The Pirate Bay. Sold, to the man with the eyepatch and a parrot
BREAKING: The Pirate Bay Sold For $7.8 Million
Today, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB has announced it has acquired The Pirate Bay website for 60 million SEK, which is roughly the equivalent of 7.8 million dollars.
This was almost immediately confirmed by The Pirate Bay. Although the title of their post is entitled “TPB might change owner,” from the text of the post it is obvious that the site has indeed been sold.
Two facts strike the eye: the incredibly small amount for which The Pirate Bay was sold, compared to its huge popularity and worldwide influence, and the fact the site which has always been perceived as independent and quite controversial, was sold at all. The second fact explains the latter: yes, The Pirate Bay is one of the top 100 visited websites in the world, but it (and its owners) is also encumbered by a recent loss of a very important lawsuit.
The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7m
The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7m
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).
By Rupert Neate
Published: 11:16AM BST 30 Jun 2009
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Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, left, and Peter Sunde, said
The Pirate Bay site had been sold for a "great bit underneath its value"
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.
Global Gaming said the website needs a new business model which "satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary".
Hans Pandeya, chief executive, said: "We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site."
The Pirate Bay's founders said the site was being sold for a "great bit underneath its value" but the sale is essential to secure the website's future.
"On the internet, stuff dies if it doesn't evolve. We don't want that to happen," they said in a statement.
"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!
"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."
The founders said the profit form sale will fund a foundation to promote free speech and freedom of information on the internet.
The Pirate Bay has also announced plans to launch a video streaming service that is billed as a rival to YouTube. The site, dubbed The Video Bay, is still in beta, and will give web users access to thousands of clips, including music videos, many of which currently infringe copyright laws. It is not yet known how the deal with Global Gaming will affect this project.
A spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said it was monitoring developments, but had no further comment to make about The Pirate Bay’s latest move.
The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7m - Telegraph
