The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

TPB’s Current Relevance & Catalog Depth

  • Some see The Pirate Bay (TPB) as stagnant, mainly useful for older or obscure content; others say they “never not found” mainstream public releases there.
  • Gaps exist: certain book series, Japanese shows/movies, and specific TV episodes or films are reportedly missing.
  • For large Blu-ray remuxes and high-bitrate releases, several say TPB has been irrelevant for over a decade; its culture favors smaller re-encodes.

Alternative Trackers, Tools, and Workflows

  • Popular public alternatives: RuTracker, 1337x, Nyaa, Limetorrents, YTS (often criticized for heavy compression).
  • Many recommend moving to private trackers, Usenet, libraries, Internet Archive, SoulSeek, and physical media ripping.
  • Joining private trackers: invites via Reddit/Discord, open signup windows, and ratio/seed-time systems; automation via RSS + seedboxes.
  • Tooling: qBittorrent’s built-in search (with plugins and Python), Jackett integration, Stremio and debrid services, *Arr stack, VPNs, and ad-blockers.

Streaming vs Piracy: UX, Quality, and Control

  • Repeated complaints about streaming: missing or replaced audio/music, botched aspect ratios, AI/low-effort “4K” remasters, censored/removed episodes, region locks, rotating catalogs, and poor apps (e.g., stuttering, audio mixing issues).
  • Some users buy or rent content but still torrent to get higher quality, correct cuts, or reliable access.
  • Many describe a cycle: early piracy → streaming optimism → fragmentation/enshittification → return to piracy or self-hosted media (e.g., Plex).

Preservation, Censorship, and “Intended Method”

  • Torrents are framed as crucial for preserving original versions (music cues, uncropped frames, uncensored episodes) versus edited, ephemeral streaming catalogs.
  • Concerns that corporate control rewrites history and downgrades art into disposable “content.”
  • Old VHS recordings and early TV rips are valued for authenticity and lost material.

Legal, Ethical, and Political Perspectives

  • Ethics are debated: some call piracy straightforward “theft”; others reject that framing, emphasize bad value/UX, or see it as resistance to corporate overreach.
  • Several argue that copyright owners and governments (especially under US lobbying pressure) have failed both preservation and fair access, strengthening the case for piracy.

Resilience & Infrastructure

  • Users are impressed that TPB remains online decades after raids, citing it as an example of the limits of state power on a global internet.
  • Mentions of TPB running on distributed virtual machines and using services like VPNs and CDNs; some skepticism about how “raid-proof” this really is.