The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has denounced the Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud as useless, saying measures already exist for governments to access cloud data in cross-border criminal investigations.
Julian Heathcote Hobbins, general counsel for FAST, said, while the website’s move to the cloud complicates matters for those wishing to enforce their copyright, “it is not a game-changer in the fight against internet piracy.”
Heathcote Hobbins said the Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud is just the latest phase in the “on-going technological war between those who wish to proliferate illicit copies” and those trying to stop them.
“It is logical that The Pirate Bay is following the trend to move to the cloud to reap certain technological rewards. However, internet piracy in its general sense has been borderless for years and there is good cross-border co-operation between countries, I can only see this as improving as more nation states seek to rely on intellectual property as a source of economic prosperity for their citizens,” he added.
Frank Jennings, a specialist cloud lawyer and chair of the Cloud Industry Forum's governance board, stated: "By moving entirely into the cloud, enforcement action against Pirate Bay becomes tougher. However, governments and rights holders have the law on their side and, by cooperating across borders, they will make it difficult for Pirate Bay.
“The key is to go after the people controlling the site and not just the data,” he concluded.
