The Pirate Bay update: down times continue as EU Court decides on site's fate

Wikimedia Commons/The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is one of the most used file-sharing sites by torrent seekers worldwide. Due to its immense popularity, a little hiccup in its operation has global effects. However, what the torrent site has been experiencing these recent weeks are nothing like little bumps. Continuing legal battles left and right, as well as other torrents sites shutting down for good lately, gave The Pirate Bay an unstable status.

Recently, a downturn of events worried TPB fans as the final decision on the legality of The Pirate Bay has been indefinitely postponed. According to Torrent Freak, The Court of Hague has postponed its final decision on the case of TPB's legal troubles and decided to wait first for a ruling from the EU Court of Justice.

Last year, The Hague Court decided in favor of The Pirate Bay, as some industry conglomerates like Warner Music and anti-piracy organization BREIN forced ISPs in The Netherlands to block the torrent site. The Court ruled that forcing ISPs to block certain websites constitutes repressing entrepreneurial freedoms and decided to grant the ISPs freedom in unblocking TPB. The Pirate Bay is currently accessible in The Netherlands, while BREIN took the case to the Supreme Court.

Aside from the legal troubles, worried fans also point out that TPB may be the next in a line of torrent sites shutting down for good. Recently, it was reported that major torrent sites like Popcorn Time and YIFY have closed shop. Meanwhile, as The Pirate Bay continuously suffers from downed websites, raided server locations and numerous downtimes, fans think that TPB's days are also already numbered.

The Pirate Bay is one of the longest-running file-sharing sites online. Despite its many downtimes particularly in the recent weeks, the website still enjoys a huge following among torrent file downloaders.