As one of the most notorious torrent sites, The Pirate Bay has been blocked by ISPs around the world.
In response to these digital roadblocks, several proxy sites have sprung up to bypass these restrictions. Besides that, there are dedicated sites that help people to find these backdoors.
The Proxy Bay
"The Proxy Bay" has long been one of the leading information portals. The site didn't offer an official proxy itself but provided an overview of available options. As such, it proved to be quite useful in countries where site blockades are active.
In the UK, for example, where TPB has been blocked for over a decade, the site was particularly popular.
Since the blocking orders often allow rightsholders to add newly appearing proxies, this has turned into a game of whack-a-mole. When proxies are blocked, new domains are launched, which are then picked up by pirates through information portals such as The Proxy Bay.
GitHub Takedown Saga
This routine has been a major source of frustration for rightsholders. It reached the point where some of these linking sites were banned, and when City of London Police got involved in the matter earlier this year, it was clear that things were getting more serious.
It's quite something when the police actively get involved in a copyright matter. In this case, it was particularly salient since "The Proxy Bay" was hosted at GitHub.
The developer platform swiftly complied with the takedown request, which wasn't unexpected. However, after someone representing the proxy information site sent a counter notice, the domain was restored.
The brief takedown in January hurt the site's traffic but, when it came back a month later, business resumed as usual. According to SimilarWeb, the site had 1.5 million visits again in March, which is quite a lot for a GitHub hosted page.
Mystery Disappearance(s)
The GitHub restoral was a significant victory for The Proxy Bay. Ironically, City of London Police's takedown efforts may have actually raised the site's profile, running contrary to the initial goal.
There was no celebration, however; quite the opposite in fact. A few weeks after its comeback the site quietly disappeared. Those who try to access the domain today will get a 404 error. This means that the site is gone, but why remains a mystery.
In theory, there could have been another takedown request but since there isn't one documented by GitHub, that seems unlikely. The other option is that the owner of the page voluntarily removed it, perhaps spooked by the police taking an interest.
The latter explanation would run contrary to the counternotice sent earlier. However, it's not clear if that was actually sent by the operator, especially since the notice referenced the incorrect .com domain name, instead of the .io one that GitHub pages use.
Rinse… and Repeat
Interestingly, all proxy domains that were previously promoted on The Proxy Bay have gone offline as well. These domains include unlockedtpb.org, thepiratebayone.com, and tpbproxy.info. The same is true for thepirateproxybay.com, which hosted the information on the same page as The Proxy Bay.
All these mystery disappearances, taking place shortly after the police takedown request, are at least unusual.
This doesn't mean that there's a shortage of proxies, though, new ones pop up all the time; also on GitHub (1, 2, 3, etc). This game of whack-a-mole has been ongoing for more than a decade and it's unlikely to end anytime soon.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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