4:15 PM -- The Internet is abuzz with news that the one-time, one-stop torrent shop Suprnova.org is about to reemerge with the backing of The Pirate Bay (TPB), the current preeminent destination for illegal filesharers using BitTorrent and other trackers.

According to TorrentFreak, the new incarnation of Suprnova will be a torrent indexer and will not have its own tracker. In addition, the team behind the move is launching a new forum that will be linked to both Suprnova and TPB, on SuprBay.org.

And while the move will no doubt be nostalgic for anyone who remembers the days of scouring Suprnova for music, movies, and other content, it seems entirely unnecessary.

For one thing, there is no shortage of torrent indexers out there, and adding one more to the pile -- even one with a history as storied as Suprnova -- isn't going to make much of a difference to the overall P2P scene.

But I think that it is interesting to look at what's happening here, and what kind of weight a TPB-Suprnova mashup has in the overall scheme of illegal filesharing.

I mean, think about it: TPB has essentially acquired a known brand that it hopes to leverage for advertising dollars or whatever else, in a market that is known for illegal activity.

Ingenious.

— Ryan Lawler, P2P Proselytizer, Light Reading