The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid
The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid
海盗湾（The Pirate Bay）在突袭行动 20 年后依然屹立不倒
There are a handful of traditions we have at TorrentFreak, and remembering the first raid on The Pirate Bay is one of them. It was not only the first major story we covered, it also shaped how the piracy ecosystem evolved over the years. And it changed the lives of the site’s co-founders, who were eventually convicted. 在 TorrentFreak，我们有一些固定的传统，纪念对海盗湾（The Pirate Bay）的第一次突袭就是其中之一。这不仅是我们报道的第一个重大新闻，也塑造了多年来盗版生态系统的演变方式。它还改变了该网站联合创始人的生活，他们最终被判有罪。
What many people may not realize, however, is that without a few keystrokes in the site’s early days, it would be a distant memory today. This is what happened. On May 31, 2006, less than three years after The Pirate Bay was founded, 65 Swedish police officers entered a datacenter in Stockholm. They had instructions to take the site’s servers offline as part of a criminal probe, following pressure from the US government. 然而，许多人可能没有意识到的是，如果不是在网站早期敲下的那几次键盘，它今天可能早已成为遥远的记忆。事情是这样的：2006 年 5 月 31 日，在海盗湾成立不到三年后，65 名瑞典警察进入了斯德哥尔摩的一个数据中心。在受到美国政府的压力后，他们接到指令，作为刑事调查的一部分，将该网站的服务器下线。
As the police were about to enter, Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij knew something wasn’t quite right. Both men said they had noticed being tailed by private investigators. This time, however, their servers were the target. At around 10:00 in the morning, Gottfrid told Fredrik that there were police officers at their office. He asked his colleague to head down to the co-location facility and get rid of the ‘incriminating evidence’, although none of it, whatever it was, related to The Pirate Bay. 当警察即将进入时，海盗湾的联合创始人 Gottfrid Svartholm 和 Fredrik Neij 意识到情况不对劲。两人都表示，他们注意到自己一直被私家侦探跟踪。但这一次，他们的服务器成了目标。上午 10 点左右，Gottfrid 告诉 Fredrik 办公室里有警察。他让同事前往托管设施处理掉“罪证”，尽管这些东西（无论是什么）与海盗湾毫无关系。
A Crucial Backup
关键的备份
As Fredrik was leaving, he suddenly realized the problems might be linked to their torrent tracker. Just in case, he decided to make a full backup of the site. When he arrived at the co-location facility, those concerns turned out to be justified. Dozens of police officers were floating around, taking away dozens of servers, most of which belonged to clients unrelated to The Pirate Bay. 当 Fredrik 离开时，他突然意识到这些问题可能与他们的种子追踪器（torrent tracker）有关。以防万一，他决定对网站进行完整备份。当他到达托管设施时，这些担忧被证明是合理的。几十名警察在现场走动，带走了几十台服务器，其中大部分属于与海盗湾无关的客户。
In the days that followed, it became clear that Fredrik’s decision to back up the site was probably the most pivotal moment in its history. Because of that backup, the Pirate Bay team managed to resurrect the site within three days. 在随后的几天里，事实证明 Fredrik 备份网站的决定可能是其历史上最关键的时刻。正是因为那个备份，海盗湾团队才得以在三天内让网站复活。
“The Police Bay”
“警察湾”（The Police Bay）
The entire situation was handled with the mockery TPB had become known for. Unimpressed, the operators renamed the site “The Police Bay”, complete with a new logo shooting cannonballs at Hollywood. A few days later the logo was replaced by a Phoenix, a reference to the site rising from its digital ashes. 整个局势的处理方式充满了海盗湾一贯的嘲讽风格。运营者们不为所动，将网站更名为“警察湾”（The Police Bay），并配上了一个向好莱坞发射炮弹的新标志。几天后，标志被换成了一只凤凰，象征着该网站从数字灰烬中重生。
Instead of shutting it down, the raid propelled The Pirate Bay into the mainstream press, not least due to its swift resurrection. The publicity also triggered a huge traffic spike, exactly the opposite of what Hollywood had hoped for. 这次突袭不仅没有关闭网站，反而将海盗湾推向了主流媒体，尤其是因为它迅速复活。这种宣传还引发了巨大的流量激增，这与好莱坞的初衷背道而驰。
The US Pushed Sweden
美国向瑞典施压
Although the raid and the subsequent criminal investigation were carried out in Sweden, the US Government played a major role behind the scenes. For many years the scale of that involvement was unknown. However, information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2017 helped to fill in some blanks. 尽管突袭和随后的刑事调查是在瑞典进行的，但美国政府在幕后发挥了重要作用。多年来，这种参与的程度一直不为人知。然而，2017 年通过《信息自由法》请求获得的信息填补了一些空白。
The trail started with a cable sent from the US Embassy in Sweden to Washington in November 2005, roughly six months before the raid. The Embassy wrote that Hollywood’s MPA met with US Ambassador Bivins and, separately, with the Swedish State Secretary of Justice. The Pirate Bay was one of the top agenda items. 线索始于 2005 年 11 月美国驻瑞典大使馆发往华盛顿的一份电报，大约在突袭发生前六个月。大使馆写道，好莱坞的美国电影协会（MPA）会见了美国大使 Bivins，并分别会见了瑞典司法部国务秘书。海盗湾是当时最重要的议题之一。
“The MPA is particularly concerned about PirateBay, the world’s largest Torrent file-sharing tracker. According to the MPA and based on Embassy’s follow-up discussions, the Justice Ministry is very interested in a constructive dialogue with the U.S. on these concerns,” the cable read. 电报中写道：“MPA 对全球最大的种子文件共享追踪器 PirateBay 特别关注。根据 MPA 的说法以及大使馆的后续讨论，司法部非常有兴趣就这些关切与美国进行建设性对话。”
The Embassy explained that Hollywood would like Sweden to take action against a big player such as The Pirate Bay. “We have yet to see a ‘big fish’ tried, something the MPA badly wants to see, particularly in light of the fact that Sweden hosts the largest Bit Torrent file-sharing tracker in the world, ‘Pirate-Bay’, which openly flaunts IPR,” the cable writer commented. 大使馆解释说，好莱坞希望瑞典对海盗湾这样的大玩家采取行动。电报撰写者评论道：“我们还没有看到一条‘大鱼’受审，这是 MPA 非常想看到的，特别是考虑到瑞典托管着全球最大的 BitTorrent 文件共享追踪器‘海盗湾’，它公然藐视知识产权。”
Fast forward half a year and, indeed, 65 police officers were ready to take The Pirate Bay’s servers offline. While there is no written evidence that US officials were actively involved in planning the investigation or raid, indirectly they played a major role. This is backed up by further evidence. 半年后，确实有 65 名警察准备将海盗湾的服务器下线。虽然没有书面证据表明美国官员积极参与了调查或突袭的策划，但他们间接地发挥了重要作用。这一点得到了进一步证据的支持。
In a cable sent in April 2007, the Embassy nominated one of its employees, whose name is redacted, for the State Department’s Foreign Service National (FSN) of the year award. Again, The Pirate Bay case was cited. “REDACTED skillful outreach directly led to a bold decision by Swedish law enforcement authorities to raid Pirate Bay and shut it down. This was recognized as a major achievement in Washington in furthering U.S. efforts to combat Internet piracy worldwide.” 在 2007 年 4 月发出的一份电报中，大使馆提名其一名员工（姓名已删减）角逐国务院年度“外事服务国民”（FSN）奖。海盗湾案再次被提及。“[已删减] 巧妙的联络工作直接促使瑞典执法部门做出了突袭并关闭海盗湾的大胆决定。这在华盛顿被视为推动美国在全球打击互联网盗版努力的一项重大成就。”
We don’t know if the employee in question received the award. In hindsight, however, the raid did very little to deter piracy. 我们不知道该员工是否获得了该奖项。然而事后看来，这次突袭对遏制盗版几乎没有起到什么作用。
The Aftermath
后续影响
The swift comeback turned the site’s founders into heroes for many. The story made headline news around the world, and in Stockholm people waved pirate flags in the streets, a sentiment that benefited the newly founded Pirate Party as well. 迅速的回归使该网站的创始人在许多人眼中成为了英雄。这个故事成为了全球头条新闻，在斯德哥尔摩，人们在街头挥舞着海盗旗，这种情绪也让新成立的海盗党受益匪浅。
The raid eventually resulted in negative consequences for the founders. It was the start of a criminal investigation, which led to a trial, and prison sentences for several of the site’s key players. This became another turning point. Many of the people involved from the early days decided to cut their ties with the site, which was handed over to a more anonymous group, ostensibly located in the Seychelles. 突袭最终给创始人带来了负面后果。它开启了一项刑事调查，导致了审判，并使该网站的几位关键人物被判入狱。这成为了另一个转折点。许多早期参与者决定切断与该网站的联系，网站被移交给了一个更匿名的组织，据称位于塞舌尔。
The outspokenness of the early years was replaced by the silent treatment. While some moderators have spoken out, the anonymous operator nicknamed ‘Winston’ remains behind the scenes at all times. This was made obvious in 2014, when the site disappeared for weeks following another raid at a Stockholm data center. At the time, even the site’s staffers had no idea what was going on. 早年的直言不讳被沉默所取代。虽然一些版主曾公开发言，但绰号为“温斯顿”（Winston）的匿名运营者始终保持幕后状态。这一点在 2014 年变得显而易见，当时在斯德哥尔摩数据中心发生另一次突袭后，该网站消失了数周。当时，连网站的工作人员都不知道发生了什么。
The Pirate Bay recovered from that second raid too, and remains seen as a piracy icon by many. These days the site bills itself as ‘the galaxy’s most resilient torrent site’, a title it arguably deserves. 海盗湾从第二次突袭中也恢复了过来，并继续被许多人视为盗版的象征。如今，该网站自称为“银河系中最具韧性的种子网站”，这个称号它当之无愧。