The Pirate Bay has launched its own web browser aimed at people in countries where ISPs are blocking access to it and other filesharing websites.
PirateBrowser was launched as The Pirate Bay celebrated its tenth anniversary, despite strenuous efforts from entertainment rightsholders to get the site shut down in recent years.
"Do you know any people who can't access TPB or other torrents-sites because they are blocked? Recommend PirateBrowser to them," suggests the blog post announcing the browser, which is initially available for PC users.
"It's a simple one-click browser that circumvents censorship and blockades and makes the site instantly available and accessible. No bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a Pre-configured Firefox browser."
The PirateBrowser website explains that the application combines Tor client Vidalia – which anonymises data connections – with the FireFox Portable Edition browser, the FoxyProxy add-on and "some custom configs".
The site also claims that the browser is an anti-censorship tool rather than purely for piracy, citing countries including Iran and North Korea alongside the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland as places it expects PirateBrowser to be particularly useful.
Users are warned that despite its use of Tor, the browser does not guarantee their ability to surf the web anonymously, with the recommendation that they continue to use a virtual private network (VPN) service "if you are looking for something more secure".
PirateBrowser is The Pirate Bay's latest and most significant challenge to the growing number of ISPs that are blocking access to filesharing sites, often after court rulings in cases brought by entertainment industry rightsholders.
In the UK, five leading ISPs – Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, O2 and Everything Everywhere – were ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay in April 2012 by the high court, after a case brought by music industry body the BPI.
Other sites blocked in the UK following similar rulings include Newzbin2, KickassTorrents, H33T, Fenopy and EZTV.
Such blocks have never been watertight even before the launch of PirateBrowser. Internet users with a working knowledge of proxy services have gone about their filesharing as usual, with the UK's Pirate Party launching its own proxy server in 2012, before removing it after the BPI threatened to take legal action.
The launch of PirateBrowser will be seen in some quarters as a hammer-blow for the entertainment industry's anti-piracy strategy of ISP-level blocks, although that strategy is arguably more about deterring casual users than experienced filesharers.
Those casual users are unlikely to find and download PirateBrowser. Meanwhile, the entertainment industries' anti-piracy efforts have other elements too, such as a growing focus on pressuring brands and advertising networks to squeeze ad revenues for filesharing sites.
© Guardian News and Media 2013
