Firefox Pirates Take Over Amazon
Written by Ernesto on December 03, 2008
Amazon,
the world’s largest online retailer, is under attack by online pirates.
An add-on for the Firefox browser called ‘Pirates of the Amazon’ makes
it possible to shop at the Amazon store but leave without paying a
dime. Instead, on Amazon product pages the add-on integrates links to
‘free’ copies on The Pirate Bay.
The timing of the ‘Pirates of the Amazon‘
launch could not have been more (un)fortunate. At the busiest time of
the year for on- and offline retailers, this Firefox browser add-on
offers users a download link to pirated copies of products that can
normally be found in the Amazon online store.
When the add-on is installed, it integrates a new “download 4 free”
button into the Amazon product page when the same article is also
available via The Pirate Bay. It works for CDs, DVDs, games, books and
basically all products that can be converted to a digital format.
With their mashup of the largest online retailer and the largest
BitTorrent tracker, the project aims to “be a counterpart to the
current models of media distribution”, and to “redistribute the wealth”.
The people behind the project have chosen to link to The Pirate Bay,
but clearly state that they act independently. “We are not affiliated
with The Pirate Bay, and do not host or even link to any illegal
content,” they write. “This artistic project addresses the topic of
current media distribution models vs. current culture and technical
possibilities.”
‘Pirates of the Amazon’ is not the only pirate add-on for Firefox,
in fact there are quite a few. IMDB, Last.fm, and Rotten Tomatoes all
have their own pirate skin available. Most of them use the Greasemonkey add-on which allows the installation of all kinds of useful user scripts which customize the web to your pirate needs.
Update: The site seems to be offline, here is a backup of
the xpi file for the add-on. In Firefox > file > open file > select the xpi file.
The Amazon Store with Pirated Alternative
