The Pirate Bay to be bought and transformed to a legit business

[KidCactus]

I'm not sure if this has hit the international news yet, but it was revealed today that TPB will be bought for about $7.8 million by a company called Global Gaming Factory, and then transformed into a legit site where you pay to download. They haven't had any discussions with any copyright holders yet, though.

Thoughts? I think it's a mind boggling move, and I really don't think it will work out.

[Codicier]

Link?

But, just to comment on what's in your post, I think it would work out great for TPB owners. I'm sure they'd like to have $7.8 million split between them. The new owners turning the place into a pay to download? I doubt they will be as happy with this deal in the long run.

[KidCactus]

Link?

But, just to comment on what's in your post, I think it would work out great for the TPB owners. I'm sure they'd like to have $7.8 million split between them. The new owners turning the place into a pay to download? I doubt they will be as happy with this deal in the long run.
Here's their official statement:

http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

[Shadowstorm]

Something is very fishy here. I live in Sweden and I checked out this company.

Global Gaming Factory X AB (Ltd, Co.) never registered for "F-skatt", which is a basic permit needed for companies in Sweden to operate under corporate tax laws instead of private laws. Not having this permit usually means that it's a company 1) run under a mother company or 2) that isn't active.

Furthermore, their website consists of this press release and NOTHING ELSE. Their turnover has not gone over $ 750,000 any of the past two years and their total loss for that same time is approx. - $ 2,677,000.

Looks to me like a typical company only used to hold assets for a bigger company, perhaps RIAA/MPAA?

Comment from a user at digg.

[NoName]

Here's their official statement:

http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

For those who have a work who have been constantly improving their firewall for blocking sites, could you post a quote with the official statement?

(Even proxies are all blocked now :mad:)

[KidCactus]

Comment from a user at digg.
That user doesn't seem to have checked a lot of things though. Yes, their site shows the press release on the first page, but the site is still linked below it and can be found here:

http://www.globalgamingfactory.com/Default.html

And yes, it is a real business, not a fake company.

[KidCactus]

For those who have a work who have been constantly improving their firewall for blocking sites, could you post a quote with the official statement?

(Even proxies are all blocked now :mad:)
Sorry, the site won't even load at the moment. And I haven't checked any sites in English, reading about it on the Swedish sites. It's THE news today here.

[Serapth]

I am shocked any company would come within a thousand feet on The Pirate Bay. Hell, TPB made Napster look legit!

[Shadowstorm]

TPB might change owner

Yes, it's true.

News reached the press today in Sweden - The Pirate Bay might get aquired by Global Gaming Factory X AB.

A lot of people are worried. We're not and you shouldn't be either!
TPB is being sold for a great bit underneath it's value if the money would be the interesting part. It's not. The interesting thing is that the right people with the right attitude and possibilities keep running the site.

As all of you know, there's not been much news on the site for the past two-three years. It's the same site essentially. On the internets, stuff dies if it doesn't evolve. We don't want that to happen.

We've been working on this project for many years. It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!

If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That's awesome and will take the heat of us.

The old crew is still around in different ways. We will also not stop being active in the politics of the internets - quite the opposite. Now we're fueling up for going into the next gear. TPB will have economical muscles to let people evolve it. It will team up with great technicians to evolve the protocols. And we, the people interested in more than just technology, will have the time to focus on that. It's win-win-win.

The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don't worry - be happy!

Posted Today 10:43 by TPBFinally got the site to load.

I think there is something not being said.

[TrackZero]

That user doesn't seem to have checked a lot of things though. Yes, their site shows the press release on the first page, but the site is still linked below it and can be found here:

http://www.globalgamingfactory.com/Default.html

And yes, it is a real business, not a fake company.

That Digg user didn't call it a fake company. Just a shell for a larger company to work through.

[TrackZero]

Finally got the site to load.

I think there is something not being said.

Likely, the wording dances around quite a bit. Though it's funny, because I never found TPB relevant even since launch. Super/mininova was always far better.

[Shrinn]

They're relevant mostly because they fought. All those lawsuits and stuff got them a lot of attention.

[NoName]

I found this highly interesting quote from the Slashdot comments on the subject.

Now, the BIG change is that the tracker is going to be outsourced to a new formed company that wont know what they track, just that they connect peers, and the torrent listings will be handed by an other new company that will have torrents but they will not know either content or who is using the torrents. This setup will be practically impossible to take down or find anyone liable to sue.

The 3d party company services will have APIs, so you can on your blog or whatever have your own small torrent listings just as you now pull in twitter feeds. remember how the twitter design totally havoced the iranian attempts to block it as ppl just used another side that pulled in the feeds and read it there instead? well that goes for torrents and TPB to.

All in all, this is not the end of the world as some are seeing it but a rather interesting technical improvement.

[Shadowstorm]

Likely, the wording dances around quite a bit. Though it's funny, because I never found TPB relevant even since launch. Super/mininova was always far better.

Mininova was better before they decided to do this (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86168/mininova-tests-out-content-recognition-system/) to save face.

I think you are talking about Suprnova.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprnova.org), not supernova.com. Suprnova was excellent, yeah. I remember the day they shut down in 2004 - they caved to legal threats.

[Shrinn]

I found this highly interesting quote from the Slashdot comments on the subject.

All the improvements toward anonymity don't matter if we're not illegally downloading the products. If we're still paying to pirate.. that seems off to me.

[TrackZero]

Mininova was better before they decided to do this (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86168/mininova-tests-out-content-recognition-system/) to save face.

Funny, I never noticed, so that says something about the value of that announcement.

I think you are talking about Suprnova.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprnova.org), not supernova.com. Suprnova was excellent, yeah. I remember the day they shut down in 2004 - they caved to legal threats.

Yes, Supr, it's been a long time.

[TheEpicOfTyler]

I thought most of the torrents on the nova sites came from TPB anyway? This is a bummer, but I believe that they needed this to pay their way out of prison.

[DangerousDaze]

Did I miss the thread about them losing their right to appeal over the judge's alleged bias? This sounds like capitulation to me.

[Shadowstorm]

Did I miss the thread about them losing their right to appeal over the judge's alleged bias? This sounds like capitulation to me.

The judge was declared unbiased. I have no fucking clue how that happened. He's a member of several anti piracy organizations and has worked with the prosecution in the past.

[JRR006]

Did I miss the thread about them losing their right to appeal over the judge's alleged bias? This sounds like capitulation to me.

An article from Ars Technica: 'judge declared unbiased' (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/pirate-bay-retrial-denied-judge-declared-unbiased.ars).

[DoctorFinger]

They lost the appeal. It looks like they knew they were in it deep and found a sucker to take the name off of their hands.

[Urizen]

Wait..wait..wait...

TPB is not legit?!?!?!

[Hawkzombie]

Hm...interesting.

Now where will I go for my warez?!?

...if I DLed them that is. *cough*

[Krispy]

Just use Demonoid.

[Stoke]

Saw this this morning when it blew up on Digg. I'm kind of bummed that they took this route but I'd do the same if I was in their position. In the end it doesn't really matter, some other site will rise up to take their place. As long as I can get my tv torrents on time I really don't care.

[Hawkzombie]

Saw this this morning when it blew up on Digg. I'm kind of bummed that they took this route but I'd do the same if I was in their position. In the end it doesn't really matter, some other site will rise up to take their place. As long as I can get my tv torrents on time I really don't care.

Yep. Pretty much the same here.

[RandoM51]

I'm not sure if this has hit the international news yet, but it was revealed today that TPB will be bought for about $7.8 million by a company called Global Gaming Factory, and then transformed into a legit site where you pay to download. They haven't had any discussions with any copyright holders yet, though.

Thoughts? I think it's a mind boggling move, and I really don't think it will work out.

Something is fishy in Denmark. TPB is really just a few computers sitting on a rack somewhere and a handful of people who help maintain it. If you were to "buy" it, there would be nothing to stop those people from turning around and creating a new tracker site called something else.

I should call up GGF and see if they would like to buy a bridge.

[digitalErich]

They're buying the name, URL, and associate traffic, however long the latter may last. I don't think very long at all once they cut over.