The Pirate Bay sold for $6.7M US, goes legit.

This is a big surprise to me.

The Pirate Bay, the worlds largest BitTorrent tracker and a top 100 website, is in the process of selling itself to a software company. Maybe the constant legal battles have caused the founders to throw in the towel, or maybe it is the fact that they will end up going to jail shortly due to a major legal loss, but this sale comes as a major surprise.

One thing The Pirate Bay has consistently preached was independence. With the purchase by Global Gaming Factory X, and the implementation of a “new business model”, it seems that all The Pirate Bay once stood for is long since gone. Before you know it, The Pirate Bay will be synonymous with Napster as they fade into Internet history.

Remember that North Korean Ship the U.S. was tracking?

Sometime within the last two weeks the U.S. started tracking a North Korean ship suspected of carry weapons banned by the U.N. anti-proliferation resolution. I feel this was a sign to North Korea that the U.S. wasn’t going to sit around as they continued to flaunt laws in the face of the U.N, as well as a test to see just how committed China was to dealing with North Korea.

Well, the Kang Nam – the ship the U.S. was tracking – has turned around, leaving the world questioning where is the ship going and what is the next step in the game of Maritime chess.  The shit has been at sea for nearly two weeks at this point, eventually it will need to refuel.  When that time comes where will it find safe harbor and will the U.S. find a way to board it at that time?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says political overthrow has failed

Since the massive and bloody riots at Baharestan Square, very little news has come out of Iran regarding the uprising.  From what I can tell – reading the Twitter, Facebook and blog posts of those in in Iran – the revolution has all but come to an end.

Today Mahmood Ahmadinejad stated the overthrow driven by “political enemies of Iran” has failed:

“The enemies were not able to reach their objectives for the soft overthrow of the system,” he said, according to the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency, or ILNA. “The enemy is pursuing the objective of undermining the nation’s capabilities after the 85% turnout at the polls.”

And so, life goes on… sad from my perspective. Not because of a specific outcome but because the people of Iran have, apparently, been robbed of their ability to determine their future.

After a quiet day of protests yesterday, it appears the situation has heated up once again in Iran – Specifically in Baharestan Square. Check out the live blogging notes, pictures and video:

>The streets, squares and around BAHARESTAN (Approx. South-eastern of Tehran) is swarming with military forces, civilian forces, the security motorists

>Political prisoners and jurnalists were taken to critical condition in 209 Evin, washington times’s jurnalist was arrest!

>The military plain clothes have entered the crowd with high speed on bikes, they are beating people with cable and batons, almost everyone in the crowd is injured, there is blood everywhere!

>In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping people like meat – blood everywhere – like butcher

>All shops and Passages are closed at Baharestan SQ, Gunshot being heard from Jomhori St

If any of this is true, the situation on the ground is unimaginable. It would also explain why Iran has been pushing the media out of the country – so the government could do whatever it wishes without the world watching. Also check out Tehran Bureau for updates.

UPDATE #1: Here is a transcript of an eyewitness account of Baharestan Square. Remember, the situation is fluid – most is unconfirmed – but it’s apparent something of note is going on.

UPDATE #2: Apparently the Iranian prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, Saeed Motazavi, is now in charge of the crack down on protesters. He was also the man who oversaw the arrest and trial of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced to eight years for spying.

UPDATE #3: Andrew Sullivan has a few quotes about the situation in the Square, also points out that far right candidate Mohsen Rezaie is no longer contesting the vote due to “political, social and security”.

For several days now, I’ve posted updates regarding the events in Iran. I have a great amount of hesitation in posting this, however; if one really wants to know what is going on with the protests, one cannot look away simply because the truth is ugly, vile or disturbing.

That said, I give you a video of a young Irania protester by the name of Neda and the last seconds of her life.

This video is very disturbing.

If you have ANY hesitation, if you DO NOT want to see a graphic scene created – apparently – by the Basij, an Iranian paramilitary force, DO NOT watch (LAST WARNING) this video…

This young woman, Neda, is the face of the Iranian revolution.

UPDATE on 6/21/09: The LA Times is covering it now, and check out the action on Twitter about her and it appears the video is now being shown on CNN.

UPDATE #2 on 6/21/09: Here is the Wikipedia entry for her.

UPDATE #3 on 6/21/09: Apparently her name was Neda Agha Soltan (also going by Neda Soltani)

UPDATE #4 on 6/22/09: La Figa has an email from an individual apparently from one of the people who tried to help Neda (from Andrew Sullivan)> Not confirmed but worth a read.

At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.

I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.

Please let the world know.

UPDATE #5 on 6/22/09: The “Guardian Council” is now admitting more than 100% of the vote was counted in a number of cities. Still does not help Neda at this point.

UPDATE #6 on 6/22/09: iReport has a picture of her grave, and it sounds like the government played the censorship card on this as well.

UPDATE #7 on 6/22/09: Neda’s fiance, Caspian Makan, spoke with BBC Persian about her Neda’s death. Good read. I find the following paragraphs to be sad:

On Monday afternoon, we had planned to hold a memorial service at the mosque.

But the authorities there and the paramilitary group, the Basij, wouldn’t allow it because they were worried it would attract unwanted attention and they didn’t want anymore trouble.

The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story. So that’s why they didn’t want a memorial service. They were afraid that lots people could turn up at the event.

So as things stand now, we are not allowed to hold any gatherings to remember Neda.

Update #8 on 6/23/09: More from Caspian Makan, her fiance, saying Neda was caught up in the protest:

“She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic,” it quoted him as saying. “She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just a few minutes.”

Update #9 on 6/23/09: Iran sent letters to mosques banning collective prayers for Neda.

Update #10 on 6/23/09: Now Caspian Makan, the reported boyfriend/fiance of Neda, is saying he asked her to not go to the protest:

“I tried to dissuade her from going out in the streets because I’d seen in my work as a journalist that, unfortunately, there are a lot of merciless behaviours,”

UPDATE #11 on 6/23/09: Jezebel has an outstanding wrap-up on the events surrounding Neda, including a bit I had not read before – the Iranian press is saying “incident was planned” by protesters.