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Pirate Bay’s .org domain down
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 9 December 2015
The Pirate Bay’s classic .org domain is down after being suspended by domains firm EuroDNS because the registrant of thepiratebay.org has failed to verify their contact details, a requirement of worldwide domain overseer ICANN.
The domain, like most of those used by the controversial file-sharing platform, is registered to Fredrik Neij, one of the site’s founders, who went to jail for his involvement in the piracy enterprise. Since TPB’s founders and funder were jailed for copyright crimes, those who continue to run the file-sharing service have kept a much lower profile.
The .org domain could be re-activated at any time if someone involved in the site completes the verification process. It remains to be seen if they bother. Although thepiratebay.org was at one time the site’s primary domain, since 2012 that has actually been thepiratebay.se. Those running the site at the time switched over fears the US government was preparing to seize the .org domain, though that never actually happened.
Some will have continued to use thepiratebay.org since then, especially in countries where the primary domains are not blocked by internet service providers. Though a simple Google search will help those people find the site and, ironically, in those countries where web-blocks are in force, file-sharers who use the Bay – and therefore have to routinely circumvent the blockades – are less likely to rely on domain names to reach the service anyway, so when domains go offline it has no effect.
