Photographer Christopher Boffoli. Flickr/Neon Tommy A photographer who sued the popular image-hosting website Imgur for posting 73 of his photos without permission has now had more than 20,000 of his copyrighted images uploaded to torrent site The Pirate Bay in retaliation.

Christopher Boffoli launched legal action after his photo series "Big Appetites" was uploaded to Imgur without his permission. The photographs show miniature people climbing over food, and the internet liked them enough to download them and share them on sites like Imgur and Reddit.

This was a problem because Boffoli earns a living by selling his photos, and he can't do that as effectively if they are available for free.

He initially filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice asking Imgur to take down the pictures in February, but the 73 photos remained on the site. In September 2014, Boffoli took Imgur to court, accusing it of copyright infringement. Imgur removed the photos after the legal notice, but it could still face up to $10 million in fines.

Angry internet users, dismayed at Boffoli's perceived censorship of his photos, decided to fight back against his legal action by uploading his life's work to the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. Torrent Freak reports that on Sunday, an anonymous Pirate Bay user uploaded 20,754 of his copyrighted images to the site. The torrent contains the entirety of his famous "Big Appetites" series, as well as thousands of other photos.



The Pirate Bay

Speaking to Business Insider, Boffoli played down the damage of the torrent file, telling us that the majority of the photos had already been uploaded to his Flickr profile. They were, however, still copyrighted, and he did not give permission for them to be posted on the Pirate Bay. "I don't feel like I'm being punished," Boffoli said, "I'm famous enough." He went on to describe the people behind the torrent file as "20-something copyright thieves."

Boffoli has often fought to control where his photos are posted online — Torrent Freak reports that he has previously filed lawsuits against Twitter and Google over the use of his photos, but those cases were settled out of court. Some Pirate Bay commenters accuse Boffoli of "copyright trolling," saying he uses his lawsuits to raise the profile of his photos, which are exhibited around the world.