> They used to [...] keep track of the people that do have copyrighted files
Did they get rid of their tracker? I don't know actually, but that's not important. Running a torrent tracker is considered very legal in most places (similar to running a Tor exit node or something like that).
> Plus comments and a search engine.
That's the tricky bit.
> So while I'm pretty sure you won't get arrested for visiting today, I'm less confident the current law won't become stretched enough to cover it.
I'd rather you wouldn't just say stuff like that. You're basically spreading FUD. There is no sane reason to believe anybody will ever be arrested (in western countries, that is) for visiting a site like TPB. Which law would you like to stretch in order to make that happen? Using their indexer is similar to getting a menu from your drug dealer. You haven't even attempted to do anything illegal yet. What you'd need is a law that allows you to arrest people for something they haven't even attempted to do (some people call that pre-crime).
What happens in reality instead is governments blocking sites like TPB and that's the end of that.
Wait, you think the comments and search engine are the problem? What if they dumped a big list of the most recent 10000 magnet URLs and descriptions at you?
> You're basically spreading FUD.
Well I am pretty scared and uncertain. The Pirate Bay is already so far removed from the actual copyright infringement that I don't see how another layer of indirection guarantees safety for the people that visit the site. Perhaps you wouldn't get in trouble just for searching, but if you used the search results in the process of infringing copyright I would not be surprised to see some kind of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement charge added on for making the search. Is that completely unreasonable?
Can you explain to me how TPB's actions are illegal today? In the dealer analogy, they've never even seen a drug. They ask you what chemical you want and tell you an arbitrary code word that some dealers will recognize.
The problem can't really be that it's a search engine rather than an unorganized list...can it?
Absolutely not! Once you click a magnet link, you're on your own. I was just talking about visiting the site, searching, really not doing anything.
> Can you explain to me how TPB's actions are illegal today?
Depends on the jurisdiction, I guess. I'm not sure TPB is actually illegal, but that question is quite complex. I really wouldn't know.
> The problem can't really be that it's a search engine rather than an unorganized list...can it?
Of course it is! That's how the ended up in court in the first place. On top of all their legal-ish infrastructure (the trackers, etc.) they provide a website that allows people to aggregate, filter, enrich, etc., content. I'm not sure that alone get's you in trouble (it might not!), but it certainly will once you add ads to finance the entire thing.
>they provide a website that allows people to aggregate, filter, enrich, etc., content.
Well let me put it this way. If they had a site with exactly the same interface for viewing torrent info, but no comments, no votes, no filtering, no searching. You think that would win in court?
True.
> They used to [...] keep track of the people that do have copyrighted files
Did they get rid of their tracker? I don't know actually, but that's not important. Running a torrent tracker is considered very legal in most places (similar to running a Tor exit node or something like that).
> Plus comments and a search engine.
That's the tricky bit.
> So while I'm pretty sure you won't get arrested for visiting today, I'm less confident the current law won't become stretched enough to cover it.
I'd rather you wouldn't just say stuff like that. You're basically spreading FUD. There is no sane reason to believe anybody will ever be arrested (in western countries, that is) for visiting a site like TPB. Which law would you like to stretch in order to make that happen? Using their indexer is similar to getting a menu from your drug dealer. You haven't even attempted to do anything illegal yet. What you'd need is a law that allows you to arrest people for something they haven't even attempted to do (some people call that pre-crime).
What happens in reality instead is governments blocking sites like TPB and that's the end of that.