The company is best known for founding the site The Pirate Bay, which provides file-sharing to online users for a range of applications including music and video. The firm, which translates as ‘Piracy Bureau’, has recently issued a statement from members suggesting that they don’t feel they are needed anymore.

Launched in 2003, Piratbyran was founded in protest against the Swedish anti-piracy bureau which operates to prevent the illegal sharing of copyrighted information and material on the web. Mr de Kaminski, a member of Piratbyran, has stated that he feels his company normalised file-sharing through his network, making it an acceptable way of gaining materials that people no longer feel ashamed about. He suggested that the act of file sharing is a normal, natural activity which is very common across the web.

The Pirate Bay site uses peer-to-peer technology (Bittorrent) to enable online users to connect to each other and download music, software and films illegally. In 2009, four members of The Pirate Bay network were fined for illegally making files under copyright available to the users of the site through file-sharing. They were also imprisoned for twelve months having been found guilty, and are due to appeal the sentence this year.

Per Stromback, the editor of Netopia, a discussion forum which is frequented by a number of creative companies in Sweden, and a spokesperson for the games industry in Sweden, stated: “Piratbyran have been very successful in creating excuses for something that can’t be justified. It’s fair to say that most illegal file-sharers feel they really should be paying.” He went on to speak favourably of the company, suggesting he would miss some of the conversations he had with the founders, adding: “They have an old bus which they drive around to all sorts of places. They have a fun anarchistic way of presenting themselves, and whilst we don’t share many of the same views, I’ve enjoyed some of their pranks.”

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However, they have not simply given in. The RIAA plans to work with Internet service providers to first issue warnings to users who are downloading. Downloaders who are found out will be contacted and informed that if they continue they will risk losing their Internet connections.

This increased cooperation with ISPs is significant, especially considering that the Warner Music Group began exploring a plan last year where providers would impose charges on customer accounts that would amount to a general ‘music license,’ which would allow users to download a certain amount of music. The improved lines of communication between ISPs and the RIAA mean that there is now one less obstacle in the way of this plan.

“Any time you have companies working together on one issue cooperatively, it probably sets a good framework to work together on other things,” said Steve Marks, RIAA general counsel.

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