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What Happened to The Pirate Bay?
The Pirate Bay is spending more and more time in offline mode these days as the site’s operators struggle to keep consistent up-times in one reliable web address. As a result, it has deprived a good number of BitTorrent enthusiasts of one of their favorite sources of working torrent sites.
Over the years since its launch in the early-2000s, the popular peer-to-peer file-sharing site has withstood several shutdowns and seizures over copyright issues. Now, The Pirate Bay is largely kept up by mirrors and proxies, which allow users to easily access the site’s content.
With that said, the situation is not as hopeless or desperate as some sources have made it out to be. If the site is not working for you, then there are plenty of other Pirate Bay alternatives and mirrors you can try.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. Security Gladiators in no way encourages or condones any kind of copyright violation or circumvention of restrictions. While there are some legal files on The Pirate Bay, there are also some files on it that might be pirated and therefore illegal to download or upload in some countries. We do not give out legal advice, so do your own research to see if it is legal or not to use The Pirate Bay from your location.
Some of the most reliable The Pirate Bay mirror websites are:
- thepiratebay3.com (very fast and offers SSL protection)
- tpb.party (fast and offers SSL protection)
- thehiddenbay.com (fast and offers SSL protection)
If you don’t know what The Pirate Bay mirrors are, you should think of them as replicas of the original site. These mirror websites offer a near-identical interface with the same content that exists on The Pirate Bay. We are aware that a lot of mirror websites claim they’re run by the same people behind the original The Pirate Bay. But there is no evidence for that claim.
In our experience, The Pirate Bay mirror websites rise up from supporters and fans of the original site. That is one of the reasons why it’s so easy to stumble upon mirror sites that are illegitimate. Hackers and scammers have now managed to put up fake mirror sites in order to capitalize on The Pirate Bay’s continued popularity. They use such sites to trick users into downloading malware, ransomware or other malicious programs. The advertising on such sites is also malicious.
What Exactly Is The Pirate Bay?
The Pirate Bay, or otherwise known as TPB, is a simple website that offers users a huge searchable database of different torrent files and magnet links. Most visitors to this site have to make use of appropriate software applications in order to download the files.
The content on the site is mostly related to categories such as:
- Movies
- E-Books
- Games
- Audio files (including audiobooks)
- Software
- 3-D printable objects and models
The Pirate Bay first launched in 2003, establishing itself as an early fixture of the torrenting community. Over the years, even in spite of major legal events, the site has amassed a global reputation as one of the top torrenting outlets in the world. With high levels of web traffic and engagement, The Pirate Bay ranks within the top 200 websites globally, according to Alexa statistics.
The Pirate Bay now has thousands upon thousands of torrents for users who are willing to become part of the community by downloading their favorite torrent files. Regardless of how rare the content you want to download is, chances are you will find it all on The Pirate Bay.
In the beginning, the entirety of The Pirate Bay ran from a single machine. Of course, with the site climbing the ranks of top torrent websites, the administrators had to invest in more infrastructure to make it easy for users to browse torrents and download files.
Most of the time, you should have no problem accessing The Pirate Bay via its main website, thepiratebay.org. But still, it’s always better to know TPB mirror sites, which we briefly mentioned above.
How to Download Movies from The Pirate Bay
The reason why The Pirate Bay has topped global rankings of torrent websites is precisely because of the experience it offers to the public. Anyone can access the site using BitTorrent clients.
There is little doubt that online users in different countries have different tastes when it comes to downloading torrent files. But luckily, TPB is able to cater to them all.
It doesn’t really matter where the online user comes from when they access the site. The Pirate Bay has now reached a point where it is able to stay afloat most days of the year.
But there is a certain method that the online public has to use in order to make sure that they get the games, movies or audio files that they want.
The first thing that the online public needs to know is that torrents are only files that do not go beyond a few kilobytes in size. Downloading them is as easy as any other file on the internet.
After you browse torrent files, if you want to download them you have to make use of a BitTorrent client. There are plenty of BitTorrent
platforms available on the internet, so just take your pick of options.
Now to get the actual file on your computer (via local storage), you also need a decent media player (we won’t touch on that topic in this guide.). To learn about the best safe torrent clients, you should click here to read our guide covering this topic in depth. Make sure you download a torrent client that supports your operating system. Different torrent clients support different types of platforms such as Linux, Windows and macOS. The market now even offers free BitTorrent clients for Android users.
How to Use The Pirate Bay Safely
A site that’s filled with some of the greatest movies, games and other content is bound to attract the attention of hackers. This is the reality of torrenting.
For online users in most countries, torrent downloads are more or less flagged as unsafe because there is a lot of malware on torrent sites. In fact, there are very few torrent sites that are completely clean and allow users to browse torrents in a safe manner.
Yes, you do have sites like eztv and The Pirate Bay mirror sites, but sometimes even these can succumb to undesirable outcomes that these torrent sites have little control over. And once an online resource such as TPB gets as big as it is today, even the slightest hint of malware or phishing can infect countless online users.
We should also mention here that even the official TPB had to suffer one of these potentially catastrophic events in the past when hackers managed to corrupt the site via cookie stealing programs and malware. Fortunately, today’s established web browsers like Chrome and Firefox have the ability to ban such sites. The Pirate Bay did recover though.
So if you don’t want to go to eztv, then how should you stay online and still managed to browse torrents on TPB safely? There are two tools
you need to use for this: VPN services and ad blockers. Different proxies also allow safe and anonymous access to The Pirate Bay, but they’re not as reliable as VPN services. Besides, we have not seen too many proxies that do a good job of hiding your IP address (which is critical when you access torrent sites like TPB).
Some ad blockers are comprehensive enough that they protect users from invasive advertisements and social media links. Most of the ad blockers on the market today are free to use. You should have no problem downloading them from official add-on/extension repositories on the internet. But do pay attention to the reviews that other online users have written about different ad-blockers. Also, try to read reviews from users that come from different countries.
VPN services of today are not only able to keep your data safe but are also good at managing your digital identity. That’s very important since privacy is everything in the online world.
This is just one more reason for online users to invest in a decent VPN service that is easily able to change your IP address and protect it from hackers so you can browse torrents and download your favorite shows and movies without any worry. Click here to learn more about the best VPNs for safe torrenting.
On that note, let’s not forget the interest of third parties like government agencies, marketing companies and internet service providers, who all want to get access to your online data. So you may be just minding your business browsing your favorite games on the internet, while simultaneously your internet service provider is busy collecting your data to sell it to the highest bidder in the marketing industry.
A VPN service can help you avoid this if you use it correctly. And you don’t need some specialized training to use a VPN service safely. All you really have to do is:
- Sign up for a VPN service.
- Download the VPN app for your platform.
- Install the VPN app.
- Log in with your credentials.
- Connect to a fast VPN server.
- Then access TPB or any of your other alternatives.
That is really it. There is little else to protecting yourself on the internet while you’re browsing torrent sites.
Up-time Status: Is The Pirate Bay Working?
There is no simple answer to this question. That’s why you see so many people talking about it on the internet. However, is The Pirate Bay working for you?
That depends on factors such as where you live and how you access the internet. This is a very common problem for members of the online public. Some just can’t access The Pirate Bay for several reasons. Let’s take a look at some of the most important ones:
Government Policy
This is perhaps the most important and significant reason. Some countries have set rules to keep people from accessing The Pirate Bay and other sites that may host copyrighted content. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government has strict policies against citizens using torrent sites and internet service providers allowing access to them.
Courts in the U.K. have now decreed that all internet service providers must block access to sites like The Pirate Bay. If you try to access TPB
in the U.K., you will probably get a message informing you that the site is blocked by the ISP as required by U.K. courts to assist against trademark and copyright infringement.
In short, you can’t see the site.
Orders for the Hosting Company to Shut Down the Site
This happens more often than you’d think. It’s also a reason why online users are unable to access The Pirate Bay. A given authority can take action against a given torrent site like TPB, especially an authority in the country where the site is hosted. Law enforcement agencies may order the host to take down the site unless the host wants them to block access to it.
Historically speaking and taking into account the outcomes of past “takedown” events, action against the operators or administrators of a given torrent site has proved more or less ineffective. That is the reason why law enforcement authorities have started to investigate platforms that host such sites. Companies that allow such sites to register domain names are also implicated, along with the advertisers on such sites.
Overwhelmed Servers
Maybe the torrent site you’re trying to access on any given day has too many online users at the moment and, because of that, its servers may be overwhelmed with an unusual volume of traffic. This is a common occurrence in the torrenting world, especially when there is a new popular movie or video game that everyone wants to watch or play.
Another common issue is that the torrent site has not managed to fully register modifications to its DNS servers, which means the site may be inaccessible or not functioning properly.
The Pirate Bay Alternatives & Mirrors
P2PGuru
P2PGuru.com is the place you need to be if The Pirate Bay, the holy grail of torrent sites, is unavailable to you. This torrent site is new, but it is quickly becoming popular because of the fact that it doesn’t have any ads and takes measures to make the process of downloading torrents as easy as possible for the online public.
TPB-Mirror
Sometimes you will find that no matter what you do, you just can’t get to the official ThePirateBay.org website. In that case, you can use TPB-Mirror. As far as torrent browsing experience is concerned, it is exactly like TPB. The site has a near-identical user interface and allows users to access a sizable torrent index without any obstructions.
In other words, you can’t go wrong with TPB-Mirror when the original TPB is not working.
OfflineBay
Some call it TPB offline mode. In our experience, OfflineBay is a solid application in its own right. Basically, it is an offline archive of all TPB torrents. It downloads and updates a huge dump file to keep things in their proper order.
At the moment, you can download OfflineBay on any given popular operating system such as Linux, macOS or Windows. Again, OfflineBay is just an application and not a torrent site. It just offers an offline cache of TPB. Developers of this software have used NodeJS and the package is open-source, which allows other software developers from all corners of the globe to contribute something.
ExtraTorrent
If you asked us to pick a favorite TPB alternative, then we would always go with ExtraTorrent. And we aren’t the only ones: The whole torrent community considers ExtraTorrent as one of the most authentic torrent sites on the internet. ExtraTorrent can best be described as a multi-niche torrent website with more than 1 million offerings. The community surrounding the website is very active and provides torrenters not just with useful tips on how to download torrents but also insights on life itself.
ExtraTorrent also has a VPN client that it claims helps users to stay away from internet service providers that ban you. The website also says its VPN client can help people stay safe from any legal action on the part of law enforcement agencies in their country.
As far as the user interface is concerned, we feel that it is simple. And that’s probably why it is easy to use as well. The website even has a news section that keeps people updated on the latest happenings in the world of torrents.
RARBG
This torrent site came to life in 2008 and started supporting magnet links big time. RARBG offers torrents related to categories such as operating system distributions along with movies, audio files, software and, of course, books.
With such a clean interface it is no wonder why people consider it as one of the cleanest and easiest to use. There are some ads though, so either install an ad-blocker or prepare to click for minutes on end to get rid of ads on the site.
Katcr.co
This is definitely not the original KickAssTorrents website, but it is a pretty good clone. Law enforcement authorities finally shutdown KAT a couple of years ago, and since then, KATCR.co has taken the mantle of being a friendly place to download items that the online public would not find anywhere else.
Just so you know, the team behind the original KAT website has not said a single word about this clone, so take that as you may.
YTS.AG
YTS.AG is the place you should go if you only want to download movies and nothing else. You should have no problem using the site to quickly download movies in 720p and 1080p.
Just like pretty much all the other websites on this list, YTS.AG has had to change its original domain several times because of law enforcement agencies threatening to shut it down. You can always refer to Google to find the latest link working for YTS.AG.
AIO Search
As its name suggests, AIO Search is a search engine for torrents. This site is just like Google, except it doesn’t always display legitimate results. AIO Search’s strength is its appealing, user-friendly interface. It’s simple and easy to use.
Just use a VPN service and an ad-blocker before accessing the site, even though sometimes it won’t show you any ads. As is commonly stated, if there is a torrent website that does not show you any ads, you have to wonder how the site generates revenue. To be safe, use an ad-blocker and VPN.
Popcorn Time
Popcorn Time is more of a free Netflix alternative than a TPB alternative. There is no limit to the number of movies and games you can get using this resource. It works both on desktop and mobile platforms. Each TV series and movie has a genre listed alongside it and you don’t even need to download a BitTorrent client in order to consume movies here.