The BitTorrent trackers sitting in the depths of The Pirate Bay are there for the benefit of the people, to help them distribute bandwidth intensive media worldwide at no cost. But when anti-piracy companies like Media Defender of MiiVi infamy abuse that service, it's time to bring out the plank. They're not welcome.

The guys at The Pirate Bay aren’t happy. Certain commercial outfits have been trying to use their trackers to hunt down pirates – companies like Media Defender who will be fresh in your mind following the MiiVi incident. Certain counter-measures have been put in place to deal with this situation.

Brokep explained that steps are taken to block Media Defender from accessing their trackers. “We block them and some other torrent sites do as well.” Holding out a helping hand to other tracker administrators worldwide he continued, “if any other torrent site need some IP ranges to block, just talk to us.”

It’s clear that Brokep and the crew have had enough of Media Defender, and the Miivi incident seems to be the straw that broke the camels back. “Since the Miivi-incident we can’t keep quiet about them anymore” he said. “We want their employers to stop using them so they go bankrupt.”

In the meantime, The Pirate Bay has introduced a Usage Policy for their trackers, engineered to keep certain commercial organizations out, while ensuring that service continues as usual for everyone else. For most companies, this will simply involve them getting a nod from the guys to use the tracker.

Companies like Media Defender (who have already had their attention drawn to the changes) should take extra care to read this part of the Usage Policy.

“The tracker may not be used by anyone with the intention to track usage, log ip addresses/usage or anything else that we consider intrusion of privacy or disruption of tracker service. If you are not sure if this would be the case for your usage, please contact us in order to get our permission.”

Brokep has informed Media Defender that if they manage to access the tracker, they will be breaking the terms of the Usage Policy and unfortunately, The Pirate Bay will have no choice but to invoice them at the following rates:

Basic Fee: EUR 5000

plus bandwidth

plus other costs that may arise due to the violation.

Of course, individuals, organizations and companies who use the trackers for “well meaning” purposes, such as distributing works of cultural benefit for the end user, do not need to ask permission.