There’s a market for pretty much everything today and ‘collectables’ are hot.

The non-fungible token (NFT) rage shows that people are willing to pay thousands or even millions of dollars for a digital gimmick, which may or may not retain its value.

MSCHF

This eagerness to pay doesn’t necessarily match with the typical audience of pirate sites. However, the Brooklyn-based art group MSCHF shows that some people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for ‘exclusive’ piracy-branded goods.

MSCHF made quite a name for itself in recent months. We previously highlighted their AlltheStreams.fm site , which streamed Netflix, Disney+, HBO Go content without permission. That project was shut down soon after. More recently, it ran into legal issues when Nike complained about the ‘Satan Shoes’ collection.

All this attention has pretty much guaranteed that there will be plenty of eyeballs on every new project the group ‘drops,’ which became clear again yesterday.

Exclusive Pirate Bay and Megaupload Emails

A few hours ago MSCHF announced its “ Email Capsule Collection ,” offering limited edition email addresses that come shipped on a CD with a commemorative card and some stickers.

The group offered 50 sets for five different domains using popular Internet brands such as The Pirate Bay and Megaupload.

The addresses use .biz gTLDs including Piratebay.biz and Megaupload.biz and have absolutely nothing to do with the original sites. The same is true for the 4Chan, Heaven’s Gate, and Angelfire addresses that were on offer.

Sold Out

Still, that didn’t stop people from rushing in to buy the addresses for $250 apiece. In no time, the entire Capsule Collection was sold out, including the five box sets, which went for $1,200 each.

It’s pretty clear that this latest drop is yet another massive success. According to MSCHF, that’s for a good reason, as the email addresses allow buyers to show their identity by associating themselves with popular web icons.

“In a less centralized web, where website usage patterns are meaningfully distinct, your activity is your identity,” MSCHF writes, while adding that it’s a fashion statement as well.

“Fashion is lots of things: an identity signifier, a wealth signifier. Online, exclusivity is a status signifier” the group notes, adding that “It shapes how people see you and how you see yourself.”

Limited Exclusivity?

This justification may make sense for some, but it’s likely that many buyers are mostly driven by hype. The ‘fashion’ part may be more about exclusivity than The Pirate Bay or Megaupload. In any case, it’s all good .biz.

It’s worth mentioning that people who bought one of the addresses don’t own them for life. In the fine print, we read that buyers “can use for two years before requiring renewal.”

For those who missed out, we have a tip. There are still plenty of Pirate Bay domains that can be registered for a few dollars so you can show off your identity. Our favorites are thepiratebay.legal, thepiratebay.ninja and thepiratebay.ceo. But those come without any stickers, of course.

If anything, the latest MSCHF drop shows that with the right marketing and hype, people are willing to pay for pretty much anything. Well, not anything . Paying for seven separate video streaming subscriptions is still a bit much for most. Just ask The Pirate Bay.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The Pirate Bay is arguably the best known pirate site on the web.

The iconic pirate ship logo is notorious around the world and more than 17 years after it first appeared online, the site still attracts millions of visitors.

During its tumultuous history, The Pirate Bay has weathered many storms. The site was targeted in large scale police raids twice and was the subject of a criminal prosecution in Sweden that landed several of its co-founders in prison .

Pirate Bay’s Backup Domains

The site also faced several domain name issues. In 2012 it switched from its original ThePiratebay.org name to ThePiratebay.se , fearing that the former would be seized by US authorities. Later on, when the .se domain was threatened , it rotated across several other domains in search of a safe haven.

That safe haven turned out to be the original ThePiratebay.org domain from which it still operates today.

Over the years the Pirate Bay team had many ‘backup’ domains available, just in case something happened. That included various exotic TLDs but the site also owned Piratebay.org and ThePiratebay.com. We use the past tense because both domains expired recently.

The domains listed Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij as the registrant and until recently the same Swedish address was listed in Whois data. For reasons unknown, however, the registrant let both Piratebay.org and ThePiratebay.com expire.

This isn’t a problem for the torrent site really. The domains were never used as the site’s main address. ThePiratebay.com did forward to the original .org domain at one point, but that’s about it.

Piratebay.org Auctioned for $50,000

None of this means that the domains are not valuable to outsiders though. This became apparent in an auction yesterday, where Piratebay.org (without the the ) was sold for $50,000 to a bidder named ‘clvrfls’. The bid below ended up being the winning one.

The Piratebay.org domain failed to renew earlier this month after which the professional ‘ drop catch ‘ service Dropcatch.com scooped it up. They auctioned the domain off, which is a common practice, and it proved quite lucrative.

Domain trader and investor Raymond Hackney, who highlighted the auction at The Domains , tells us that the price itself is not unusual but for this particular domain, it seems on the high end.

“The price seems high for a traditional domain investor given the history of the name. Names sell for big money everyday due to a number of factors, sometimes it’s due to what some see as SEO factors like high domain authority and backlinks.”

This view is shared by domain trader David Marshall, who joined yesterday’s auction but stopped bidding after the price went above his valuation.

“I didn’t think it would go that high and don’t believe it’s worth this much,” Marshall tells us, adding that he planned to monetize the Piratebay.org through legitimate advertising feeds, as he does with many other piracy-related domains.

According to Marshall, auctions of high-quality Pirate Bay domains are very rare, as he waited for years for a chance like this. That may in part explain the high price.

How Will ThePiratebay.org be Used?

What the new owner will do with the domain is unclear. It has a substantial number of backlinks and there will be plenty of type-in traffic as well. This makes it well-suited to monetize with an advertising feed, but how much that will bring in is uncertain.

For now, visitors to the site simply see a standard parked page message, indicating that something is “coming soon.”

The new owner could also run a Pirate Bay proxy on the domain. This can be easily monetized as well and may attract a lot of traffic. However, that opens the door to all sorts of legal problems and could also get the domain banned from high-quality advertising feeds.

The bidders who lost yesterday’s auction will get another chance soon. ThePiratebay.com is expected to drop later this week and is listed at a pending delete auction , and ThePiratebay.net and Piratebay.net will drop in a few days as well.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The Pirate Bay is blocked in dozens of countries around the world. In most cases, ISPs are ordered to take action after a relatively short court proceeding.

In the Netherlands, however, the process took more than a decade , and it’s still not completely over yet.

ISPs Have to Block The Pirate Bay

A few weeks ago the Amsterdam Court ruled in favor of anti-piracy group BREIN , ordering local ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL to block The Pirate Bay. This order confirmed an earlier verdict, which made detours all the way to the European Court of Justice and the Dutch Supreme Court.

In recent years The Pirate Bay has been blocked by ISPs due to a preliminary injunction. This injunction also required the companies to add new domains along the way, including proxy and mirror sites. According to BREIN, the measures significantly reduced traffic to the popular pirate site.

With the victory at the Amsterdam Court in June, the blocking measures became final. That’s important, as it opens the door for blocking requests against other sites. However, BREIN didn’t get everything it wanted.

Proxies Are Not Mentioned in the Ruling

The court reinstated the original verdict from the lower court, which was issued in 2012. While that indeed requires the ISPs to block The Pirate Bay, it doesn’t mention any proxies and mirrors. BREIN requested these to be added, but the court viewed this as a separate matter.

In theory, this means that Ziggo and XS4ALL were free to unblock dozens of domains again and face another legal fight over the proxies. Initially, it wasn’t clear if that would happen, but we can now confirm that this is indeed the case.

ISPs Unblock Pirate Bay Proxies

In the weeks following the court’s judgment, the ISPs started to unblock dozens of Pirate Bay proxy domains. This is also apparent from XS4ALL’s blocking page , which shows that only thepiratebay.org remains inaccessible.

The ISPs are completely within their rights to unblock these domains. After all, the standing order doesn’t mention any proxies.

However, this also means that they will be back in court soon. In fact, BREIN has already taken action to have Pirate Bay proxies and mirrors blocked by launching a new proceeding.

We reached out to Ziggo and XS4All to ask why they chose to lift the blocks, but the companies refrained from commenting while the new legal proceeding is underway.

Shenanigans

BREIN director Tim Kuik, meanwhile, characterizes the ISPs’ decision to unblock the sites as “shenanigans” and “downright silly.” A decision that he believes will only cost the companies more money.

The court previously ordered other Dutch ISPs to block proxy sites as well and BREIN believes that it will obtain a similar order against Ziggo and XS4ALL in the near future.

“It is clear effective blocking must include proxies and mirrors, the appeal court said so, and the refusal of Ziggo and KPN/XS4ALL to conform to the standing order against the other ISPs is downright silly,” Kuik tells TorrentFreak.

“We are getting a separate order now and are claiming full costs because of these shenanigans that cause harm to injured right holders,” he adds.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.