• Reuters, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 11:45 AM

Reuters reports that a Swedish Web site dealing in the proliferation of illegal-swapping is on the verge of deploying new software that would make it even easier to swap media files over the Web. The Pirate Bay, as the ad-supported company is called, is powered by file-sharing software from BitTorrent.

BitTorrent, of course, is its own company, and has taken great strides recently to find a workable middle ground with major media companies. Under the open-source software initiative, BitTorrent software is free for anyone to copy and use, which is why The Pirate Bay doesn't have to pay BitTorrent a dime for using its software. However, as Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde points out, BitTorrent might add features to its software that discourage illegal file-trading, curtailing his efforts to bring the new software to market. An estimated 150 million people use BitTorrent's technology.

The Pirate Bay has been under police investigation before. Last May, Swedish authorities confiscated the company's servers. The company has since moved to a secret location. "Even we don't know where they are. They are spread across Europe," Sunde said. "Sweden is not a state in the United States," says one posting on the Pirate Bay site. "It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ... morons."

Read the whole story at Reuters »