“Do you know any people who can’t access TPB or other torrents-sites because they are blocked? Recommend PirateBrowser to them,” says Pirate Bay.
Pirate Bay is celebrating a milestone birthday – ten years – and one of the presents its given itself is a new PirateBrowser, a self-proclaimed “anti censorship tool.” If you can’t access the Bay because your ISP is blocked, the Browser is here to help. “It’s a simple one-click browser that circumvents censorship and blockades and makes the site instantly available and accessible,” says The Pirate Bay. “No bundled ad-ware, toolbars or other crap, just a pre-configured Firefox browser.”
It uses the Tor network, designed for anonymous surfing, plus FireFox and some custom add-ons. It’s not the only way to get past official blocks by any means, as proxy services have proved time and again, but it’s the Pirate Bay’s way of adding a little fuel to the fire. PirateBrowser is not completely anonymous, the Pirate Bay warns, and folks looking for a more secure set-up ought to use a virtual private network. Pirate Bay specifically names Iran, North Korea, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland as places it expects its PirateBrowser will be useful.
This isn’t for Mac, Linux or anything other than PC for the moment, though it’s possible the Pirate Bay may update its browser later. For the moment, its “tool to help people get around censorship” is all wrapped up in brightly colored paper with a big ribbon bow; time will tell how long it lasts, and whether the Pirate Bay will see another decade out.
Source: The Guardian
Published: Aug 12, 2013 01:53 pm