Two movie companies have applied for an information injunction against a Sweden-based Internet company that they believe has "close ties" to The Pirate Bay. An IP address operated by Obenetwork was handed over to the studios by Cloudflare last week as part of an investigation being carried out by anti-piracy group Rights Alliance.
Despite dozens of legal actions against The Pirate Bay, including the jailing of its founders, the world’s most famous torrent site remains online today.
That it continues to operate can only be an irritant to the many companies that have partnered to take it down and at least for a while, it seemed that tackling the site may have fallen down the list of priorities. Now, however, there is clear evidence that movie companies in Scandinavia are back on the trail.
Svensk Filmindustri is the leading distribution and production company in the Nordic region. Denmark-based Nordisk Film is one of the oldest film studios in the world. With the assistance of Swedish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, they have taken a keen interest in an Internet service provider and hosting company that they claim have “close ties” to The Pirate Bay.
Cloudflare Handed Over an IP Address Linked to TPB
The Pirate Bay’s real IP addresses are a closely guarded secret since these can be useful in tracking down where its servers are physically located. When people access the site they currently see IP addresses related to Cloudflare, the CDN company through which The Pirate Bay reaches the public. However, when faced with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare will hand over a clients’ hosting details.
After being issued with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare recently handed over an IP address that was reportedly being used by The Pirate Bay on June 2, 2020. According to Dagensjuridik, the movie companies and Rights Alliance then used this information to formulate an application for an information injunction against the IP address operator, Obenetwork.
Staff at Obenetwork Have “Close Ties” to The Pirate Bay
The application is characterized by its urgency. The studios asked the court not to hear Obenetworks in the matter but to issue a swift order that would prevent Obenetworks from destroying information detailing its business dealings with The Pirate Bay or face a fine of SEK 100,000 (US$10,872).
“[T]here is reason to believe that the staff of the defendant [Obenetwork] have close links to Pirate Bay. There is a risk that the information requested by the applicant will be destroyed or prevented from being disclosed,” the application reads.
“Staff at Obenetworks have appeared in previous investigations against Pirate bay. There is thus a risk that the information referred to in the action could be destroyed or withheld from the applicants.”
Complaining of ongoing infringement of their copyrights via The Pirate Bay, the studios state that an order to obtain the information held by Obenetwork is the only option they have to enforce their rights.
Information Road to Nowhere?
The big question now is whether this information – should it be handed over at all – will be of any assistance to the movie studios in their quest to track down their prey.
The operators of The Pirate Bay are veterans when it comes to dealing with anti-piracy actions and they will be acutely aware that Cloudflare hands over server details when it has a legal obligation to do so.
On that basis, it seems reasonable to conclude that TPB’s operators knew this day would come and that the IP address at Obenetwork won’t yield anything directly useful. It could, however, provide another piece of the puzzle.
