Pirate Bay's 'brokep' details new SuprNova.org
The Pirate Bay Founders, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm
(Credit: Pontus Alexander/Fabian Landgren)Partying with "cute blondes," and maintaining one of the world's most influential underground Web sites keeps The Pirate Bay team busy, according to cofounder Peter Sunde. But in their spare time, the three Scandinavians have labored to bring back SuprNova.org.
In an e-mail interview with CNET News.com, Sunde detailed some of the site's new features and launch timetable (there isn't one). He also outlined why his group wanted to bring back SuprNova, which boasted a rabid following before shutting down in 2004 as a result of legal action by the movie industry.
"We want to send a finger to the ones who try to stop sites like (SuprNova and The Pirate Bay)." Sunde wrote in his e-mail. "It's not right to close them down and this is proof that you can't. I think this is the first time in history that any closed file-sharing site has returned and that's just awesome for us to be part of."
Hollywood has accused SuprNova and The Pirate Bay, founded by Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, of encouraging copyright theft. They track BitTorrent files that are often used to download unauthorized copies of TV shows and movies. A representative for the Motion Picture Assoc. of America (MPAA), could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Sunde said SuprNova is going to be a starter site for those new to BitTorrent.
"SuprNova will be for the beginners," Sunde wrote. "It's easier to use than most sites out there and we want everybody to be able to use it. We will probably also run a new java applet client on the site for those who do not know what a torrent is--that means you can press another download link and it will open a client directly with no installation and still download."
SuprNova will differ from The Pirate Bay in significant ways. First, SuprNova will be a torrent index and according to Sunde, the site will feature over 1 million torrents at launch.
"The Pirate Bay has its own trackers," Sunde wrote. "We have more info on the torrents since people upload them to the site and describe them."
An important difference between SuprNova and other Torrent trackers is that the site won't be censored. "We will be the first indexer site where you can find stuff even though people want the stuff removed," Sunde said.
As for reports that the site will debut this week, Sunde didn't want to commit to a certain date.
"It will launch as soon as we're done with the site," he said. "As you know we're not very conventional. We party, we have girls over (blondes most of the time) and we do this in our spare time. It was supposed to launch in February really so we're a bit slow."
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET.
