Torrent sites left fearing 2018 will clamp on online piracy

[Len]

THE Pirate Bay has been dealt a blow as other torrent sites have been left fearing major developments in 2018 will ‘kill’ off online piracy.

The Pirate Bay and other major torrent websites could be dealt a hammer blow next year as the crackdown against online piracy continues.

The Pirate Bay is the world’s leading torrent portal, and for almost 15 years has been helping online pirates access free movie and TV downloads.

However, one big change to the internet landscape could have a huge impact for all torrent websites in 2018.

Google are preparing to launch their ad-blocker feature for Chrome, the world’s most popular internet browser.

The search engine giant has already launched a beta version of Chrome that automatically blocks autoplay videos.

And on February 15 2018 the Google Chrome built-in ad blocker feature will go live.

Adverts that do not meet the standards of the Coalition for Better Ads, such as pop-up adverts that expand on their own, will get blocked.

The group that decides which adverts are suitable includes big name members like Google, Facebook, News Corp, and The Washington Post. 

Torrent websites rely on the revenue they bring in from advertising, and the Chrome ad blocker has left some fearing if they’ll be able to carry on.

The owner of one torrent site, who did not want to be named, previously told TorrentFreak that the ad blocker could signal the end of torrents.

They said: “The torrent site economy is in a bad state. Profits are very low. Profits are f***** compared to previous years.

“Chrome’s ad-blocker will kill torrent sites. If they don’t at least cover their costs, no one is going to use money out of his pocket to keep them alive.

“I won’t be able to do so at least.”

The news comes as The Pirate Bay has been dealt a fresh blow against online piracy today.

Police in Sweden have filed a formal request with a domain registrar to take down two Pirate Bay-related domains.

The move comes after the Swedish Supreme Court determined that domain names are property that can be seized by the state.

The court’s judgement said: “The Supreme Court declares that the right to domain names constitutes property that may be forfeited as the Court of Appeal previously found.”

Kjetil Jensen is from the Online Group - the parent company of domain registry Binero which received the take down request from the police.

Speaking to TorrentFreak, Jensen said: “Today Binero, Binero.se, (registrar for thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se) received an executive request from Swedish Police to take over ownership of the domain names thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se because the Swedish Supreme Court now allows the domain names to be seized.

“The WHOIS of the domain names shows that the domain names no longer have any active name servers and the next step in this process is that the Police will take over the ownership of the domain names.”

The landmark legal move means domains that are used to host content that breaks piracy laws will be easier to seize in future.

The fears over the Google Chrome ad blocker and the latest Pirate Bay blow comes amid a climate where authorities are ramping up efforts to tackle online piracy.

The penalties for online piracy have also become more severe this year thanks to the Digital Economy Act becoming law.

The new law raised the maximum possible sentence for online copyright infringement offences from two to 10 years.

The maximum sentence will only apply to people who commit serious copyright crimes, such as distributing content.

As authorities have started to ramp up efforts to tackle online piracy, popular torrent websites like Kickass Torrents, ExtraTorrent and Torrentz.eu have all shut up shop.