Can anybody explain what's the fuzz regarding pirate bay? I mean, there are tons of good torrent sites and search engines everybody use every day... I don't even remember when I last time used TPB...
The authorities, indeed even the Movie industry, don't care about the niche search engines and torrent sites that the 1% of people into the scene use, they care about the big ones that 99% of the people use.
By shutting down TPB, they've just eliminated the site that >99% of people are using, which is all that really matters to them.
Moral: Stay off the Radar of those in power, and you can do whatever you want.
Alternative explanation: when trying to solve a problem attack the biggest issue first. If TPB was the torrent site for a majority of users (and especially for casual users) then you attack that site first. Now that it is down you move on to #2, #3, etc. The niche sites are less important than the mega-site, but that does not mean that they are not on someone's radar or not going to be next on the list. The "why go after me when TPB is out there doing much worse to you" excuse also goes away.
TPB was by far the most popular pirate site in the world. It is for example the only torrent site I regularly see mentioned in the news. To know of any other site you have to be fairly into the pirate scene and follow relevant blogs and forums. Very few people bother to do that. The vast majority of people who just want to see Guardians of the Galaxy without paying probably only know about TPB.
> Can anybody explain what's the fuzz regarding pirate bay? I mean, there are tons of good torrent sites and search engines everybody use every day...
Such as?
No, seriously. This is why TPB going down is a big deal. There are plenty of other trackers, but most people don't know about them, and Google makes them somewhat difficult to find. And, of course, the really good trackers are by invitation only.
So enlighten us poor heathens and share some links. :)