Pirate Bay, the notorious piracy website, still attracts millions of visitors even after 17 years in existence. In fact, the website’s prominence goes beyond the number of visitors it gets. Recently, a domain owned by Pirate Bay (piratebay.org) was sold in an auction for a whopping $50,000 (roughly Rs. 36,81,320). Another domain owned by Pirate Bay (thepiratebay.com) will also go under the hammer soon, according to an online report. It is important to note that these domains do not redirect to the Pirate Bay website, and this in no way affects Pirate Bay. The domains, piratebay.org and thepiratebay.com, were purchased by Pirate Bay as ‘backup’ domains, fearing a seizure on its original domain, thepiratebay.org.
In 2012, when Pirate Bay was facing a threat from the US authorities due to its illegal activities, it changed its domain name from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se to avoid seizure. However, thepiratebay.se was later seized by the authorities, and Pirate Bay had to go back to its original domain, thepiratebay.org. Over the years, Pirate Bay has kept many ‘backup’ domains available, in case one gets shut down. The two domains, piratebay.org and thepiratebay.com, were listed in the name of Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij, who chose not to renew the domains after they expired recently.
Dropcatch.com, a drop catch service scooped up the two domains, to auction them off. One of the two, piratebay.org was sold for $50,000 to a bidder by the name ‘clvrfls.’ According to the report, domain traders present at the auction said that the domain sold for too high a price. “The price seems high for an investor given the history of the name,” a trader told the website.
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