While most Pirate Bay users download recent content, some older torrents still manage to survive. An episode of the Swedish television series "High Chaparral" recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Other older torrents, including a copy of the documentary "Revolution OS," are also still active after two decades.
When The Pirate Bay first appeared online, in the second half of 2003"The Internet" was nothing like what it is today.
A Harvard student had yet to start writing the first lines of code for a new idea, called "TheFacebook." YouTube didn't exist yet either, and the same goes for the smartphones that dominate people's lives today.
At that time, all popular entertainment was consumed offline. People interested in watching a movie could use the Internet to purchase a DVD from an early web store or sign up for Netflix, which mailed discs. However, on-demand access simply did not exist. At least, not legally.
However, things were changing. napster had made it clear that the Internet had the potential to bring music to the masses, even if it was illegal. And with BitTorrent technology, The Pirate Bay expanded this "free library" to other types of media, including television shows and movies.
The oldest torrent on Pirate Bay
Today more than two decades have passed and most of the files shared on The Pirate Bay in the early years are no longer available. BitTorrent requires at least one person to share a full copy of the file, which is difficult to maintain for decades.
However, surprisingly, several torrents have managed to stand the test of time and are still available today. A few days ago, the oldest torrent on the site turned 20 years old.
While some candidates have appeared over the years, we believe that an episode of “Upper Chaparral” has the honor of being the oldest Pirate Bay torrent still active today. The file was originally uploaded on March 25, 2004, and continues to be shared by several people today.
The screenshot above only lists one seeder, but according to the information conveyed by OpenTrackr.org, there are four seeders with a complete copy. This is a pretty notable achievement, especially since people complained about the lack of seeders shortly after it was uploaded.
cult status
Over the years, the “Alto Chaparral” torrent achieved cult status among a small group of people who probably continue to share it, simply because it is the oldest preserved torrent. This became evident in the Pirate Bay comments section several years ago, when TPB still had comments.
"Well, I guess since this is part of TPB history, I'll add it to my Raspberry Pi torrent server so it spawns forever," zak0403 wrote.
Revolution and Fanimatrix operating system
Record or not, other old torrents on The Pirate Bay also continue to thrive. On March 31, 2004, someone came up a pirated copy of the documentary”Revolution operating system”to the site that is alive and well today.
“Revolution OS” covers the history of Linux, GNU, and the free software movement, which was a good fit for early Pirate Bay fans. Eleven years ago we spoke with director JTS Moore, who I was not happy that people were pirating the documentary, but he was still glad to see that it hadn't lost its appeal.
Fast forward to today and Revolution OS still has a lot of interest, with over 30 people actively seeding the torrent.
While these torrents are quite old, they are not the oldest active torrents available on the Internet. That the honor goes to “La Fanimatrix”which was created in September 2003 and, having previously been resurrected, continues to be available today with over 100 people planting.
Ten years ago, we were surprised to see that some of the torrents mentioned were still active. However, at this point we would not be surprised to see these torrents survive for decades. Whether The Pirate Bay will continue to exist then is another question.
