Monday, Mar 30, 2009    Text size: 

Although the proprietors of The Pirate Bay are still awaiting the outcome of their high-profile trial, they continue to expand and develop new products that help users share media files, and that often means pirated media files.

How does file-sharing on Facebook work? Simply. Anyone who has shared an article or video on Facebook will be familiar with the interface. Users who search for torrent files on The Pirate Bay will now have the option to share the torrent link on their Facebook profile.

The feature appears on all torrent listings, including the extensive adult pages. A simple adult search turned up hundreds of results, including this listing for a title starring performer Eve Laurence.

According to leading torrenting blog Torrent Freak, this new feature makes sharing files easy for anyone.

"Users clicking this button will be taken to the Facebook where the torrent will be added to the user’s profile," said staff writer Enigmax. "Anyone browsing the user’s profile page can simply click on the torrent and provided a torrent client is installed, download begins straightaway with no need to visit the Pirate Bay site."

Although Facebook doesn't exactly smile on adult content, its terms of service make users solely responsible for the content on their pages. And even if Facebook explicitly banned adult content, the links to adult listings on The Pirate Bay include no adult images or videos — it's all text. In addition, many adult performers maintain popular Facebook pages.

That said, industry professional Media of AdultDevelopments.com speculated that this feature would be short-lived.

"I think Facebook will cut this widget down quickly when they catch on," he told XBIZ. "I don't think they want to be mixed up with file sharing and the controversy over [The Pirate Bay]. And I don't think they want to be a contributing party in violation of intellectual property rights."

The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde said that no one on his team has heard any complaints from Facebook about the new feature.

“They're monitoring their portal every day," he said. "They should have noticed it long ago.”