The Bootleg Bay is based on The Pirate Bay, a real life media piracy site.
The film within this episode, "Radioactive Man Re-Rises", is a gritty reboot the Radioactive Man film produced in Radioactive Man (1995).
The footage used when Bart explains illegal download is from a 2011 NASCAR race.
The episode was dedicated to the video sharing site, MegaVideo (which got seized by the FBI) on January 19th, 2012.