Those famed Swedish pirates of the world’s most popular BitTorrent tracker site are at it again, launching a nw image hosting service that promises to be free of censorship.
BayIMG is the latest and greatest project from The Pirate Bay that seeks to provide a place that’s free of the usual copyright and censorship concerns of image hosting sites like Flickr, ImageShack, and Photobucket.
What may also make the site attractive is that users upload images anonymously, making it possible to host images in a way that makes it impossible to discover who is responsible.
The site allows you to upload about 140 different formats, including .RAR and .ZIP image archives with a cap of 100MB. There’s no need for signup and registration, simply upload and go. Users are given a specific “removal code” after uploading images with which you can type in later to have them removed if you so wish.
The whole purpose of the site is to provide a haven for those whose images may otherwise not be hosted for a variety of reasons, or perhaps are even at risk of being removed due to being of a sensitive or confidential matter.
They write:
We do not censor them. We believe in freedom of speech, it’s of utter importance to us. As long as your pictures are legal they will be hosted here, but we reserve the right to remove images due to technical reasons though.
So what’s the big deal about BayIMG being uncensored?
They write:
Well, we really think it is a big deal. Freedom of speech is our foundation. And it doesn’t come cheap. You might have heard that old quote by Evelyn Beatrice Hall; “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” It’s really that simple. There are a lot of ugly opinions out there, but democracy ain’t worth much without the right to express those opinions. There is this myth about freedom of speech being a nice comfortable idea, well it’s not. It’s annoying, appalling and sometimes even dangerous. But the opposite is way worse.
Now some are already griping that it could become a haven for pedophiles and images of child pornography but, the site clearly states that “As long as your pictures are legal they will be hosted here.” Child pornography isn’t legal in Sweden. This brings up the question that don’t all image hosting sites host legal content and don’t remove anything that is not? So what will set it apart?
Posting copyrighted images is illegal for any site to do, and so it would seem that all BayIMG will protect is the ability to host images that are of sensitive content like nudity, violence, sex, drugs, guns, etc.. It will be images that fall under taste and ethics, like images of burned bodies or a guy taking bong hits. It’s these sort of fit for public consumption concerns that BayIMG will not be worried about and provide the main impetus for users to seek out the site.
The only reason why the Pirate Bay hasn’t been held liable for copyright infringement is because it only hosts trackers not the actual content people are sharing, thus illustrating that it has never actually broken any copyright laws nor has ever intended to do so. This new image hosting site will fall under that same pattern as they so clearly point out themselves. This really means that the only type of content it will attract is that of the lowest common denominator, again that which isn’t allowed elsewhere due to “taste” considerations like Nazi pics, porn, violence, etc.. I’m a big free speech guy but, there’s just some stuff that just shouldn’t have a place in modern society. To each his own opinion but, with rights comes responsibility.
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“The whole purpose of the site is to provide a haven for those whose images may otherwise not be hosted for a variety of reasons or perhaps are even at risk of being removed due to being of a sensitive or confidential matter.”
aha…I mean what for images are deleted from image host services?extrem content like nazi stuffkiddy pornscenes of hard violence.so what is the problem with that?what for sick people want to see that?I mean Im for the freedom of speech (thats for sure!!) but I don’t need to see extrem content like kiddy porn on the web!
Never had Problems with images on photobucket.
The only thing they can do better is fatser servers.
@Christoph
I agree totally I mean they cant host copyrighted content so its really only the sick stuff that that it will provide a haven for shit I dont want to see anyways.
Free speech is great but it does need some limits I think. –
Well if you read their terms of use they mention that they will host any image as long as its legal. Since kiddy porn is not legal they will no host it. For other Sweddish laws I am not as well informed but there may very well be other laws that will restrict the content you have a problem with Christophe. So in the end in my opinion this is no different then the dozens of image hosting services that already exist.
*lol
They are down!Can’t get a connection!Great PB!
@mountain_rage: ” I am not as well informed but there may very well be other laws that will restrict the content you have a problem with Christophe” I hope its not only me wich has a problem with such content.
@ Mountain Rage
I think what Christoph’s referring to is the tasteless stuff that is legal like Nazi torture violence kinda crap….that wouldnt be allowed elsewhere due to public decency policies.
Wow it is way faster than I thought.
Nice.
Yeah I agree that freedom of speech is a great thing….until some sick person posts kiddie porn or nazi propeganda or even KKK propeganda.
I think there should be SOME kind of rules in place to keep these things from happening.
lol free speech is just that
you can’t place limits on what people say and still call it free speech
you can’t hypnotize someone into doing things they don’t wish to do and captured records of events (images video and text) won’t change whats been or what someone will do
@meyou – pleanty of laws on the books but hey laws mean nothing to criminals and are almost life itself to the honest
that being said… THEY ALREADY STATE LEGAL CONTENT ONLY so why are you bothering with this kiddy porn argument?
Well said soulxtc
Dropby beasttube then CCSDUDE theres “your” freedom of speech in action
WARNING make sure you know what beasttube is before dropping by.
try googling beastiality first & then removing any children or teenagers from the room…….
or just take your laptop to a dark alley……….