In a very surprising and potentially disastrous move, The Pirate Bay is now being hosted by the Swedish Pirate party. The Swedish Pirate party is by far the most powerful and influential pirate party (there are dozens across the globe), and if managed correctly, stands a decent chance of actually changing the course of copyright law in Sweden. This move threatens to jeopardize everything they've worked for.

It's no secret by now that The Pirate Bay, and everyone and anything associated with them, are in legal hot water. The four previous owners/administrators of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of copyright infringement, sentenced to 1 year in jail, and a combined $4 million dollar fine. The final say on their fate is in the appeals process.

Fast forward to the current day. In the never ending game of whack-a-mole, The Pirate Bay is still online. Supposedly, ownership has shifted away from the original crew but the legal pursuit continues. The actual Pirate Bay website was hosted by a German web host called Cyberbunker, however, this stint was cut short thanks to a German court granting the MPA (Motion Picture Association) an injunction. Just yesterday, The Pirate Bay was forced offline.

But this has happened before - and is almost something the BitTorrent community expects. Back on May 31, 2006, The Pirate Bay's web host was raided by local authorities at the behest of the American movie industry, and was forced offline for a period of days before it was resurrected. This pattern of legal pursuits has followed The Pirate Bay throughout its history.

So now the ball is in The Pirate Party's court. It's an extreme gamble on part of The Pirate Party, especially considering the success the party has seen in the European elections. There's little doubt this move will bring renewed interest to The Pirate Party, and perhaps even fill its ranks, but it’s also walking into a bees' nest. We also have no doubt that the MPA will soon gun for The Pirate Party and will look to have another injunction against their efforts.

This move brings up several important questions. How far is The Pirate Party willing to take this fight? Will it sacrifice all it has accomplished for a BitTorrent site whose ownership and legality have been denied in their own country? Who knows, maybe this move will motivate millions of Swedes to join their cause and help make significant change to the course of Swedish copyright law. But it could also completely bankrupt the organization.

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