The Pirate Bay working on VPN service to cover your tracks

The guys behind The Pirate Bay are working on an anonymous VPN service named IPREDator, it's a move against the launch of the Swedish Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) which will go in effect in April. The purpose of IPREDator is to enable torrent users to share files without fear of being tracked by law enforcement. The VPN service is currently in private beta and is expected to be released next week for 5EUR per month.

IPREDator is clearly a response to the introduction of IPRED in Sweden, which will allow law enforcement and copyright holders to request the personal details of suspected infringers. The copyright holders will then be able to make direct contact with the accused users and presumably threaten them with lawsuits.

If users connect to The Pirate Bay through something like Tor or VPN, however, they're less likely to be tracked. IPREDator's website says that it won't store any traffic data, as its entire goal is to help people stay anonymous on the web. Without any data to hand over, copyright owners won't be able to find individuals to target.

More details at ARS Technica.