The Pirate Bay Torrents on Facebook

The Pirate Bay has extended its file sharing system to social networking site Facebook. With a single click, Facebook users can add torrents to their profile from the Pirate Bay to share with friends, a development that could put Facebook in the middle of the copyright battle between copyright holders and the torrent site.

Torrentfreak reports that a linked button labeled ‘Share on Facebook’ now appears on Pirate Bay search results. By clicking the link, users can share torrent trackers, which are widely used to download music and movie files via the bit torrent protocol. The trackers are then added to the users’ Facebook profile, where others can simply click to download.

Provided that the Facebook user has a bit torrent program, there is no need to even visit The Pirate Bay, essentially taking their service out of the file sharing loop. Obviously, copyright holders aren’t happy, and already, a representative from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has told the Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten that offering links to torrents of copyrighted works is illegal.

As websites such as The Pirate Bay add more social media sharing features, and torrents start popping up everywhere, file sharing is going to become easier, and the snowball trend towards free music will continue. It seems only a matter of time before the RIAA or Facebook’s operators themselves get involved to try and combat this new feature.

Should the Pirate Bay-to-Facebook links be allowed?

Source: Torrentfreak