The Pirate Bay Server is down for most [DDoS UPDATE]

It appears that The Pirate Bay is down for some at the moment, but not everywhere.

There has been a lot of press recently about ISP blocks in the UK and other countries. This has leads many to think that if they've been able to access the site and suddenly they can't something horrible has happened to the site.

There's been a few posts (post 1, post 2, post 3) regarding it on their official facebook page. It seems that the issues is linked to issues with PORT80 the owner of the IP is a Swedish ISP who supplies bandwidth to the Pirate Party, and others.

A few of the proxies still seem to be working still.
Check out the full list here: http://about.thepiratecove.co.uk/proxy_list.html


UPDATE 1
It appears that the site is currently at the receiving end of a massive DDoS attack. They are working on it apparently and hopefully expect a fix soon.  Update 1 Update 2

There is some nice suggested reading TPB has offered up in the mean time to keep us all busy:
E-mail from an asshole
The Case for Copyright Reform

UPDATE 2
The site seems to be up and running now on the main domain and proxies like The Pirate Cove
Another benefit currently is that it seems Virgin Media is not currently blocking the site when accessed directly via IP address: http://194.71.107.80

Access The Pirate Bay in the UK in 4 Easy Steps

I've had the luck of being on the receiving end of the most recent blocking by Virgin Media for thepriatebay.se site. There's a few ways to get around this actually; I'll describe a few over the next few weeks beginning with the simplest one today.

The fastest and easiest solution I've found was the following.

1. Get out your trusty smartphone
2. Enable tethering and create a wireless hostpot (Android, iPhone)
3. Connect your computer to this new hotspot
4. Access thepiratebay.se

Some words of wisdom with this method.

• You'll want to pause the downloading until you're back onto your high speed broadband connection otherwise you could incur some large data charges or throttling of service.
• Tested working on Orange & T-mobile networks

Let me know if there's other networks this works on in the comments below.

Tottenham Court Rd Bomb near my old goviral / AOL / Huffington Post office

There was a bit of unusual excitement over at the offices where I used to work at goviral. There seems to have been a disgruntled lorry driver who failed his HGV exams twice. One of my former colleagues at goviral, Leon Farrell, was even quoted on the BBC site that talks about the incident in more detail.

There was a bit of a running joke around the community of goviral'ers that it might have been someone who had recently left. Wouldn't expect it from anyone of us actually.

I actually happened to be in the area today but unfortunately wan't close enough to the action and missed it by a bit. There was some funny street reporting done by HaveYouMetSonia who was live on the scene as it happened.

Compulsory Drugs Licencing forces Cheap Prescription Drugs

The decision by the Indian Patent Office to issue a compulsory licence (CL) to Natco for Bayer's anti-cancer drug Sorafenib means the drug will now be available at Rs 8,800 per month, a 97 % reduction from Bayer's Rs 2.8 lakh. Globally, people working on public health and access to medicines have welcomed the decision.

This, the first CL issued in India, can set a precedent. The 2005 Patents Act provided broad grounds for issuing a CL including: (a) the reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the patented invention have not been satisfied or (b) it is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price and (c) the patent is not being worked.

This is a rare instance globally where a general CL has been issued, not bound by 'government use' provisions or those allowed only in cases of 'extreme urgency ' or 'national emergency'. A CL that can be utilised by a generic company without encumberances means CLs could possibly be used to promote competition.

The CL on sorafenib does not only help cancer patients, it also is a step towards building domestic manufacturing capacity and knowhow in a new range of drugs.

Sorafenib is one of the first among a group of new drugs that specifically target cancer cells. Similar drugs with better results are likely to be available over time and it is important that generic manufacturers develop capacity to manufacture these.

Big Pharma has predictably responded by saying this would make it difficult for innovator companies to recoup R&D costs. It needs to take a hard look at how it prices new drugs. At nearly Rs 3 lakh for a month's treatment, Bayer is pricing out almost everybody in a country like India.

In effect, the patent is not being 'worked ' in such situations since the benefits of the invention are not accruing to those who need the drug. Patents represent a balance between the rights and obligations of a patent holder. At the core of the patent system lies the effort to make available to the largest numbers the fruits of any new innovation, while providing a fair return to the innovator.

Compulsory licensing is a key instrument in maintaining this balance. It allows regulators to break a patent holder's monopoly in situations where the monopoly is abused to deny access to the innovation to a very large number of people.

The research used by Big Pharma to develop new products is often crucially based on publicly-funded research. Why should it be free to use public-funded research while simultaneously criticizing all attempts to make sure that the benefits of new research also serve public health goals?

It was with great anticipation that the innovative pharmaceutical industry welcomed the introduction of product patent laws in 2005. Intellectual property rights are the driving forces behind the pharmaceutical industry without which the world would have no new medicines to meet unmet medical needs of today and tomorrow. And yet March 12, 2012 could be a major inflection point for the future of innovative pharmaceuticals in India with the grant of the first compulsory licence for a pharmaceutical product.

Compulsory licences are powerful rights granted to governments to deal with extraordinary circumstances such as a national health crisis and must hence be used with extreme prudence.

As per TRIPS, WTO-member states can grant a compulsory licence in case of national emergency, in case of public non- commercial use, in case of anti-competitive practices or in case of a dependent patent if additional criteria are met. If used injudiciously, compulsory licences will in fact work to the detriment of the patient through the negative impact they will have on future investment in innovative pharmaceuticals.

The long road to innovative research in the pharmaceutical industry is fraught with risk. Consider that only five out of 5,000 experimental compounds in development will reach clinical trials, and only one of those five - at a cost according to one recent analysis ranging from $4-12 billion for each medicine approved depending on the company - will reach the marketplace. Thus each successful molecule that makes it as a drug needs to pay for the thousands of those molecules that fail

India needs to tackle far more serious issues that impede healthcare in the country rather than look at striking at the roots of innovation. Local manufacture in countries where patents are granted is impractical for diseases where patient pools are small. Issuing of compulsory licences will not significantly expand access as even at reduced prices generics are out of reach for the poor in India.

Poor people in India will suffer needlessly until a variety of issues such as lack of diagnosis, healthcare infrastructure and distribution are solved. Existence of trained healthcare staff and infrastructure, cultural acceptability of treatment, accessibility of healthcare facilities and quality of care all play a role in making medicines available.

Issuing of compulsory licences is a shortcut that may help a few in the short- term but the long-term damage to future health of the world will be dramatic and far more costly. The innovative pharmaceutical industry hopes that India will actually look to the long-term future of public health and want to be a global leader in innovation while serving the needs of the Indian patient.

Guinness World Record for Hamster Flips

I'm going to show this video to my dog and see if she can learn a trick of two from this little hamster. There's some tough competition out in the world of filps with the likes of pancake flips, wheelchair back flips, forward jump flips, and twisting "Berani" flips.

I think this little guy can put on a good show.