If you use The Pirate Bay to download free films and TV programmes, you may have had your computer taken over unknowingly by the site.
This weekend, The Pirate Bay put code on some of its web pages that used visitors’ machines to mine a virtual currency.
The hidden code helped the file-sharing site generate coins for the Monero digital currency, which has caused an outcry from many users.
If you use The Pirate Bay to download films and TV programmes, you may have had your computer taken over unknowingly by the site
The Pirate Bay’s administrators have confirmed that the site has been using the code, but stress that it had only been an experiment to find alternatives to ad revenue.
But despite this, many visitors objected to the code being forced upon them without any warning.
The code inserted on The Pirate Bay pages was supposed to give away a few central processing unit cycles with each visit.
Crypto-currencies – such as Monero – work by getting people who hold the coins to run code that verifies who has spent or transferred which coins.
The reward for this ‘mining’ is new coins.
A note on The Pirate Bay pages said: ‘Do you want ads or do you want to give away a few of your CPU [central processing unit] cycles every time you visit the site?’
The Pirate Bay’s administrators have confirmed that the site has been using the code, but stress that it had only been an experiment to find alternatives to ad revenue
But an error in the code caused it to try to access all available CPU power, causing users’ computers to become very slow.
The Pirate Bay says that this bug has now been fixed, and the code will limit how much power it uses to 30 per cent.
The test was run for 24 hours over the weekend, during which time many people complained, according to Torrent Freak.
Several people took to Twitter to express their annoyance, including Jeremy Williams, who tweeted: ‘I read that for 24 hours, The Pirate Bay is running bit coin mining through their browser, no warning. Use ad block and no script. Stay safe’
Several people took to Twitter to express their annoyance, including Jeremy Williams, who tweeted: ‘I read that for 24 hours, The Pirate Bay is running bit coin mining through their browser, no warning. Use ad block and no script. Stay safe.’
The miner can be blocked using a normal ad-blocker that you can download online.
It is unclear if The Pirate Bay plans to use the code again.