SWEDEN—TorrentFreak is reporting that PRQ, an "infamous" hosting company founded in 2004 by The Pirate Bay's Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij has been cut off by PayPal "after a fruitful partnership lasting three years."
PayPal apparently lost its patience with the "independent" hoster, which, according to TF, "is known for respecting the privacy of its customers, even going as far as accepting cash in envelopes from website operators requiring the highest levels of protection."
That's some high level of protection. "Hey, PRQ, can you help us out here? These lousy copyright owners keep harassing us about stolen content. I know, ridiculous, huh? What about our rights? Anyway, here's our payment in cash. Could you just mark us down as paid and if anyone asks just pretend we don't exist? Thanks so much, fellow freedom fighters!"
PayPal has not only banned PRQ from its service, but also seized its funds, "not once but twice," reported TF, which received a statement from PRQ. "First they froze our primary account without any prior notice—we can’t even receive funds to it," it read. "After we contacted their ‘support,’ they stated that the support could not help us, BUT the person who was responsible for our account should contact us within a couple of days.”
That person apparently never followed up to rectify the situation, and instead, according to PRQ, another PayPal person suggested the hoster open a new account while the old one was under review. They did and now that one has been frozen, too. Funds can go in but they can't be retrieved.
PRQ is now miffed. "That was it for us, that made us decide to discontinue PayPal forever," they told TF. "It’s sad that PayPal decided to fuck us after three years of service."
TorrentFreak's response to all of this is to suggest that PayPal's move will probably mean that the cash envelope "archaic method of payment becomes more popular in the months to come." They also note that "while their Visa/Mastercard merchant account is being set up," PRQ will also use Bitcoins and bank wire transfers."
Assuming the merchant account is approved, it would be useful to know why Visa/Mastercard finds acceptable what PayPal finds unacceptable. Unfortunately, we're more likely to hear from aliens from another planet than we are from the card companies.
