The Pirate Bay is going legit [Update 8-11]

[Flyentologist]

The Pirate Bay has been purchased and is perhaps looking to go legit. Software company Global Gaming Factory X AB has shelled out approximately US$7.8 million for the site.

The acquisition appears to be the first step into turning The Pirate Bay into a legal site. The Stockholm-​based piracy site is a peer-to-peer server which made video games, movies and music available for "sharing" among users. Swedish police previously raided the The Pirate Bay and those connected to the site, and the ensuing trial against the BitTorrent site's founder resulted in a guilty verdict.

According to Hans Pandeya, CEO of Sweden's Global Gaming Factory, "We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site."

Pandeya adds that while The Pirate Bay is one of the top 100 most visited sites on the entire internet, it needs to change. "In order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary," says the GGF exec. "Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it." What's more, Pandeya adds, file sharers need "faster downloads and better quality".

According to a statement from The Pirate Bay, "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."

Global Gaming Factory X AB will acquire The Pirate Bay this August.

 

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

W-wow! o_O!
So now pirate bay might become a pay to use site for downloading?
It's been around since forever so I'm stunned it'll get closed down. ^^  

[Zizzykitty]

I don't use The Pirate Bay specifically but wow, that's suprising, actually.

I hope that doesn't mean harder crackdown on torrent users everywhere. Otehrwise I think Photoshop, the entire discography of I am Robot and Proud, and many NDS games is incriminating enough for me. (not to mention many smalling things I've downloaded)  

[Flyentologist]

That trial was garbage anyways.

Torrent hosting doesn't violate Swedish laws. It seems like it was another USA/Swedish joint effort to take the website down.

It's a shame, it was easily the best torrent website around. At least there's still mininova.

Zizzy: I've probably got over $3000 in pirated stuff. I'd be in trouble if they started a sweep. :O
But that won't happen. They tried to with limewire, and only like, 2 or 3 people got arrested of the hundreds of thousands of users.

 

[Zizzykitty]

Oh, okay. Well that's a relief then since I've got tons of stuff off limewire and frostwire as well.

I didn't know they tried to sweep limewire to catch people. That would have been interesting to watch them try.  

[Flyentologist]

Zizzykitty

Oh, okay. Well that's a relief then since I've got tons of stuff off limewire and frostwire as well.

I didn't know they tried to sweep limewire to catch people. That would have been interesting to watch them try.

Your avatar is a guy. :O

 

[Zizzykitty]

iGoldman

Zizzykitty

Oh, okay. Well that's a relief then since I've got tons of stuff off limewire and frostwire as well.

I didn't know they tried to sweep limewire to catch people. That would have been interesting to watch them try.

Your avatar is a guy. :O

It is. surprised
My friend peer pressured me into it.  

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

I like bittorrents. They're safer than the other stuff. Limewire I never used b/c it was flooded with mainly virus and stuff. But I used to use Kazza when I was younger until I discovered bittornado and switched. ^_^  

[Flyentologist]

I like ThePirateBay because if tells you which files are uploaded by VIP members as well as members known for uploading completely safe files. That's what I don't like about Mininova. You can't tell. I'll have to give bittorrent a try.

 

[Arch Angel Neko]

Pirate Bay will get sweeped .. damn pay pay pay again..  

[Arch Angel Neko]

iGoldman

I like ThePirateBay because if tells you which files are uploaded by VIP members as well as members known for uploading completely safe files. That's what I don't like about Mininova. You can't tell. I'll have to give bittorrent a try.

yeah..  

[Arch Angel Neko]

that actulaly hit my pirate gut.. >.>  

[Flyentologist]

Piracy, the video game industry's multi-billion dollar problem, may have met its match.

The solution to the illegal copying of video games perhaps isn't a law enforcement task force or volley of lawsuits, but the legitimization of the act itself.

Last week news broke that The Pirate Bay, one of the largest websites in the world dedicated to the illegal downloading of video games, was being purchased by a business group in Sweden with plans on turning the site into a purely legal operation.

Global Gaming Factory X doesn't plan on stopping the downloading of video games, but rather hopes to make enough money to pay the publishers for those downloads.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, " Hans Pandeya, CEO Global Gaming Factory, said in a prepared statement. "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, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary."

The news comes just months after a nine-day trial against Stockholm-based Pirate Bay found four guilty of making copyright content available. The four were sentenced to a year in prison each and were fined more than $3 million.

While heralded by industry lobbying group the Entertainment Software Association, the ruling and even the possible closure of The Pirate Bay would likely have little lasting impact on piracy. That's because it doesn't address the people pirating games, just those making it easier to do so.

Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with Game Changer Research, feels that piracy can only really be dealt with by some meeting of the minds.

"I hate to hear the industry talking about how they have to crush piracy, throwing down the gauntlet," Pidgeon said. "The last thing the industry wants to do is alienate their customer base."

People saying that they deserve to take a game for free, Pidgeon adds, is just as absurd.

That's why Pidgeon was so delighted to hear Electronic Arts' reaction to news of their game, The Sims 3, being pirated.

Three weeks before the game was released for sale, it showed up on pirate sites.

John Riccitiello, the head of EA, told Kotaku that they were initially very nervous about the leaked title.

But because the game relies so heavily on online play, something EA can control, gamers who grabbed an early, free version of the title didn't get the full experience, only a taste.

In the end, Riccitiello said, EA decided to think of it as the publisher putting out a really good demo of the game, instead worrying over lost sales.

"Thats great, I love to hear them talk like that," Pidgeon said of EA's take on the issue. "Super distribution (like piracy networks) can be turned into an advantage. It's not necessarily lost sales."

Using the grassroots networks of pirates could allow publishers to reach a much larger audience, including people in regions they don't yet reach. It could also create a sort of ad-hoc iTunes for game distribution, helping publishers and developers get games to people who can't or won't use the standard distribution channels.

In other words, when you can't beat them, use them.

 

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

lol Interesting way of thinking of it. And in a way it makes sense. They can gain sales like that too.  

[Arch Angel Neko]

well see.. well see how this turns out sweatdrop