The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest BitTorrent search engine, was taken down by Swedish Police at the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America two days ago. The charge is that Pirate Bay was aiding in the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. However, copyright laws in Sweden are notoriously lenient, and officials of Pirate Bay, who openly taunt the MPAA, are saying that they will be back online in a matter of days. This could be a major blow to peer-to-peer BitTorrent sites, possibly setting the illegal trading of files on the internet back days, or even weeks. Most observers expect Pirate Bay to return, or a replacement to arise to fill the void.

The Los Angles Times has in-depth coverage here. Other viewpoints can be found here, and here. Wikpedia offers updated information at the Pirate Bay entry on their website.