PRQ is a Swedish

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

and web hosting company created in 2004.

Ownership

Based in Stockholm, PRQ was created by

Gottfrid Svartholm Per Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (born 17 October 1984), alias anakata, is a Swedish computer specialist, known as the former co-owner of the web hosting company PRQ and co-founder of the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay together with Fredrik Neij and ...

and

Fredrik Neij Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij (born 27 April 1978), alias TiAMO, is the co-founder of The Pirate Bay, and the Swedish Internet service provider and web hosting company PRQ. Neij was one of the defendants in The Pirate Bay Trial which began on 16 Feb ...

, two founders of

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute ma ...

Business model

Part of PRQ's business model is to host any customers regardless of how odd or controversial they may be. ''The New York Times'' wrote in 2008 that "The Pirate Bay guys have made a sport out of taunting all forms of authority, including the Swedish police, and PRQ has gone out of its way to be a host to sites that other companies would not touch." The PRQ service has been described as "highly secure, no-questions-asked hosting services". The company holds almost no information about its clientele and is maintaining few if any of its own logs, according to a 2008 news report.Goodin, Dan
Wikileaks judge gets Pirate Bay treatment
''The Register'', 21 February 2008. Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm are said to have amassed "considerable expertise in withstanding legal attacks". Svartholm is quoted to have said, "We do employ our own legal staff. We are used to this sort of situation" in a telephone interview. Due to hosting The Pirate Bay, PRQ was target of a

police raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politicall ...

Criticism

The co-founders have been criticized for hosting controversial websites, including web pages that promote

paedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

,Carp, Ossi
Pedofilsajt tar skydd av lagen
''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

'', 5 June 2007Libbenga, Jan
Pirate Bay founders host paedophilia site
''The Register''. 5 June 2007. such as the

North American Man/Boy Love Association The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a pedophilia and pederasty advocacy organization in the United States. It works to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the rel ...

(NAMBLA), a paedophile and pederasty advocacy organization. Local authorities and anti-paedophilia activists in Sweden have failed to persuade PRQ to close the sites.Vinthagen, Peter
Police powerless to close paedophile forums
''The Local'', 9 April 2010. The pair defended their decision, citing freedom of speech. The co-owners were also criticized for creating and hosting AMERICASDUMBESTSOLDIERS.COM, a website identifying deceased military personnel that invited visitors to rank how "dumb" the soldiers were based on the manner in which they died. Other criticism originates from the hosting of BitTorrent website

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, and the French far-right blog Fdesouche.

Legal issues

On 1 October 2012, PRQ was raided and a number of sites which they provided hosting for were taken offline for alleged copyright infringement.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

The Swiss bank of Web hosts
''Foreign Policy'' on PRQ Internet service providers of Sweden The Pirate Bay Intellectual property activism Web hosting Information privacy Internet privacy Companies based in Stockholm County