'Pirate' file-sharing sites seek bitcoin booty
Apr 24, 2013 at 7:36 p.m. UTC
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A growing number of peer-to-peer file-sharing sites -- among them the notorious The Pirate Bay -- is starting to accept bitcoin donations from their users.
The main page of The Pirate Bay's website now lists a bitcoin address, presumably for donations. OpenBitTorrent has also joined the party, as has PublicBitTorrent. Istole.it also features a bitcoin address. As of yet, though, there is no sign of bitcoin adoption at Isohunt or its sister sites.
Bitcoin's perceived anonymity makes it the perfect donation mechanism for file-sharing operations, many of which track copyrighted content being shared online. The Pirate Bay, for example, has battled take-down attempts for years, and has a highly distributed network of web servers designed to protect it from attack.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
As of 8 AM BST on April 24, The Pirate Bay had received 125 bitcoin donations, for a total of just over 11 BTC (roughly $1600 (US)).
File-sharing news site Torrentfreak has more here.
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