&gt; In short TPB does nothing in terms of contributory infringement that other indexing sites (Google, Bing, etc) don&#x27;t do.<p>That is an argument that you are making, not a foregone conclusion. First off, the branding matters when it comes to intent. The name, &quot;The Pirate Bay&quot; leaves it pretty clear what they&#x27;re expecting you to do with the site.<p>Also, there&#x27;s the fact that Google and other search engines are responsive to DMCA requests, TPB is not. Finally, there&#x27;s the political positions of the organization running the site.<p>Their service is much closer to cperciva&#x27;s analogy than it is to a normal search engine.