Reports have claimed that Mancusi asked Italian internet service providers (ISPs) to block subscribers' access to The Pirate Bay late last week. The Pirate Bay quickly reacted, changing the address of its site to bypass the action taken by ISPs and explaining to users how they can circumvent the ISP measures.
"We're quite used to fascist countries not allowing freedom of speech. A lot of smaller nations that have dictators decide to block our site since we can help spread information that could be harmful to the dictators. This time it's Italy," said a Pirate Bay statement.
"We have already changed IP for the website – that makes it work for half the ISPs again. And we want you all to inform your Italian friends to switch their DNS to OpenDNS so they can bypass their ISPs filters. This will also let them bypass the other filters installed by the Italian government, as a bonus," said the statement.
The Pirate Bay allows users to search for links to content, most commonly to music or films offered on P2P networks without the copyright owners' permission. It is based in Sweden and has so far resisted attempts to shut it down or block access to it from a number of governments, including those of the US and Sweden itself. Earlier this year ISP Tele2 was ordered by a Danish court to block access to the site.
The small files that connect users of P2P networks to content are called torrents. The Italian authorities shut down Italian torrent-sharing site Columbo-BT two weeks ago in an anti-file sharing crackdown.
Sweden has historically had more lax intellectual property laws than other countries in Europe, but The Pirate Bay was subject to a raid by Swedish police in 2006. No charges stemmed from the raid, though The Pirate Bay said it would sue the state over it.
The Pirate Bay claims that it is not acting illegally in allowing users to search for torrents because it does not itself distribute copyright-infringing material.
