ThePirateBay was celebrating April 1st with their own practical joke this year. Earlier, they blogged that a copyright law change forced them to move to Sinai Egypt. Of course, it was all an April Fools gag. A day later, they blogged about how it was all just a practical joke.
April 1st can be a rough time for journalists, particularly for those who report online. For some, it’s a great way to spread deliberately false information as a practical joke. This year was no exception, but of course, it’s all in good fun.
“Due to the new copyright legislation that are going to take effect from today we had to move all of the system outside of Europe.” The April fools posting said. It continued, “In Sinai we’ve set up the systems with three redundant fibre links. Besides local connectivity in Egypt we also have connectivity to Saudi-Arabia and Israel. Jordan is quite close and we hope to install a link there as well as soon as our budget will reach that level. This way we’re actually hosted in Asia as well as Africa.”
The hoax was reported on by a number of places like Digg, TorrentFreak and Slyck.
Some fell for it, other’s didn’t. It’s all a matter of who had a calender immediately handy. “Totally believed it on the first glance, I have a feeling today is going to be a long day for a gullible fella like me.” Pudde from Digg commented. “What a day…” Ben Jones of TorrentFreak said. “that one escaped me.. damn you April 1st!” PixelatedEmpire of Slyck said. “Happy April Fools Day!” juggalofr33k of Digg said. “I hope no real news gets announced today, because I won’t believe it.” shawnanigans, also from Digg wrote.
A day later, ThePirateBay blogged, “Some people didn’t get the Aprils fools from last night. We’re not moving. Sinai IS a really nice place, though.”
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/ThePirateBay_April_Fools_Not_Moving_to_Egypt’;
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Well one tracker had the worst joke ever on april 1st there was a sign from the MPAA saying they took over I almost had a heart attack…
no-one believed it WASN’T an April Fools joke……you do know that right?
Be VERY careful about putting words into peoples mouths.
We at torrentFreak knew of the hoaxes beforehand. i personally talked to Brokep on the 31st about it. The same with the EZTV admins and their joke and helped bt-chat with the story for theirs.
Anyone who even pretends to conduct journalism (of any sort) should know better. Shame on you Drew Wilson and your sloppy slapdash approach. It’s not like myself or Brokep the admins at bt-chat or at EZTV are hard to contact; you just couldn’t be bothered.
In case you never noticed check the tags on the post – I thought the more observant would have noticed the ‘AF’ there (and has been there since the start) AF as in April Fools. The other major clue should have been that we and especially I do not tend to cover two stories in one report let alone FIVE. That in itself should have given it away.
Ben Jones
TorrentFreak.com
Apparently Drew Wilson fell for it hook line and sinker…
If someone can point out exactly where I said “torrentfreak fell for this hoax” I’d greatly appreciate it and edit that out. Why would I have shame for noting that TorrentFreak posted about this? Was it not posted about there? I’m sorry you took offense to me pointing out that you reported on the issue. Correct me if I’m wrong of course. Naturally. I’m always open to suggestions.
You’re a funny person Tom. If you can’t compete throw a few lies about the competition. It’s not like this is the first time you’ve done this to me OR TorrentFreak anyway.
Where there was a comma has now been changed at some point. Initially it read as if I said ‘That one escaped me’. for that reason its considered good english to start a new line or paragraph when directly quoting different people
It would behoove you to double-check punctuation and phraseology to avoid easily confused or mis-read statements. Might do you well to get a copy of the AP stylebook too – it’s often included in many journalism textbooks (my preference is Reporting for the Media – love my battered old 7th ed copy and pages 225-226 address the problem that caused the initial misunderstanding)
I didn’t buy it for a second. For those guys to announce it on April fools day was so obvious. On top of that they will go to jail before they move. These guys represent the little guy in fighting for our rights to share music and the like.