The Pirate Bay has been back for a few days but all is not well. Aside from the site having serious stability problems and decreased functionality, it's already being flooded with fake uploads of the latest movies. While it's still early days, reputations are fragile in the fickle world of file-sharing.

After seven tense weeks of downtime, The Pirate Bay sprang back to life on Saturday.

There were no press releases, no triumphant tone, and no gloating blog posts mocking the futility of Hollywood’s efforts. Compared to previous comebacks, this one felt different.

The early signs were positive, however. The database backup used by the site appeared to be the one made on the last day of the site’s operations before it was raided early December 2014. And, given the use of ThePirateBay.se domain, it seems almost certain that the site isn’t some kind of trap – despite some of the negative discussions currently underway.

The big question, however, is how the site will develop moving forward. Revelations that the site would no longer ’employ’ admins and moderators to maintain what was the world’s most popular torrent site sounded some big alarm bells. How would the site cope with the inevitable flood of fake torrents without staff around to remove them?

Those lucky enough to get on The Pirate Bay today (Cloudflare and caching errors permitting) will find that searches (that’s to say when the search feature works) reveal a somewhat sorry picture.

Released in theaters on January 23, the Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow movie Mortdecai hasn’t been well received by critics. Nevertheless, some enterprising individuals released a ‘cam’ copy online a few days ago. But check out Pirate Bay and the listings for pristine Blu-ray rips and DVD screeners are plain to see.

Some of these fakes have been present for three days, something that would never have happened when the site used mods to remove junk. That being said, maybe this title was a one off and simply got missed? Sadly, that’s not the case.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb starring Ben Stiller and Robin Williams is another comedy currently doing the rounds in ‘cam’ format. However, those looking for the title on Pirate Bay can apparently download a special “screening” version not designed for public eyes.

The third comedy in our tests – The Wedding Ringer – is currently doing no better. Despite only being available in poor quality ‘cam’ format, The Pirate Bay is listing Blu-ray, DVD and DVD screener copies for download. All are completely fake and have been on the site since Saturday.

So if these aren’t the movies they’re claiming to be, then what are they? The answer is, quite simply, nothing good.

At the very least they’ll be some prankster’s idea of a joke and at the worse will require the downloader to install some ‘special codec’ or ‘special video player’ to watch the promised movie. Of course, even if they do, no movie will be forthcoming. Instead the user’s computer will have some unexpected additions.

Also problematic is the lack of user comments. While it appears that some users can comment on torrents (with advice about the torrent’s authenticity, for example) currently even the most popular torrents have little to no comments. Without this user feedback people will become victims of spam and worse.

One saving grace is that a feature that was previously broken appears to have returned this morning. Users are now able to click on a username in order to see what other uploads he or she has made. Suspicious users – such as b3322210 – can then clearly be identified as mass spammers of fake uploads.

Of course, people should keep in mind that the site has only been up 72 hours and its operators may have a plan to keep junk off the site in future. However, file-sharers are notoriously fickle and reputations built by sites over many years can be torn down in a fraction of that time.

It’s worth noting that P2P software such as LimeWire and other “shared folder” apps are no longer used by the majority of file-sharers due to the complete lack of trust in what’s being offered. Without moderation the underlying networks turned into file cesspits that no sane person wants to spend much time around.

Pirate Bay is a long way away from that, but something needs to be done sooner rather than later if the site is to regain the top spot both in terms of traffic and reputation with users.