Called Unleash The Bats – apparently it’s an old County Down euphemism for “let’s stick it to them!” dating back to the Great War – its mission statement charges that, “Contrary to popular belief The Pirate Bay are not a ‘doing it for the kids’ type of organisation. They’re a well-oiled commercial and political enterprise making very considerable sums of money through advertising and merchandising by encouraging, promoting and facilitating copyright infringement and stealing potential revenue from musicians, singers, songwriters, composers and the creators of any type of distributable creative works. Even more alarming is the fact that they now have an elected representative in the European Parliament who will campaign doggedly to further undermine and erode the rights of those involved in the creative industries.”

Their spokesman is Stephen Anderson, a well-known Belfast music industry publicist who’s had management and record label interests in the past.

“There’s a human cost to Pirate Bay’s activities,” Anderson tells Hot Press. “Jobs are being lost, mortgages defaulted on, kids pulled out of school – the consequences are widespread. We’re calling on the entire creative industry – whether it be media, retail, record companies, studios, distributors, publishers or artists themselves – to unleash the bats by embedding one of our logos on their MySpace, Bebo, Facebook or website pages. We want to bring people at every level of the industry on board right up to your U2s and Metallica, and expose Pirate Bay for what they are – common thieves.”

Asked to name who’s behind Unleash The Bats, Anderson says: “An international coalition of executives and bands who want the concept to be floated and discussed before revealing themselves. We’ve a website – www.unleashthebats.co.uk – where people can see what we’ve got to say and give us their feedback.”