Oh, those silly governments. Internet censorship won't withstand the onslaught of web-savvy geeks! Nevertheless, the British and Dutch governments recently ordered ISPs to bar users from accessing The Pirate Bay whatsoever. Despite claims from anti-piracy groups that the blockade is being effective, new reports show that simply isn't true, and one website even explains how you can bypass the ban using only a web browser.

Internet service providers aren't the only companies getting in on the copyright cop action; Microsoft recently began blocking Windows Live Messenger messages containing links to the Pirate Bay. If you try to send a Pirate Bay URL to a buddy, WLM will now slam on the brakes and tell you that piratebay.se has been "reported as unsafe."

Oh, those tricky Pirate Bay folks. The Teflon buccaneers have always managed to stay one step ahead of the law; for example, the site recently switched to the .SE domain to avoid a Megaupload-style takedown and three of its founding operators fled Sweden to avoid facing jail time and millions in fines. Now, a Pirate Bay user has released a zipped 90MB file containing the key components of every torrent hosted by the site. Basically, if Pirate Bay goes down, anyone with this file will be able to get it up and running again lickity split.

Turns out the government and Hollywood have been going after the wrong boogeymen the entire time! Pirating data and intangible information is so, like, 2011. While the World (Wide Web) held its breath during the Day The Net Went Dark and its lesser-known sibling, The Day MegaUpload Went Down, the notorious swashbucklers at The Pirate Bay introduced what they called "the future of sharing:" Physibles, or digital files that work with 3D printers to create real, physical objects.