
Ask HN: Why can thepiratebay's URLs be used for redirecting but not hosting? - aerovistae
The torrent-hosting site thepiratebay is constantly changing TLDs. Right now it&#x27;s thepiratebay10.org, but its previous URL at thepiratebay.rocks still redirects to the new one.<p>How can it be that the .rocks url needed to be moved on from, but can still be used for forwarding? I don&#x27;t understand how the game works. I would have thought that if it had been seized, they wouldn&#x27;t be able to use it at all. And if it hadn&#x27;t been seized, why move on and forward to another one?
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robbya
That's a hard question because it involves the laws of several different
countries. There probably isn't a single answer.

Part of it likely relates to indirection. Hosting illegal content, vs linking
to illegal content, vs redirecting to a site that links to illegal content are
all increasing levels of indirection.

A country may wish to take down illegally hosted content, but not want to take
down indirect links.

