[droopyEyelids]

I think TPB specifically might save money:

1) Hardware seizure expenses vs LEOs duplicating the hdd of a virt.

2) TPB needs to locate in disparate jurisdictions to take advantages of different legal situations. That would involve a ton of shipping costs, probably more lost hardware, and paying for remote hands

3) They had been paying a premium for 'bulletproof' hosting.

[tacotime]

For real, their dedicated hosting costs are most likely not going to be at all comparable to the ones most people commonly get quoted. Hosting costs go up when your host runs out of a former Cold War bunker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyberBunker

[fooyc]

You need CyberBunker if you need your host to protect you.

If you have 20 servers in 20 different providers, who don't know who they are hosting, you don't need this.

[fooyc]

Renting a dedicated server doesn't involve any of this.

There are dedicated server providers in every part of the world, including MPAA-proof countries.

[no_future]

There are almost no MPAA-proof countries, its pretty hard to hide from billion dollar companies with lobbyists and legal teams who are effectively above the law/make the laws. Countries that do ignore international copyright laws(Russia, China, Iran, pretty much any South American country) are usually very expensive to get a dedicated server in and have unreliable networks and piss-poor speeds. On top of that they have their own set of content laws(Russia and China censor anything that they perceive as against their government and jail/execute those who create and facilitate its distribution, good luck hosting anything in a muslim country that opposes Islam see:pretty much anything fun).

Sweden and Holland used to be considered anti-copyright havens, but the movie/recording industry mafia eventually pressured them into passing legislation that squashed this.

The only countries where you could operate in and be reasonably copyright resistant are Iceland and Switzerland, because they are non-EU members and have great data protection laws as of now. Dedicated servers there are quite overpriced though.

[clarry]

What's the MPAA proof country? The US has a lot of influence, and they've very obviously pressured other countries into action against TPB.