Pirate Bay signs up to file sharing research study
Swedish file sharing website The Pirate Bay has agreed to participate with researchers at Lund University in a major survey of the habits and norms of those using the popular website.
"Understanding online norms and values is essential to developing relevant and effective laws and policies. The purpose of this survey is to help researchers to better understand habits and norms within the file-sharing community," a statement introducing the survey stated.
Visitors to The Pirate Bay, renamed on Monday as "The Research Bay" are invited to click on a modified logo of the famous galleon logo to enter the survey.
The survey was launched on Monday and will remain open for three days and has been designed by the Cybernorms research group at Lund University in southern Sweden.
The Pirate Bay has issued a statement on its blog urging users to participate in the name of science.
"This may be the time when YOU can tell the world about the real mind of the torrent community," the statement read.
The website also takes lengths to reassure users that no IP addresses nor other personal data will be collected for the survey.
"The privacy of our users is our number one priority."
The Local reported in March that The Pirate Bay was named on a US government list of the world's top marketplaces for pirated and counterfeit goods.
In addition to The Pirate Bay, a slew of other BitTorrent sites -- which permit speedy downloads of large files like music, videos and books -- were named, including IsoHunt of Canada, Russia-based Rutracker, Ukraine's Demenoid, and Publicbt.
The Pirate Bay recently ranked among the top 100 websites in both global and US traffic, according to the report, which also pointed out that the site had been the subject of a "notable criminal prosecution" in Sweden.
In April 2009, a Stockholm court convicted the four men behind The Pirate Bay - Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Carl Lundström and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg - of facilitating copyright violations.
Each man was sentenced to one year in prison. They were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million kronor ($4.7 million) in damages.
Following a ruling by an appeals court in November 2010, from which Svartholm Warg was absent due to illness, the three remaining men had their prison sentences reduced, although the collective fine was bumped up to 46 million kronor.
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"Understanding online norms and values is essential to developing relevant and effective laws and policies. The purpose of this survey is to help researchers to better understand habits and norms within the file-sharing community," a statement introducing the survey stated.
Visitors to The Pirate Bay, renamed on Monday as "The Research Bay" are invited to click on a modified logo of the famous galleon logo to enter the survey.
The survey was launched on Monday and will remain open for three days and has been designed by the Cybernorms research group at Lund University in southern Sweden.
The Pirate Bay has issued a statement on its blog urging users to participate in the name of science.
"This may be the time when YOU can tell the world about the real mind of the torrent community," the statement read.
The website also takes lengths to reassure users that no IP addresses nor other personal data will be collected for the survey.
"The privacy of our users is our number one priority."
The Local reported in March that The Pirate Bay was named on a US government list of the world's top marketplaces for pirated and counterfeit goods.
In addition to The Pirate Bay, a slew of other BitTorrent sites -- which permit speedy downloads of large files like music, videos and books -- were named, including IsoHunt of Canada, Russia-based Rutracker, Ukraine's Demenoid, and Publicbt.
The Pirate Bay recently ranked among the top 100 websites in both global and US traffic, according to the report, which also pointed out that the site had been the subject of a "notable criminal prosecution" in Sweden.
In April 2009, a Stockholm court convicted the four men behind The Pirate Bay - Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Carl Lundström and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg - of facilitating copyright violations.
Each man was sentenced to one year in prison. They were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million kronor ($4.7 million) in damages.
Following a ruling by an appeals court in November 2010, from which Svartholm Warg was absent due to illness, the three remaining men had their prison sentences reduced, although the collective fine was bumped up to 46 million kronor.
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