In the past, The Pirate Bay was often actively involved in political discussions and debates. We haven’t seen much of that in recent years but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has struck a nerve.
Over the past weekend, the notorious torrent site replaced its pirate ship logo. Instead, it showed the “Uprising” music video of the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton, which is about the Warsaw Uprising of 1994.
“Is history repeating itself? Stand with Kyiv and Ukraine!” The Pirate Bay added in a brief statement, which has since disappeared.
‘Russian’ Pirate Bay Proxy
The official Pirate Bay site is not the only one taking a stand. In fact, a popular Pirate Bay proxy is making an even stronger statement. Not least because it’s reportedly operated by people from Russia.
The site in question, Pirate-bays.net, is technically not even a proxy. The site actually displays the TPB.party proxy in an Iframe, which is a rather easy and cheap way of generating traffic.
This tactic has proven to be quite effective as Pirate-bays.net is promoted on a variety of indexes that link to Pirate Bay alternatives. This is paying off handsomely, as it brings in 300,000 unique visits per day.
Dropping Ads to Stop Putin
These types of ‘proxy’ sites typically insert their own ads to generate a profit. Pirate-bays.net was no exception but since this weekend, all advertisements have been replaced for a single banner that pops up a few minutes after the page is loaded.
“Stop Putin. F*ck Putin,” the banner reads, next to a mashup image of the Russian President and Adolf Hitler.
TorrentFreak spoke to one of the operators who, given the circumstances, prefers to remain anonymous. He says that the Pirate-bays.net team wants to make it very clear that they support Ukraine in this conflict, not Putin.
“We are Russians but we hate this bastard Putin so much that we abandoned our monetization and placed a banner that helps to raise funds for the Ukrainian army,” the spokesperson explained.
Donating Funds to Ukraine’s Army
In addition to the explicit condemnation of the Russian president, the site’s banner also encourages visitors to donate to the National Bank of Ukraine to raise funds for the country’s armed forces.
TorrentFreak confirmed that the person we spoke to is indeed an operator of the site, which is hosted in Moldova. While we couldn’t verify their Russian nationality, we have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the claims.
The operator stressed that we didn’t even have to link to the site or mention the site by name. They just want to get the message out there in public.
“I just want everyone to know that this piece of shit has to be stopped! All Russians want this person to be punished as strictly as possible, but we’re so afraid!
“The more people know – the sooner this president will be replaced!” the Pirate-bays.net spokesperson added.
Entertainment Industry Responses
In addition to pirate sites, major media companies are taking a stand as well. A few hours ago THR reported that Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. have all decided to halt their upcoming theatrical releases in Russia.
Disney Music Group highlights another effect of the Russian invasion, as Senior Manager Peter Jansson notes that the war is a blow to the company’s revenues.
“This is a big blow for us at Disney, as this is most apparent with ENCANTO, as all the songs from the movie have been translated in Russian and Ukrainian, and we have been noticing quite a lot of UGC uploads on YouTube in both these languages given.”
“We have seen growing revenues from both Russian and Ukraine over the past two years, but this may well eradicate all of this growth,” Jansson added.
It’s clear, however, that most people and companies in the West are clearly against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And as Pirate-bays.net shows, this is also true for many people in Russia.
