Ignoring the small matter of legal and moral issues for a moment and putting a marketing hat on, you have to say that The Pirate Bay are riding on the crest of a PR wave.

The news yesterday that the owners of this gateway to free content now face jail and bankruptcy has taken their awareness from teens and geeks, to the living rooms of the masses.

The BBC’s technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones was on last night’s 6pm news and actually demo’d how easy it was to download new blockbusters or the #1 album! (Not nearly as provocative as the Click show running its own botnet attack, though).

Surely The Pirate Bay’s visitor numbers will be spiking right now as even those without an iTunes account try to find out if they can get the latest fix of Brad or Angelina without paying for a cinema ticket? Considering they don’t plan on closing the site, one can presume this spike will become a step-change in future analytics.

It’s the age-old journalistic problem of news creating awareness, possibly creating demand. Trouble is, what’s the alternative?