Farewell, Piratbyran

If you're sentimental like me, a bit of sad news, this via the BBC:

Pirate Bay Founding Group Disbands

The Swedish anti-copyright group Piratbyran, which gave rise to the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has disbanded.

Marcin de Kaminski, a founder of Piratbyran, which means "piracy bureau" in English, told BBC News "we don't feel we are needed" any more.

But the group also decided to close following the death of a co-founder.

[. . . .]

Piratbyran first emerged in 2003, as a response to the Swedish body Antipiratbyran (anti-piracy bureau), which works to counter the sharing of copyrighted materials on-line.

Mr de Kaminski claimed that Piratbyran had "normalised" the use of file-sharing networks: "to make sure that people don't feel ashamed about being file-sharers, but that it is a natural and quite common activity online".

[. . . .]

Mr de Kaminski said that Piratbyran "has not been involved with Pirate Bay for five years or more", but that he expected the site to continue operating.

He also attributed the closure of Piratbyran to the death of one of its co-founders, Ibi Kopimi Botani: "Our group was very small, and when one of our members is no longer alive, it is hard to keep the group alive," he said.

Hopefully comforting emphasis mine.