AustLit

'Within moments of joining Swedish thinktank Piratbyran, anakata had formed a clear vision for the group. BitTorrent, a communication protocol, had been designed in the United States two years prior, and interest in its peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution capabilities was rising. Unlike more rudimentary P2P services, it had the ability to transmit large files. As a result, when he floated the idea of building a BitTorrent tracker, some of the more vocal members expressed their enthusiasm; the group was already hosting humour sites, image-hosting portals... why not another website? !is was especially crucial following the rise of copyright lobby group Antipiratbyran, whose activities were rooted in spreading anti-piracy propaganda: that "intellectual property" was a good, that jobs were being stolen, that piracy was killing creativity. But as ever, Piratbyran's primary purpose was to promote the sharing of information.' (Publication abstract)