In May 2006, Swedish police raided the site's servers, seizing 192 machines and taking the site offline for three days.
The courtroom was a circus. The defendants showed up in t-shirts that read "Pirate Bay." They argued that the site never hosted illegal files—only magnets and links. They compared themselves to Google.
The Pirate Bay: The Unkillable Ship That Changed the Internet Forever
From a Swedish anti-copyright group to the most wanted website on Earth, explore the dramatic history, legal battles, and uncertain future of The Pirate Bay. Introduction: The Ultimate Game of Cat and Mouse
They were wrong.
The Pirate Bay isn't just a website. It is a testament to a simple truth of the internet: What do you think? Is The Pirate Bay a digital library or a digital flea market? Let us know in the comments.
A magnet link requires no intermediary. It connects your computer directly to another user's computer. This made the site even lighter, faster, and harder to kill. You could run The Pirate Bay from a $35 Raspberry Pi hidden in a closet.