Pirate's Bay of pigs

The MPAA SS (read: Swedish National Criminal Police), have stormed into a building and taken servers into custody. (Do they use USB handcuffs or something?)

The Pirate Bay bittorrent uber-tracker and website is down. Whilst not actually hosting anything illegal, they did contain little electronic arrows pointing to legal and illegal data. Much like, yknow, when you point your finger at a thief and then you get charged with theft, or something.

Under Swedish law, the hosting of the actual torrent files is not illegal - they don't contain any copyrighted material. But, these Swedes may prove to be more resilient than other little bugs that nibble at the MPAA members profit margins - the site claims they'll be back in a day or so.

Pure Pwnage, a popular amateur webisode and particular favorite of mine, is one example of a legal torrent pointed-to by the tracker.

To the MPAA, give it up, son. We've all heard the claims that pirates are ripping off the artists, impoverishing all those involved with movies and music, but we all know damn well that under normal circumstances, you're the ones that do that, and we understand your feelings of rejection as you come to terms with your own redundancy.

You are only encouraging tracker-free torrents, and decentralised searches - and when they're the norm, there really ain't no stopping 'em.

Here's what's going to happen, in my predictions:
ISP's will start peer-hosting popular video streams to save bandwidth.
ISP's will also offer these streams without cost to users bandwidth limits.
People will spend more time watching YouTube, than the tube.
Independent films will start becoming more popular.
ADSL2 and 2+ will become the norm broadband speeds.
Movies and blockbusters will be downloaded, bought on DVD/HD-DVD, and seen at cinemas.
And torrent sites will rise and fall. Over and over.

The MPAA press release claims: "SWEDISH AUTHORITIES SINK PIRATE BAY" - which is nice, and I'm looking forward to "FINNISH AUTHORITIES SINK NEW PIRATE BAY", "LIECHTENSTEIN AUTHORITIES GET THEIR TURN", and "SIERRA LEONE HOSTS PIRATE BAY, GETS SLASHDOTTED AFTER TWO MINUTES". There's nothing wrong with protecting your intellectual property, but... he who is without sin, yknow?