SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- September 19 celebrates the swashbuckling spirit of high-seas adventures each year as International Talk Like a Pirate Day. For millions of scoundrels and fo’c’sle swabs, that means donning eyepatches, 17th century frock coats, ornate tricorn hats, plastic hooks and cutlasses, and pledging allegiance to the skull and crossbones of a Jolly Roger. Several businesses partake of the festivities, too. This Friday, the popular doughnut chain Krispy Kreme is offering a free glazed treat to any landlubber willing to order in the parlance of Blackbeard or Long John Silver. For truly scurvy wenches, scallywags and blackguards who arrive adorned in full pirate garb, Krispy Kreme surrenders a bounty of a dozen doughnuts. However, panic erupted near San Narciso’s waterfront district this morning when hardcore enthusiasts raided the usually low-key bakery and coffeehouse dressed as armed Somali pirates.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Responding to an injunction handed down in April by the U.K. High Court, Talk Talk became the latest ISP to block access to The Pirate Bay (TPB) this Tuesday following Virgin Media, Everything Everywhere, Sky Broadband, BE and O2. A landmark 2011 ruling in Finland provided momentum for the wave of blocking orders against TPB that are now spreading across Europe. The Pirate Bay is a Swedish torrent site that hosts magnet links which allow users to download copyrighted content via peer-to-peer networks. It promotes itself as "the world's most resilient BitTorrent site," although detractors such as the Los Angeles Times have described TPB as "one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading" and "the most visible member of a burgeoning international anti-copyright or pro-piracy movement." Worldwide, TPB is ranked as the 71st most visited website. But with the flurry of legislation against it, TPB is facing an impregnable armada of government warships and angry content owners who are seeking to scuttle it. TPB vows it won't go down without a fight, and is cleverly borrowing a page from history to bypass the Internet blockade.