TPB Moves To .IS Domain Name

[Guest Ethan]

TPB Moves To .IS Domain Name

About two weeks ago, the pirate ship and its crew considered sailing away from Sweden, their next destination being Greenland. The decision was not one of their best, as Greenland’s company in charge with all .GL registrations, specifically Tele-Post, was not happy harboring such a “stigmatized” bunch.

But this is no ordinary pirate crew; they are fierce in their cause, they are relentless and determined to stretch their sails to the maximum; and they proved that more than once. For starters, in 2009 the three founders, along with one of the site’s financers, received a one year sentence in jail for promoting copyright infringement and a fine of roughly $3.5 million; the sentences were reduced the next year (except for Gottfrid, who was later arrested in Cambodia and brought back to Sweden [we later found out that Sweden paid $59 millions for Gottfrid's head] to face charges of hacking into several local companies), but the fines were upped to $4.5 million.

So, having to deal with Greenland’s refusal, The Pirate Bay quickly regrouped and dropped the anchor in Iceland.

While the country’s copyright laws are pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world, ISNIC – the company in charge with all .IS registrations – is not as blunt as Tele-Post.

“ISNIC is not responsible for a registrant’s usage of their domains,” the company’s Chief Technology Officer Marius Olafsson told TF.

“Such an action would require a formal order from an Icelandic court,” he continued.

The statement is rather surprising, especially that Iceland is currently struggling to censor internet pornography, something that you find on basically any torrent portal, including The Pirate Bay. However, TPB is not yet out of the danger zone, because, despite ISNIC’s tolerance, a court order could eventually force the registration company to drive the ship away. Let’s hope that’s not the case!

Stay tuned!