK thinks they're gaining from this I don't know. Free access to 99%-state-censored Die Hard movies?

    I thought they had a network of RAM-only boxen in place these days, or are they still trying to implement that?

    1. Psyx
      Pirate

      Re: Actually

      "Though if true what NK thinks they're gaining from this I don't know. "

      The downfall of capitalist pig-dogs!!

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
        Happy

        Re: Actually

        Psyx,

        Surely it's running-dogs of capitalism isn't it?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ah...

    Partnering with North Korea, the true sign of democratic freedom fighters sticking it to The Man.

  13. Sandpit
    Holmes

    Is poor connectivity that much of an issue? It's not as if the torrents will stream from there. Just the search and links.

  14. Soruk
    Pint

    Elaborate prank

    It's been revealed as a prank. Have a beer on me for a good one!

    http://falkvinge.net/2013/03/05/evidence-the-pirate-bay-move-to-north-korea-was-a-prank-in-understandable-terms/

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Elaborate prank

      Prank or not, it still says a lot about the people who run TPB and what they think is funny and acceptable.

    2. Eenymeeny
      FAIL

      Re: Elaborate prank

      ROFL.

      Falkvinge:

      "The problem with verifying the story or its debunking was the technical level of expertise required to understand the reports."

      Er, no. Five seconds reflection would have led to the conclusion that it was the usual kind of loonytune TPB publicity-seeking press releases.

      Like taking CIAPC to court, for example.

      Jury's still out on that one. In fact, the jury's still waiting to even convene ;-)

  15. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Pirate

    Does DPRK have to be Physical DPRK?

    Does North Korea have any embassies or consulates in the west? Bung a server in one and they could claim it's in North Korea. Embassies and the like are not actually foreign territory but it would be good enough spin for a press release.

    I suspect it's however more about stirring up the debate on free speech and censorship than anything else, suggesting North Korea is more freedom loving than the west.

    1. Psyx
      Thumb Up

      Re: Does DPRK have to be Physical DPRK?

      "suggesting North Korea is more freedom loving than the west."

      I suggest that if they think it's so f**king funny and genuinely feel that they are right-deprived, that thye go and live there for a few years.

  16. IglooDude

    In other news...

    TPB has hired Dennis Rodman to be their global spokesman.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Once you get past North Korea's human rights violations, they're not a bad bunch of people.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      I'm sure the average North Korean is no different to the average person from anywhere else.

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