
The Pirate Bay is now hosted in North Korea - tty
https://thepiratebay.se/blog/229
======
Wilya
So.

A traceroute to thepiratebay.se is kind of amusing.

From my home (Sweden), the packets seem to go to Frankfurt, then New York,
take a link via an ip which reverses to intelsatone.net to a cambodgian ip
(500ms latency right here), then reach the ip 175.45.177.217, assigned to Star
Joint Venture Co Ltd. Who seem to be a legitimate North Korea internet
provider (or, well, as legitimate as it gets, coming from North Korea). The
rest of the traceroute doesn't ping back (edit: 6 hops, which could stay in
NK, or lead you back anywhere in the world).

If it's a joke, it's a very elaborate one.

~~~
willscott
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ICMP responses are forged - It seems
disadvantageous for the site to have such a long path, since each hop has the
potential for attack.

<http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/fakeroute/> can be seen as previous work
that it is practical to do something like this.

~~~
blumentopf
No it's not forged as can be seen from the AS path in the global routing
table.

~~~
elsewhere
Yes, it is forged, as explained by tuomasb.

Furthermore, a round trip time less than about 60 ms between Europe and North
Korea is impossible, assuming the data is traveling at the speed of light. And
we measured much less than that.

------
binarymax
This makes me upset. Its upsetting because while yes, information freedom is a
very important topic and needs to happen, but it does not trump human freedom.
I'm not sure if this is a straw man or not - but how can they justify working
with an entity that has such a horrid human rights record?

~~~
fleitz
Yes, definitely, we should not stand by while companies host their content in
countries known to use torture to extract information, hold prisoners with out
trial, hold prisoners with out charge, allow their leaders to execute citizens
summarily, execute minors and the mentally retarded, incarcerate people at a
rate higher than any other country on earth merely in order to serve as slave
labour for the state and state sponsored corporations.

Even worse is many of the citizens of this 'republic' have been brainwashed by
a compulsory education system that they actually live in a democratic
republic.

~~~
powertower
If you think you can legitimately compare the living conditions, political
environment, and human suffering in North Korea that with the USA, you might
have also brainwashed yourself (it happens when you take everything you have
for granted).

In NK you'd be lucky to get 1 meal a day. Over here poor people are morbidly
fat.

And at the end of the day, you're not a prisoner, if you hate it here so much,
you can leave this country any day you want to. But can't say the same for
people in NK.

~~~
fleitz
How is it that you think I was talking about a country other than NK? Is there
a country other than NK with such a piss poor human rights record?

Generally when someone murders one person we regard them as a horrid
individual we don't say their not that bad because they only killed 1 instead
of 10 like that Ted Bundy guy.

I didn't say I was living in a police state, the country I live in hasn't
executed anyone in 40 years, and we certainly didn't think it was a big deal
to destroy our nuclear weapons arsenal, stop stockpiling nuclear weapons, or
ban landmines. I simply said we should stop hosting websites in countries with
numerous years of history of horrid human rights abuse. Imagine living in a
country where as recently at 1960 that certain classes of people were
forbidden from eating lunch with other classes of people.

I find your definition of police state interesting, would you say that NK
would stop being a police state with different emigration policies?

~~~
youngerdryas
And what country are you from?

Edit: Oh I get it, if you you don't say what country you can pretend they are
perfect. Brilliant.

~~~
anonymfus
> the country I live in hasn't executed anyone in 40 years, and we certainly
> didn't think it was a big deal to destroy our nuclear weapons arsenal, stop
> stockpiling nuclear weapons, or ban landmines.

From all countries with nuclear weapon 40 years without death penalty match
only UK.

~~~
vonmoltke
Except the UK is nowhere near destroying their arsenal; in fact, they are
trying to figure out how to replace their current missile boats. The country
described by that line does not actually exist.

------
newishuser
The Pirate Bay is not concerned with your judgment. The Pirate Bay is
concerned with making socio-political statements and providing access to their
site, seemingly in that order. Discomfort with the situation is exactly what
they are going for.

It should make you uneasy that they have to go to North Korea to keep the site
online. While they are not martyrs for an easy to grasp cause, and their
definition of 'free speech' may fly in the face of yours, they are doing their
absolute best to keep alive what they think is important. This has recently
resulted in much irony. Irony that I'm sure they're proud of.

You should hate this. That's the point. This wasn't done so people could keep
downloading movies illegally, this was done to make a statement, to get you to
think. So please, ice your knee, and think.

~~~
InclinedPlane
It's a joke. THAT'S the point.

------
tuomasb
fale@machine:~$ tcptraceroute -f 128 -m 128 thepiratebay.se Selected device
venet0, address 5.9.249.8, port 40771 for outgoing packets Tracing the path to
thepiratebay.se (194.71.107.15) on TCP port 80 (www), 128 hops max 128
thepiratebay.org (194.71.107.15) [open] 51.673 ms 49.002 ms 47.187 ms

That server is in Germany, no way it's possible to have 50ms to NK. Also
traditional traceroute has 500ms+ RTT.

They are faking/spoofing the ICMP responses. They are also prepending their
route advertisement with corresponding AS paths to further disguise it.

From TeliaSonera looking glass <http://lg.telia.net/>

194.71.107.0/24 *[BGP/170] 02:10:36, MED 0, localpref 150, from 80.91.255.255
AS path: 2914 39138 22351 131279 51040 I

AS39138 is probably the real upstream provider of TBP. They peer with
AS51040(TPB network) and TPB router prepends AS22351(Intelsat) and
AS131279(North Korean ISP) into it's AS Path before advertising it to AS39138.

~~~
bonyt
Yeah, and why is AS39138 in /all/ the AS paths I tried on that site, when
there other ways to AS22351

~~~
tuomasb
Exactly. Here is a collection of route-servers and looking glasses which tell
you what path a route from ISP x to IP y will take.
<http://www.bgp4.as/looking-glasses> You will see that every single route to
194.71.107.0/24 will travel through AS39138.

------
notahacker
Well it's nice to know that "one of the most important movements in Sweden for
freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship" wouldn't let
concerns over something as insignificant as totalitarianism deter them from
"forming a special bond" with a state to distribute warez.

~~~
chimeracoder
They acknowledge the irony in their own post - the only way that they can
promote freedom of speech is by forming a partnership with the least free
country in the world, _not_ by forming an alliance with the supposedly 'free'
countries in Western Europe/North America.

In other words, the Western countries' belief in 'freedom of speech' is
starting to seem as shallow as the word 'Democratic' in the 'Democratic
People's Republic of Korea'.

~~~
readme
Piracy is not freedom of speech. It is the copying and syndication of the
intellectual works of others. I suspect more HNers would be upset about
piracy, if they weren't using SaaS business models which are not as vulnerable
to it.

It's really easy to brush off the fact that hundreds of people worked to make
that movie you downloaded for free, especially when you never have to look any
one of them in the eye.

These days with things like netflix, itunes, and amazon prime, the only excuse
one can make for participating in piracy is destitution. I totally understand
those who wouldn't have been able to acquire the goods anyway doing so by
using the pirate bay and other services. In this sense, they're kind of a
decentralized information welfare program. Most countries have this already,
and it's called a library. Too bad most libraries haven't caught up with the
information age yet. So the piracy services have been filling a very important
spot.

I'd strongly urge everyone not to use the pirate bay. North Korea is an
oppressive country that would nuke the US in a heartbeat.

It makes me sick that so many people idolize these guys.

Before you rationalize your piracy in response to my post, please sound out
the word: "rational" "lies"

~~~
Nursie
"Piracy is not freedom of speech."

Of course it is. It's the free exchange of information. If you don't support
piracy you don't support absolute free speech.

For the record, I do not support absolute free unrestricted speech as it
applies to exchange of (for instance) child pornography. I am happy to admit
this.

~~~
pms
Perhaps, "free speech" is the best term to use here. I think you refer to free
culture, and/or free knowledge.

~~~
Nursie
Is the transmission of information (1s and 0s) from one person to another not
'speech'? Would it be a free speech issue if a picture or movie was censored?

I don't know. I do know I've been berated as anti freedom of speech when I've
explained my ethical issues with (me personally) running darknet nodes,
because I'm unwilling to let CP be transmitted over my resources.

------
freyr
I expected more from HN than this knee-jerk support for TPB due to its self-
promulgated association with "freedom of information." Freedom of information,
in the specific context of The Pirate Bay, means denying content authors the
freedom to choose channels of distribution for their work. It means
repackaging content, giving it away "for free," while raking in advertising
revenue. It means diverting money away from the entire chain of content
creators (e.g., writers, actors, directors, extras, special effects artists),
marketers, distributors, etc., and solely into the pockets of TPB's operators.

It's OK to support freedom of information, and also recognize TPB for what it
really is.

~~~
mich41
Why should authors and not "consumers" (man, how I hate this word) choose
distribution channels?

~~~
freyr
When the author chooses the distribution channel, the channel is essentially
part of the asking price. People are then free to gauge whether or not the
asking price is too high, and opt not to buy. Ultimately, the choice of
distribution channel becomes determined by both parties, the buyers and
sellers, by agreeing on a price.

On the other hand, if the consumers collectively decide to subvert this
process and set the price at zero, where does that leave the author? Their
message is "I'm going to take your work and pay you nothing for it. Get back
to us when you can offer us a better deal than something for nothing."

Which option seems like a better system to you? Technology has made taking
content and paying nothing for it a frictionless transaction. Many people here
seem to believe that since technology has enabled it, or made it so easy, or
made it so difficult to regulate, it therefore must be a natural right that
we've had all along, but can only now fully enjoy due to the miracles of
modern technology.

If some group on the supply side gains a monopoly, the government in theory
steps in and regulates to protect the consumer from price gouging. This notion
appeals to us, that when one party in the holds all the cards, they shouldn't
use exploit that power to price gouge. Yet when the consumers suddenly hold
all the cards, we turn a blind eye to imbalance in power.

I'm not saying that movie studios and record labels should be protected so
that they can cling to old distribution methods. But expecting authors, or
anyone on the supply side, to offer a price as good as free is not a
reasonable expectation.

------
johnward
Nuke tests haven't caused us to invade North Korean but if this happens the
MPAA could get it done.

~~~
rikacomet
as strange that may sound, it might become true.

------
Zoepfli
If North Korea really is involved in this (and the traceroutes seem to
indicate it is), let's turn the irony up a notch and turn the spotlight on a
few North-Korea-critical torrents - now served through the very censor-happy
country that is getting criticized:

Children of the Secret State - North Korea
<https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6441601/>

Inside - Undercover in North Korea <https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6136295/>

Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea
<https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6899842/>

The Vice Guide to North Korea <https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5378291/>

National Geographic Explorer ~ Inside North Korea
<https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6110419/>

It will be interesting to see how serious their new overlord is about that
"freedom of speech thing". My guess is that sooner or later, some of those
films will suddenly vanish from the site.

------
ChuckMcM
This is a pretty interesting bit of gamesmanship. In a single stroke it ties
together what is perhaps the greatest threat to global stability today (PRK)
and where is perhaps the most ridiculous non-threat to global stability
(pirated movies) and sets them as equals.

By doing that, it illustrates just how ridiculous the current copyright
situation is.

Nicely played Piratebay, nicely played.

~~~
notahacker
Of course the other way of looking at it is that the creators of TPB think
that threats to their freedom to profit from placing advertisements around
links to copyrighted material trump the threats to the freedom of the North
Korean people. A lack of PR perspective so perverse it almost makes the RIAA
and MPAA look like the good guys.

------
runn1ng
>by Kim Jung-Bay

Of course it's serious.

edit: I thought it's a joke... but the traceroute trully ends in North Korea
with the 175.45.177.217 IP.

So ... maybe it's actualy legit.

I don't know what to trust anymore.

------
eli
Sure, just like the airborne Raspberry Pi drone servers.

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/pirate-bay-
plans-...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/pirate-bay-plans-to-
build-aerial-server-drones-with-35-linux-computer/)

~~~
InclinedPlane
Did HN just turn stupid? I can only shake my head.

The idea that it would even be feasible for TPB to host in North Korea is
ridiculous. The fact that they already have a history of pranks about their
hosting should be a big clue.

------
benwerd
Absolutely uncool. No matter what you think about current IP law - and let's
face it, it's a bag of worms - getting into bed with North Korea is
inexcusable. On top of everything else, and here "everything" means
institutional murder and oppression, it kind of suggests a lack of morality on
TPB's part.

------
gee_totes
Sergey Brin, Dennis Rodman, and now the Pirate Bay? This is the weirdest PR
campaign ever

~~~
mayank
Eric Schmidt, not Sergey Brin.

------
kyllo
>"...we have been invited by the leader of the republic of Korea..."

That's the wrong one, though.

Republic of Korea = South

Democratic People's Republic of Korea = North

~~~
chimeracoder
Is it possible that people in the DPRK refer to themselves as the 'Republic of
Korea' in an attempt to deny/disqualify the existence of any other 'Republic
of Korea'? (ie, 'The one true Republic of Korea' or something like that).

~~~
astrodust
Why do communist countries insist on calling themselves "democratic"? If
you're such a firm believer in that philosophy, why not have some pride?

~~~
Cushman
Communism and democracy are orthogonal. Your question is why _dictators_
represent themselves as democracies, but I don't think that's a very complex
question; it's propaganda 101.

~~~
_delirium
For a while it was even visible on both sides of the Korean peninsula: a left-
wing military dictatorship in the North referred to themselves as the
"Democratic People's Republic of Korea", while a right-wing military
dictatorship in the South referred to themselves as the "Republic of Korea".
Neither country actually operated as a republic, but both seemed to like the
term (and did have some superficial trappings of a republic, like
legislatures). The South is now an actual Republic, though, since around 1987.

Similar situation for some years in the Taiwan Strait, where the not-a-
republic People's Republic of China faced down the also-not-a-republic
Republic of China (Taiwan).

~~~
kyllo
Right. It's kind of seen as a "given" now that South Korea and Taiwan are the
democratic, American-friendly, "good guys" and the DPRK and PRC are the
authoritarian, oppressive "bad guys," but back in the '60s through the '80s
before the ROK and ROC democratized, the situation was much murkier. Because
of the Cold War, those regimes were considered allies solely by virtue of not
being Communists, but they were also very unfree. Perhaps the winding down of
the Cold War had something to do with their falling out of power and being
replaced by democracies.

------
WhoIsSatoshi
I don't like it. Putting the web's biggest P2P website in the hands of one of
the most authoritative dictatorial regime - what could go wrong? Security
issues anyone? Seems fishy at best, and if true it is counter productive: it
will not reflect well on TPB...

~~~
popee
Same as with Gerard Depardieu. He/they made choice not to be in one kind of
dictatorship so they escaped to other. So it seems like pretty subjective
stuff (personally i think it's wrong), but it's their choice so who cares. Why
do you care?

Here is what they think:

"This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world,
and our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of
America, a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high.
At the same time, companies from that country is chasing a competitor from
other countries, bribing police and lawmakers, threatening political parties
and physically hunting people from our crew. And to our help comes a
government famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their
thoughts and forbidding access to information."

Is this false?

------
endianswap
I'm sorry, but is this a joke? Or were they seriously offered server space in
North Korea as some sort of political/PR thing?

~~~
johndoeee
The route goes to NK

traceroute thepiratebay.se output:

    
    
      12  INTELSAT-IN.car1.NewYork1.Level3.net (64.156.82.14)  127.129 ms  121.898 ms  121.857 ms
      13  209.159.170.215 (209.159.170.215)  214.763 ms  196.291 ms  210.602 ms
      14  202.72.96.6 (202.72.96.6)  697.258 ms  711.336 ms  693.061 ms
      15  175.45.177.217 (175.45.177.217)  696.368 ms  699.046 ms  702.013 ms
    
    

175.45.177.217 Seems to be an actual IP in NK[0]

[0] <http://bgp.he.net/AS131279>

~~~
kintamanimatt
I get a German IP, 194.71.107.15 and the tracepath results take the route
nowhere near Asia.

~~~
cynwoody
From a Verizon FiOS connection in Massachusetts, I get:

    
    
        $ traceroute thepiratebay.se
        traceroute to thepiratebay.se (194.71.107.15), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
        ... snip ...
         3  ae0-0.bos-bb-rtr2.verizon-gni.net (130.81.209.94)  4.940 ms  3.924 ms  4.962 ms
         4  0.xe-8-0-0.br3.nyc4.alter.net (152.63.23.241)  13.551 ms  15.600 ms  14.553 ms
         5  204.255.169.234 (204.255.169.234)  14.996 ms  13.661 ms  15.424 ms
         6  ae-2.r23.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.148)  14.953 ms  16.048 ms  14.726 ms
         7  ae-6.r21.frnkge03.de.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.181)  109.988 ms  106.394 ms  107.488 ms
         8  ae-1.r02.frnkge03.de.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.163)  105.110 ms  108.378 ms  104.977 ms
         9  xe-3-2.r00.dsdfge02.de.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.61)  129.906 ms  141.522 ms  141.731 ms
        10  213.198.77.122 (213.198.77.122)  105.035 ms  104.582 ms  105.151 ms
        11  * * *
        12  * xe-0-1-0-3.r02.frnkge03.de.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.5.62)  143.231 ms *
        13  xe-0.level3.frnkge03.de.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.8.202)  161.436 ms  125.598 ms  159.774 ms
        14  * vlan90.csw4.frankfurt1.level3.net (4.69.154.254)  262.171 ms  270.225 ms
        15  ae-82-82.ebr2.frankfurt1.level3.net (4.69.140.25)  197.361 ms  214.021 ms  272.423 ms
        16  ae-61-61.csw1.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.134.66)  219.914 ms  244.709 ms  214.996 ms
        17  ae-21-70.car1.newyork1.level3.net (4.69.155.67)  232.323 ms *  203.640 ms
        18  intelsat-in.car1.newyork1.level3.net (64.156.82.14)  319.879 ms *  219.131 ms
        19  rvs-rt0003_fe-0-0 .intelsatone.net (209.159.170.215)  289.920 ms  357.010 ms  332.387 ms
        20  202.72.96.6 (202.72.96.6)  832.528 ms  844.070 ms *
        21  175.45.177.217 (175.45.177.217)  797.110 ms  839.233 ms  859.813 ms
        ... snip ...
        40  * *^C
        $ whois 175.45.177.217
        ... snip ...
        inetnum:        175.45.176.0 - 175.45.179.255
        netname:        STAR-KP
        descr:          Ryugyong-dong
        descr:          Potong-gang District
        country:        KP
        admin-c:        SJVC1-AP
        tech-c:         SJVC1-AP
        status:         ALLOCATED PORTABLE
        mnt-by:         APNIC-HM
        mnt-lower:      MAINT-STAR-KP
        mnt-routes:     MAINT-STAR-KP
        remarks:        -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
        remarks:        This object can only be updated by APNIC hostmasters.
        remarks:        To update this object, please contact APNIC
        remarks:        hostmasters and include your organisation's account
        remarks:        name in the subject line.
        remarks:        -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
        changed:        hm-changed@apnic.net 20091221
        source:         APNIC
        
        role:           STAR JOINT VENTURE CO LTD - network administrat
        address:        Ryugyong-dong Potong-gang District
        country:        KP
        phone:          +66 81 208 7602
        fax-no:         +66 2 240 3180
        e-mail:         sahayod@loxley.co.th
        admin-c:        SJVC1-AP
        tech-c:         SJVC1-AP
        nic-hdl:        SJVC1-AP
        mnt-by:         MAINT-STAR-KP
        changed:        hm-changed@apnic.net 20091214
        source:         APNIC
        $
    

KP is North Korea. And their IP, 194.71.107.15, is indeed German. And
telephone country code 66 is Thailand.

Edit: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_North_Korea>

~~~
kintamanimatt
Hmm, tracepath and traceroute give me differing results. With traceroute the
last hop I get is 202.72.96.6 which is apparently Cambodia. traceroute takes
me from London to Germany to New York to Cambodia. It's a strange route.

------
iy56
Can anyone repost the text here for those of use whose work filters block tpb?

~~~
picklefish
PRESS RELEASE, NEW PROVIDER FOR TPB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 3 MARCH 102, 평양 (PYONGYANG).

The Pirate Bay has been hunted in many countries around the world. Not for
illegal activities but being persecuted for beliefs of freedom of information.
Today, a new chapter is written in the history of the movement, as well as the
history of the internets.

A week ago we could reveal that The Pirate Bay was accessed via Norway and
Catalonya. The move was to ensure that these countries and regions will get
attention to the issues at hand. Today we can reveal that we have been invited
by the leader of the republic of Korea, to fight our battles from their
network.

This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world, and
our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of America,
a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high. At the
same time, companies from that country is chasing a competitor from other
countries, bribing police and lawmakers, threatening political parties and
physically hunting people from our crew. And to our help comes a government
famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their thoughts and
forbidding access to information.

We believe that being offered our virtual asylum in Korea is a first step of
this country's changing view of access to information. It's a country opening
up and one thing is sure, they do not care about threats like others do. In
that way, TPB and Korea might have a special bond. We will do our best to
influence the Korean leaders to also let their own population use our service,
and to make sure that we can help improve the situation in any way we can.
When someone is reaching out to make things better, it's also ones duty to
grab their hand.

Posted 24 mins ago by Kim Jung-Bay

~~~
freyr
"...being persecuted for beliefs of freedom of information."

Seriously?

The Pirate Bay's "freedom of information" posturing is a complete farce. The
site exists for the sole purpose of making money for its operators. Messages
like this one, whether satire or not, expose the site for what it is. It makes
money by ripping content from the distribution channels chosen by the content
authors, repackaging it, and giving it away for free while raking in
advertising dollars. In the process, they deny content authors the freedom to
select channel of distribution that will allow them to be compensated for
their work.

Technology has paved the way for improved means of distributing content, but
this is not it.

The only upside of TPB is that it will disrupt the existing content delivery
chain enough to force some innovation in a space dominated by a few very large
and very stagnant players.

~~~
burntsushi
> In the process, they deny content authors the freedom to select channel of
> distribution that will allow them to be compensated for their work.

Pre-supposing one supports intellectual property.

------
downandout
Hosting a site already hated by US authorities in a country that the US
considers to be an enemy is probably not the best idea. My guess is that a US
Senator or Congressman is somewhere right now drafting a bill that would
prohibit US internet providers from providing access to sites hosted in North
Korea.

~~~
romnempire
hey, they could probably buy the implementation from iran!

~~~
Joyfield
Why? They sold it to them.... (Ok, Nokia did....)

------
dsl
EDIT: My previous comment was totally wrong. This is legit. The Pirate Bay
(AS51040) is announcing routes via Ryugyong-dong (AS131279)

~~~
tuomasb
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5319720> AS Paths can be modified
pretty easily [http://blog.ioshints.info/2008/02/bgp-essentials-as-path-
pre...](http://blog.ioshints.info/2008/02/bgp-essentials-as-path-
prepending.html)

------
dewey
According to this blogpost [https://rdns.im/the-pirate-bay-north-korean-
hosting-no-its-f...](https://rdns.im/the-pirate-bay-north-korean-hosting-no-
its-fake) it's not really hosted in NK.

------
olenhad
The irony here is just too much to swallow. Of all possible places, a party
campaigning for greater freedoms ends up in NORTH KOREA. I used be proud of
defending tpb. Now I'm really not sure.

------
millerc
Stupid move, so much that words fail me. "Korea" (as they call themselves,
they don't acknowledge the autonomy of the South) has been looking for months
for investors to replenish their economy in the face of mounting sanctions.
TPB is giving them exactly what they need to become a greater menace to the
region.

------
VMG
> The Pirate Bay has been hunted in many countries around the world. Not for
> illegal activities but being persecuted for beliefs of freedom of
> information.

How noble. Good thing that they found refuge in the country that basically is
one big concentration camp. Can't make this stuff up.

------
pdeuchler
Holy Crap. This is... unprecedented.

So North Korea will now have access to the entire Western World's culture
catalog? For Free?! I wonder how Kim Jong Un will exploit that.

And now anyone who downloads a torrent from TPB has potentially been
compromised? Or is that alarmist?

~~~
corresation
_So North Korea will now have access to the entire Western World's culture
catalog?_

Understand the difference between the torrent file and the actual data and all
shall be revealed.

~~~
pdeuchler
Does having access to the torrent file not give you access to the actual data?

~~~
corresation
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent_file>

I suppose it gives access in the same way that North Korea visiting Pirate Bay
gave them access before. There is a widespread belief that Pirate Bay is some
giant repository of a bunch of pirate content, and it simply isn't true. Well,
it's true that it's content that aids pirates in finding and downloading that
content, but pirate bay itself is quite lightweight.

~~~
pdeuchler
I understand the difference. I was just assuming that since NK invited TPB
they were planning on using it within NK. It also makes sense that if you were
planning on downloading a large collection of torrents you would want the best
possible access to those torrent files, as opposed to crawling for links.

~~~
corresation
Ah okay I understand. I don't think this has anything to do with access inside
North Korea however, and if it is actually hosted in North Korea it is likely
done purely as a middle-finger to the West, not as some sincere support for
filesharing or anything like that.

------
ffk
This is probably a practical application of what we saw earlier with the star
wars traceroute.

Trace 216.81.59.173 to see the effect if you haven't seen it already.

------
niggler
This is hilarious if true (nslookup points to 194.71.107.15 in germany, so I
have my doubts). Hopefully (and this is really idealistic of me, because I
suspect the reaction will be entirely negative) this opens up a larger
conversation on internet freedoms in an absurd way beyond SOPA/CISPA/whatever
internet freedom-stripping bill-of-the-day is debated on capitol hill.

------
xutopia
Isn't it one month early for April fools? Oh wait...

Seriously this is mind boggling! I can't believe it has come to that!

~~~
geoka9
It is, isn't it? UK is a first world country. They've blocked TPB. NK is an
oppressive regime. They've blocked everything.

I guess that's the modern difference between "rogue" and "first world" as far
as censorship goes. The former block because of threats to the political
regime. The latter because of threats to corporate profits.

------
INTPenis
Yeah, well, good luck with that.

We have a client in a chinese data center where they would just turn off the
power randomly because the government said so.

Not to mention the unscheduled blackouts.

------
djcapelis
Does NK have enough bandwidth for something like this? They just have one
terrestrial link from PRC, right?

------
Surio
Just. Feeling. Surreal.

But, the irony of the _Politics makes strange bedfellows_ does not seem lost
on them.

------
systematical
Ironic that no one in the country pirate bay is now hosted will be able to
access its contents. The free world has to go to the totalitarian world to
access data and the totalitarian world have have to come to the free world to
access the data.

------
kragen
Do you really want North Korea to know exactly which copyrights you've
violated and which banned books you've read? I mean, your torrent client sends
that information to the tracker. (But then, it also sends it to other peers.)

------
mateo42
I know it's TPB so I should have known this, but beware of this link at the
office. If you don't have a good ad-blocker installed it will throw up some
non-HR friendly popups!

------
yankoff
Someone send them this story
<http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2007-09-atbirth.htm>.

------
malkia
Prophecy fulfilled :)

<http://openclipart.org/people/worker/1325935795.svg>

------
acheron
Well, I can certainly point to this article next time someone tries to tell me
how awesome the HN comment section is.

------
iamjoshuascott
What's really ironic is that a lot of the content hosted on the Pirate Bay is
banned in North Korea.

------
combataircraft
Apparently North Korea has more information freedom than rest of the world.

~~~
arthulia
unless you live there.

------
arianvanp
And they're down again!

------
loeg
Mirror, anyone? I can't get to it on Comcast.

------
harrisonpowers
Was this Dennis Rodman's idea?

------
friscofoodie
This is so fantastic.

------
jordanbaucke
the enemy of my enemy is my friend

------
PaulHoule
the site isn'r working for me...

~~~
majke
Most likely your ISP is censoring you.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18833060>

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7770456.stm>

------
youngerdryas
Posts like this show that however smart we generally believe HN users to be,
on some fronts it is a bag full of stupid.

------
wilfra
I realize this is propaganda but it's working on me. I'm starting to like Kim
Jong-Un. First Eric Schmidt, then Dennis Rodman and now TPB. If these are the
kinds of friends he wants to make, I'm a fan.

This is a masterful 'fuck you' to the establishment and at the same time an
olive branch to the internet generation all over the World. The people who
will be running the World in 20, 30, 40 years - when he is still in power.

~~~
wilfra
The only two things I dislike about HN:

-It's a crapshoot or manipulation game to hit the front page

-People downvote logical arguments they simply disagree with

------
rikacomet
My first reaction: GET OUTTA HERE!! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!

but oh well, I have a wiggly feeling in my mouth each time I read this, I
don't know, whether this is funny or world changing or ironic or god knows
what. The internet has melted a new barrier.

Cheers to THE BAY!

