Pirate Party Shuts Down Pirate Bay Proxy After Legal Threats

Dear Donor,

Thank you for your support in the last few weeks, the donations we received, as well as the overwhelming number of messages of support made it clear that our efforts over the last year or so have not been in vain.

It is however with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that the proxy server the Pirate Party UK initially provided in solidarity with other parties in Europe, but later as an anti-censorship resource for UK users, has now been been removed.

Obviously this is not the outcome you wanted, nor that we had hoped for, so if you would like us to return your donation please reply to this email, or email returns@pirateparty.org.uk with the email address you provided (either your paypal email address or the email address you contacted the party with when making your donation). We will return your donation as soon as we can.

As you know, elected members of the parties National Executive Committee, along with the head of IT, received letters from lawyers acting for British Phonographic Industry (BPI), threatening them personally with High Court legal action.

After seeking exhaustive advice and initiating the fundraising campaign that you contributed to we managed to raise just over £9,000. A significant sum and an indication that this issue is important. Unfortunately the advice from a variety of legal sources was bleak and even to get to this point we spent just under £1600, the cost involved in taking this forward is out of our reach with no guarantee of a positive result.

We also made attempts to open dialogue with the BPI, but it has become clear that the law as it stands makes any decision to continue hosting the proxy untenable and counterproductive.

We will continue to fight for digital rights despite being threatened with legal action by the UK’s music industry body over links to the Pirate Bay website.

Again if you would like us to return your donation please reply to this email, or email returns@pirateparty.org.uk with the email address you provided (either your paypal email address or the email address you contacted the party with when making your donation). We will return your donation as soon as we can.

Gavin Meredith Treasurer Pirate Party UK

Will be interesting to see more details on the more precise details of the threats.