The Pirate Bay Sold To Software Company, Goes Legal

[Rigel9]

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million).

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-sold-to-software-company-goes-legal-090630/

Blog on TPB: http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

And here it is the press release of Global Gaming Factory X AB (company that acquired TPB) about the acquisition and their "new " business model: http://www.globalgamingfactory.com/pressrelease-090630.pdf


Discuss...

[codec]

well, I think this will affect ipredator also, do you?
at least it wouldn't make sense anymore to make a service without there battleship.

[realityhd]

I tried to make a post about this in the news section but it is awaiting approval. But here I will make a few points to clarify some things.

I think it is a little shady that TPB blog states they might be acquired. Presumably the terms of the acquisition have been set down in a contract. This is what is known as an executory contract, meaning that some conditions must still be met, but the conditions of financing and board approval are standard. So it is a bit disingenuous to act as though TPB might be acquired just because of these conditions.

Similarly, it is disingenuous to claim that the site will stay the same or the users will leave. I believe TPB has supported a bittorrent distribution system driven by a more reasonable compensation model, which is exactly what GGF is proposing.

I think the TPB post reveals that they want to retain their image of Robin Hood while advancing the cause along these more legitimate avenues, which are inevitable when dealing with such a large enterprise (smaller sites and more hardcore pirates will hold out much longer on the fringes of the high seas of course, arghh). But I feel like being completely honest and getting behind a fair and reasonable compensation model is the best move for TPB at this point.

[MATEE100]

I never used TPB...Smaller lost for me than RandomBytes.

[RedRansom]

Gone baby gone...
Any1 remember what happened to Napster?

[The_Martinator]

I never used TPB...Smaller lost for me than RandomBytes.

Lol at that. MATEE is so leet that he started at private sites.

But yeah, it's weird and sad, but the name attracts people alone, so the name and the ''brand'' are worth thaat much.

[brento]

http://suprbay.org/showthread.php?t=57496

[1000possibleclaws]

On unrelated news, it seems Videobay is up and in beta. Not sure if this is old news, but it's new to me.


I never used TPB...Smaller lost for me than RandomBytes.

Huge loss for torrenting in general. TPB case is so important because of the legal precedent it will set.

[AbyssalStalker]

This is really surprising! Especially after they were about to try a video streaming site!

[brento]

So I guess this means they're not buying their own island?

[TP635]

There goes my level 1 tracker.so sad. I will removed my signature in a few days time. Is there a good replacement?

[Cabalo]

Demonoid ;)

[james223]

Oh I'm sure there are alternatives around.
SCC anyone :P

[xuxoxux]

So I guess this means they're not buying their own island?
They quit trying for that a while back, lol.

This is a change for the better....I hope. I don't see how companies are going to get paid for the downloads ( according to the gaming company ).....unless the downloaders end up paying...

[primevil]

Can anyone see a surge of users to private trackers? Even 10% of users would be a huge number.

[n00bz0r]

Can anyone see a surge of users to private trackers? Even 10% of users would be a huge number.

am gonna go on a downloading spree.. :lol:

[Lolaids]

Wouldn't they just go to Mininova or some other popular public tracker?

[realityhd]

snuggl 757 points758 points759 points 6 hours ago[-]

To clarify a bit..

TPB has been owned by a company for the last years since the raid so nothing there will really change except the names of the owners. The talk about TPB are going to be a pay site is wrong, the CEO that said that does not know what he is talking about.

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.

And dont worry, not a dime will go to the media industries spectrial prize money what i know of but a really nice fund for doing cool stuff.

/krs - co.founder of TPB and PB, not involved in TPB anymore and have no stake in any cash.







Mininova does not track torrents and most of their index is filled with TPB tracked torrents.

I think Demonoid will open up in a big way. The new admin seems to be more signup friendly.

[brightsid]

It's to early to say what is the future of TPB. But the first impression of these news isn't good.

[Hiccup]

snuggl 757 points758 points759 points 6 hours ago[-]

To clarify a bit..

TPB has been owned by a company for the last years since the raid so nothing there will really change except the names of the owners. The talk about TPB are going to be a pay site is wrong, the CEO that said that does not know what he is talking about.

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.

And dont worry, not a dime will go to the media industries spectrial prize money what i know of but a really nice fund for doing cool stuff.

/krs - co.founder of TPB and PB, not involved in TPB anymore and have no stake in any cash.







Mininova does not track torrents and most of their index is filled with TPB tracked torrents.

I think Demonoid will open up in a big way. The new admin seems to be more signup friendly.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with what you said. It's very early to be jumping to any conclusions either or. It might be better just to stand back a bit and bide time to see what is really going on.