Sold! The Pirate Bay: mainstream roundup
p2pnet news view P2P:- [Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (top), Frederik Neij (left), Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (centre) and millionaire donor Carl Lundström.]
Sweden’s Global Gaming to buy The Pirate Bay Financial Times (UK)
Global Gaming Factory, a Swedish software company, on Tuesday said it had agreed a $7.7m deal to buy The Pirate Bay, the free filesharing website at the centre of a notorious court case. The four men running the website were sentenced to a year in jail and fines of $3.6m in April, after being sued by music and film companies for allowing people to illegally download copyrighted content. The Pirate Bay is one of the world’s largest website for downloading files over the internet. Hans Pandeya, chief executive of Global Gaming Factory, said he would change the business model of The Pirate Bay to allow content owners to be paid for their material. “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site,” he said. “The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model.”
Pirate Bay to become legitimate downloading site NME
Music file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been sold. It is set to be transformed into a legal music site that sees artists and record labels get paid for the downloads they provide. The Sweden-based website – whose four founders and hosts were sentenced to a year in jail and fined for copyright infringement offences in April – will be acquired by Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB in August.
Internet cafe company offers $7.8 million for The Pirate Bay IDG News Service
The owners of The Pirate Bay have agreed to sell the site to a Swedish Internet cafe operator for 60 million Swedish kronor (US$7.8 million), the company said on Tuesday. Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) said it wants to find ways to pay content providers and copyright holders when their content is downloaded via The Pirate Bay, which tracks who is sharing files over the BitTorrent peer-to-peer service. Although The Pirate Bay has been successful in attracting visitors, in order to live on it needs a new business model that satisfies the requirements of content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary, GGF said. GGF also plans to acquire Swedish company Peerialism, which has developed its own P-to-P technology, for 100 million kronor — of which at least 50 million will be in cash and up to the equivalent of 50 million in newly issued shares, according to GGF.
Pirate Bay sells out to Swedish software firm for $7.7m The Register
Global Gaming Factory X AB (GGF) has agreed to buy BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay for $7.7m (60m Swedish Crowns), according to a statement on the company’s website. The Swedish software outfit confirmed the acquisition this morning. Under the deal GGF has also bought file sharing tech firm Peerialism. “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site”, said the company’s CEO Hans Pandeya. GGF will take control of the site once the transaction completes, which is expected to happen next month.
Global Gaming Factory X: Acquisitions of The Pirate Bay and New File – Sharing Technology, p2p 2.0 BusinessWire
The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) (GGF) acquires The Pirate Bay website, http://www.thepiratebay.org, one of the 100 most visited websites in the world and the technology company Peerialism, that has developed next generation file-sharing technology. Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.
The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7m The Telegraph
The Pirate Bay’s founders are set for a multi-million windfall after selling the controversial file-sharing website for 60m Swedish crowns (£4.7m). In April, the four Swedish men behind the website were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $3.6m (£2.2m) after they were found guilty of providing a conduit for consumers to breach copyright on hundreds of millions of songs and movies. The men – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström – are appealing the sentence. The buyer, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X, said it recognised that The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s largest file-sharing websites, must comply with international copyright laws.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
June, 2009
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June 30th, 2009 at 9:37 am
And people think that we don’t need any more videos to educate?
See, this is the crap we’re competing with! IF we had spammed the world with more videos and fear of what happens when corps take over and kill sharing/education/freedom/creativity, this would not have happened because the masses would ‘get it’, not just a small few, and this gaming company would not purchase TPB.
We’re NOT doing enough to stop this!
June 30th, 2009 at 9:38 am
The picture to the right is of Lundströms layer, not of Lundström. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Lundstr%C3%B6m för more info
/Micek
June 30th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I hope that they won’t go all “exclusive” and stuff and start “filtering” whatever it may be that don’t even have to do with all that random crap.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:10 am
@ Micke:
Fixed. Thanks.
Cheers!
June 30th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Tomas Wennström: “I got a an interview with TPB’s spokesperson Peter Sunde, and in this podcast he talks about how the deal is set up, why Pirate Bay is sold, the heat TPB is getting from some disappointed fans and the future of the site.”
http://www.whatsnext.se/2009/06/30/podcast-with-peter-sunde-on-the-ggfs-accquisition-of-the-pirate-bay/
Cheers!
June 30th, 2009 at 10:36 am
two words:
sell-outs.
oh and i am sure all of those youths in sweden that voted for the piratr part will definitly agree.
disgrace and to hell with us all right?
June 30th, 2009 at 11:08 am
This, once again, is not a surprise, and follows the Napster model to a T.
100 Cry and whine about a torrent site, even though it has been proven that sales are never
affected by downloading.
200 Buy the courts, and influence the judge to grant the RIAA members a hefty, virtually unpayable fine.
300 Haven RIAA owned corporation ready to make an ‘offer’ .
400 Since refusing the offer means financial suicide for the extorted, RIAA member corporations aquire another
potential competitor.
500 Turn acquired property into a wasteland. blaming other still remaining torrent sites for the failure of the
newly purchased ‘legit’ property.
600 GOTO 100
June 30th, 2009 at 11:10 am
” I hope that they won’t go all “exclusive” and stuff and start “filtering” whatever it may be that don’t even have to do with all that random crap. ”
They won’t have a choice.
RIP Pirate Bay.
One dies 10 others take their place.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Bring on the next generation protocols. Decentralized, untraceable, unlitigatable, unrecoverable, unstoppable. This is very hard to take, TPB were at the forefront of file sharing but I cant help but feel this could inspire 10 more services to popup that could be just as popular. Frankly I haven’t used TPB for 2 years. Those who know about other means of sharing are probably in the same boat as me and are thinking to themselves ” this will stop absolutely nothing”.
Today I welcome the future of filesharing…
June 30th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
From the piratebay’s blog about the sale, in the comments:
#31. NoseMan79 – Today 11:03
I for one wlcome (sic) our new corporate overlords!
And I agree with NewGenerationSharing, bring on the next generation of technologies!
June 30th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
don’t blame these guys.
they are doing this out of need not greed, with a 3.6 m fine over their heads and a justice system that beginning to look like the USA’s i would do the same.
hope they have some new projects under the hood.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
RIAA/MPAA sales should go through the roof now.
If it remains the same in two weeks.. well… you know
June 30th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
NewGenerationSharing has it right… the next generation, will be harder to track and have even more success then the previous generation.
The simple plain scary fact is every time they knock a system down it only comes back stronger.
The simple fact was the idea that started napsters isn’t dead, its stronger then ever.
If this is the beginning of the end for tpb, then I am sure whatever replaces it will be even more prolific. Anyone remember suprnova…