THE PIRATE BAY, perhaps the world's most notorious source for internet downloads, has announced that it is going to be implementing SSL and VPN connectivity to private added security and privacy to its users.

Last week, Sweden passed a new telecomms security law, which allows government agencies to oversee all phone and internet traffic. Writing on his blog, Pirate Bay Admin 'Brokep' said that in response to the legislation - which he views as an unwarranted invasion of privacy - the site will be adding SSL in the near future.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is generally used to provide secure and encrypted end to end transactions for shopping sites, where credit card information is ecrypted and sent 'on the fly' to prevent third-party snooping.

The effect of adding SSL to The Pirate Bay will be to make surfing and downloading torrents effectively impervious to uninvited monitoring - especially since Pirate Bay's servers are now distributed around 'privacy friendly' countries rather than Sweden, where its server farms were previously raided.

Brokep also says that he plans to band together to get international ISPs to kick Sweden off the internet in a protest. We respectfully suggest that this is rather less likely to happen, despite the uncomfortable precedent the Swedish law sets.

Regardless, it looks like good times are in store for Torrent downloaders. µ