PeRiQuito AB, better known as PRQ, hosts some of WikiLeaks’ servers and also offered its hosting services to the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay. A few days ago the Swedish police showed up to seize its servers.
This Monday, Stockholm police came to PRQ to seize 4 of its servers. At the same day, PRQ’s own official site and The Pirate Bay’s website went down. However, the company’s representatives denied that these events had anything to do with the raid. PRQ insisted that the power shortages were due to some technical problems.
In the meantime, it is still unknown whose servers were confiscated, because PRQ services a lot of dubious portals, including WikiLeaks, Pedophile.se, the Man-Boy Love Association, and a Chechen rebel website. The company claimed that it doesn’t care what these services say, it still defends its clients despite the fact that they are very controversial – especially Pedophile.se and NAMBLA. PRQ says it doesn’t cooperate with the authorities unless it has no other choice. It also admitted that they still host WikiLeaks, but broke relations with The Pirate Bay, regardless of the fact that two of the TPB founders were the ones who helped to launch the company eight years ago. One of them is, by the way, well-known Gottfrid Svartholm, who is currently kept in detention by Swedish authorities.
It wasn’t the first time PRQ became the target of the law enforcement authorities. It was also raided in 2006 because of its connections with The Pirate Bay, and then in 2010 when the police were after a file-sharing network known as “The Scene”. Although details of the current raid weren’t released, taking into account the nature of its clients everything is possible. PRQ asks its clients no question and generally has no idea who their customers are, because under the Swedish law, it’s not required to.
This Monday, Stockholm police came to PRQ to seize 4 of its servers. At the same day, PRQ’s own official site and The Pirate Bay’s website went down. However, the company’s representatives denied that these events had anything to do with the raid. PRQ insisted that the power shortages were due to some technical problems.
In the meantime, it is still unknown whose servers were confiscated, because PRQ services a lot of dubious portals, including WikiLeaks, Pedophile.se, the Man-Boy Love Association, and a Chechen rebel website. The company claimed that it doesn’t care what these services say, it still defends its clients despite the fact that they are very controversial – especially Pedophile.se and NAMBLA. PRQ says it doesn’t cooperate with the authorities unless it has no other choice. It also admitted that they still host WikiLeaks, but broke relations with The Pirate Bay, regardless of the fact that two of the TPB founders were the ones who helped to launch the company eight years ago. One of them is, by the way, well-known Gottfrid Svartholm, who is currently kept in detention by Swedish authorities.
It wasn’t the first time PRQ became the target of the law enforcement authorities. It was also raided in 2006 because of its connections with The Pirate Bay, and then in 2010 when the police were after a file-sharing network known as “The Scene”. Although details of the current raid weren’t released, taking into account the nature of its clients everything is possible. PRQ asks its clients no question and generally has no idea who their customers are, because under the Swedish law, it’s not required to.
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