The Pirate Bay is cryptically hinting its looming comeback in its very own webpage, more conspicuously this time. About two months after Swedish police raided its data center on Dec. 9 and took down the torrent hub, the countdown timer plastered shamelessly on the homepage now serves as the biggest sign that the torrent king is rising from the grave. And this will happen on Feb. 1 apparently.
According to IT Pro Portal, the download site is still inaccessible in the U.K. However, other countries have been following along the changes on the fallen site as it slips into its usual archetypal look little by little. During the first days and weeks following the takedown, the site sported a large image of its flag waving, which many believed showed its then-subtle attempts to go back to the Web again.
Now, a text box and buttons can be seen over its staple and oh-so classic web layout and design. A search field is also present but still inactive. The said flag has now become the page's small centerpiece. The big black timer is right at the top of the page, counting down to the 6 remaining days before The Pirate Bay allegedly sails again (interestingly, a pirate ship is also seen at the bottom of the webpage, animatedly cruising to an island on the left corner).
A big change that was also spotted by Torrent Freak is the site's use of CloudFare. It looks like The Pirate Bay is not allowing another kaput after the December affair as it is making use of the online service that keeps websites steady and online even in the face of hacks and enormous traffic.
According to Torrent Freak, these changes are being remotely applied from a web server in Moldova. The Guardian adds that the restoration of the site involves around 30 to as much as 50 people across the globe who are working to end the downtime.
Update: comment from an insider.
''Anyway, as of TPB, they'll return in glory. There are multiple loadbalancers placed around the world now, so if one will fail, e.g. due to history's repeat, it'd be matter of pointing DNS to another one. There are plans to make users host parts of site via PirateBrowser (optional, opt-in feature) so it won't be so easily taken down next time.''
