{"id":1383,"date":"2015-01-31T08:01:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T16:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:16:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:16:47","slug":"the-pirate-bay-returns-and-china-filters-vpns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/the-pirate-bay-returns-and-china-filters-vpns\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pirate Bay Returns And China Filters VPNs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two unrelated things coincide: The return<\/a> of The Pirate Bay on one hand, and China banning VPNs on the other \u2013 actually, not banning them per se, but aggressively filtering<\/a> VPN traffic in their Great Firewall. It\u2019s a complete coincidence that these both happen in the same week but show something important: inertia and vested interests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Pirate Bay has returned. The Pirate Bay has returned again<\/em>. This is mostly significant as a symbol of resilience against the Old World; something swarmed cannot be shut down, even if you throw an entire industry at it.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s important to keep in mind that The Pirate Bay is over a decade old by now. The Pirate Bay is so old, it has itself become part of inertia \u2013 which, in part, explains why it keeps coming back.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s phrase that differently: The Pirate Bay is older than both Facebook and Twitter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are plenty of services that disrupt the concept of The Pirate Bay \u2013 Popcorn Time<\/em> springs to mind \u2013 but the service, the symbol, the site still keeps coming back.<\/p>\n

Just like the old industries that won\u2019t die, it has become part of decades-old inertia. That\u2019s not bad in itself, but it\u2019s now so much part of people\u2019s worldview that this fact in itself<\/em> is a motivation to keep it going.<\/p>\n

Inertia.<\/p>\n

The very same mechanisms that keep trying to have the Pirate Bay banned \u2013 inertia in the copyright industry \u2013 is now socially compelling the site to keep coming back, because it\u2019s such a strong brand and symbol.<\/p>\n

Those same mechanisms are also behind the sharpening of the cutting knives in the Chinese Great Firewall that just took place. The firewall is now agressively cutting out VPN traffic, in order to reduce \u2013 nay, prevent<\/em> \u2013 Chinese people from using Western services like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, in lieu of the Chinese Renren, Weibo, and Baidu, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the Chinese case, the inertia doesn\u2019t come in the form of business interests or symbolism, but from a national self-image \u2013 that Chinese services should simply be superior, and given a chance against dominant services, they will.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much difference between that attitude and the copyright industry\u2019s attitude toward The Pirate Bay, and it goes to explain a lot of the political moves and countermoves with regard to people\u2019s attempts to regulate the Internet right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two unrelated things coincide: The return of The Pirate Bay on one hand, and China banning VPNs on the other \u2013 actually, not banning them per se, but aggressively filtering VPN traffic in their Great Firewall. It\u2019s a complete coincidence that these both happen in the same week but show something important: inertia and vested … Continue reading “The Pirate Bay Returns And China Filters VPNs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[250,1,1937],"tags":[1195],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","category-news","category-vpn","tag-torrenting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pirate Bay Returns And China Filters VPNs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two unrelated things coincide: The return of The Pirate Bay on one hand, and China banning VPNs on the other - actually, not banning them per se, but\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/the-pirate-bay-returns-and-china-filters-vpns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pirate Bay Returns And China Filters VPNs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two unrelated things coincide: The return of The Pirate Bay on one hand, and China banning VPNs on the other - 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