The Pirate Bay has lost another domain name this morning. ThePirateBay.am, which has been one of the default Pirate Bay domains for two months, was put on hold by the Armenian registry. The domain name "hydra" still remains strong though, as there are still plenty of alternatives available.

Last May the Stockholm District Court ordered the Pirate Bay’s .SE domains to be handed over to the Swedish state, arguing that they were linked to copyright crimes.

The Pirate Bay was fully prepared for the negative outcome and quickly redirected its visitors to a ‘Hydra’ of six new domain names.

The notorious torrent site decided to use more than one domain name, anticipating that not all would survive pressure from copyright holders.

This was no unnecessary precaution as the first domain name was suspended after just a few days. The site’s .GS domain went offline after an intervention from the associated registry, chopping off one head.

Today, another domain has gone overboard.

A few hours ago the Armenian registry put ThePirateBay.AM om hold, rendering it inaccessible. The URL may still work for some if the DNS entries are cached, but it will soon be unavailable everywhere.

The ISOC-AM registry hasn’t commented publicly on the domain name suspension yet. However, it seems likely that the organization took action following a copyright holder complaint.

thepiratebay.am on hold



Not all domain registries are equally responsive to copyright complaints. Some suspend a domain name after a single complaint, while others require a local court order before taking action.

The Mongolian registry, which is behind TPB’s .MN domain name, previously informed TF that they will process potential complaints through ICANN’s Dispute Resolution Policy, suggesting that they will not take any voluntary action.

Despite losing another domain name, The Pirate Bay team isn’t too worried. They still have plenty of alternative domains to pick from and four of the current domain names still work just fine.

“We have more domain names behind, if needed. We are stronger than ever and will defend the site to the end,” the TPB team informs us.

The Pirate Bay is currently accessible via the LA, VG, MN and GD domain names. The original .SE domain is still operational as well, pending an appeal, and redirects users to one of the new domain names.