Piratbyrån ("The Bureau of Piracy") is a Swedish organization (or think tank) established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property — by freely sharing information and culture. Piratbyrån itself is not involved in illegal activities, but says it wishes instead to give another point of view about spreading information than do certain lobby groups. The organization provides guides, news and a forum focused on file-sharing, intellectual properties, piracy and digital culture, and is arranging events such as lectures, media appearances and a yearly may day demonstration. In 2005 Piratbyrån released an anthology entitled Copy Me containing selected texts previously available from its website. The name is a play on Antipiratbyrån ("The Anti-piracy Bureau"), a non governmental but content industry-based Swedish anti-piracy organization. Members of Piratbyrån have participated in debates on Swedish Radio and Swedish Television and later also been giving several lectures in other European countries, like at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
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Police raid
On the morning of May 31, 2006, the servers of both The Pirate Bay, a popular Swedish BitTorrent tracker, and the Piratbyrån were confiscated in a raid by Swedish police. The seizure was part of investigation into possible illegal activities on the part of The Pirate Bay. The legality of the raid has come into question, as Piratbyrån (and thus, its servers) is no longer affiliated with The Pirate Bay. Piratbyrån set up a temporary news blog during the investigation, but their website has been online since July 19, 2006. Antipiratbyrån also has a news item on the subject.
BitTorrent tracker
Members of Piratbyrån are the original creators of The Pirate Bay, a popular BitTorrent tracker, but are no longer affiliated with the site.
Kopimi
Piratbyrån has proposed -- and publishes most of its work under -- a copyright alternative called kopimi [1] (pronounced, and sometimes also spelled, as "copyme"). Designed to be the opposite of copyright, a kopimi notice specifically requests that people copy the work for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.
See also
- Anti-copyright
- Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) (not affiliated with Piratbyrån)
- The Pirate Bay A bittorrent tracker.
- Steal This Film
External links
- Piratbyrån Official Site
- Piratgruppen.org - Danish sister organization
- Piratgruppen.net - Norwegian sister organization
- Art Liberated - Another project from Piratbyrån, highlighting remix culture and opposing censorship of art.
- Slashdot on Piratbyrån's May Day Demonstration 2004
- Press release about Piratbyrån's May Day Demonstration 2005
- The Grey Commons, strategic considerations in the copyfight Text by Piratbyrån's Palle Torsson and Rasmus Fleischer, presenting the activities of 2005.
- The Pirate Bay and Piratbyrån taken down by Police
- Between artworks and networks: Navigating through the crisis of copyright Theoretical lecture by Piratbyrån's Rasmus Fleischer.
- Presentation of Piratbyrån by Magnus Eriksson, from the Bzoom festival in Brno, october 2006.
