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The Pirate Bay Sold To Software Company, Goes Legal

torrentfreak.com — 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).

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 30, 2009

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  • Crisender111, on 06/30/2009, -29/+1327####_____#### _____####____##############_____############
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  • noisymime, on 06/30/2009, -5/+852Hey going legit worked out really well for Napster!

    oh wait...
  • djam, on 06/30/2009, -7/+769Is this some kind of Swedish April Fools?
  • Cubedude04, on 06/30/2009, -4/+581I didn't expect this from their attitudes in the court case. Wow
  • Lavane, on 06/30/2009, -8/+563Something 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?
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -30/+451The tubes are clogging up on this *****. They've sold out to pay their fines, and that means end of the revolution. Looks like TPB crew is finally facing reality. Harsh, harsh reality.
  • legionfalls, on 06/30/2009, -37/+455...........................__________.....................
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  • linuxwarz, on 06/30/2009, -2/+398Just posted: http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164
  • binky79, on 06/30/2009, -4/+383This is the worst acquisition ever!
  • SteamGear, on 06/30/2009, -3/+314Hope they don't turn into Vuze.
  • zarvensha, on 06/30/2009, -2/+230Well, for a few years now many have been commenting how we need to diversify the public trackers of the world, and with Mininova in court and Pirate Bay now sold I can see their point.

    Other than Demonoid is this mean the coming of the end for the large scale public trackers?
    Is the entertainment industry winning the public fight, driving the torrent world back into the dark?

    More importantly, will I in the near future have to wait six months or more to see the latest Top Gear(UK)?
    And what about Dollhouse, and anything else I might like, how will I survive now?
    How will any Australian get to see what is going on in the world media, given our pathetic free to air channels?
    (and dont get me started on the ISP filtering crap)

    Bugger, this could really turn to *****..........................
  • borez, on 06/30/2009, -13/+224If you've gotta pay your fines, you've gotta pay your fines.
  • Vindexus, on 06/30/2009, -12/+215Seems kind of low.
  • wigren, on 06/30/2009, -2/+201Sad Jew?
  • cosy18, on 06/30/2009, -7/+204FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
  • GeorgeStone2, on 06/30/2009, -9/+204Good night, sweet prince.
  • jynweythek, on 06/30/2009, -0/+173"The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners."

    well, *****. that's the end of that.
  • Lavane, on 06/30/2009, -3/+165Seems I forgot to add sources:

    http://www.globalgamingfactory.com/
    http://allabolag.se/5565515938 (in Swedish)
  • legionfalls, on 06/30/2009, -2/+148Jew sad? I am.
  • barwe, on 06/30/2009, -2/+145I hope Demonoid and other 'mainstream' private trackers are ready for a big surge in registrations.
  • barwe, on 06/30/2009, -6/+147I only buried you after reading your reply.
  • SebHughes, on 06/30/2009, -1/+127This looks like the end of thepiratebay. Very sad day.
  • BigVi, on 06/30/2009, -1/+122They will be lucky if its still in the top 1000 come December.
  • DaviDTC, on 06/30/2009, -13/+129They got scared and sold out. They knew they couldn't win and took the money while they could.
  • donnydarko, on 06/30/2009, -5/+119Could be one of the Pirate bay's shell companies, which they've used to hide their profits. That way they can pay of their fines without admitting to having a whole wad of cashed tucked away. /speculation
  • whyufail, on 06/30/2009, -2/+102And now The Pirate Bay dies. Been a bad month all around. Sellouts. Well, onto the next one.
  • RustInPieces, on 06/30/2009, -2/+101The next acquisition will be even worse.
  • ianbirtwistle, on 06/30/2009, -0/+97"A lot of people are worried. We're not and you shouldn't be either!"

    I'm not worried. Other sites will carry on where the pirate bay left off.

    Cheers for a good few years of Torrent heaven guys. I'm off to mininova for now..
  • rossnyc, on 06/30/2009, -2/+97You don't see it? WTF man?
  • Incomp3tnt, on 06/30/2009, -5/+99I don't see it :(

    It's like one of those magic picture things, I could never see the damn giraffe.
  • Jaime2000, on 06/30/2009, -5/+99The Pirate Bay is dead. Long live The Pirate Bay.
  • zero, on 06/30/2009, -2/+96Why would this company even think of buying TPB and try to turn it legit? Don't they realize the whole reason behind the success of TPB is that it wasn't legit. That is like buying a very successful clothing company and then start selling butt scratchers.
  • ChaoticNick, on 06/30/2009, -5/+98"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. "

    Yea keep all the thousands of torrents of copyrighted movies, software, games or don't bother. What do the new owners really think they can get out of this besides legality issues? And then what happens to TPB itself?
  • Rotzooi, on 06/30/2009, -1/+84Scuttle your TPB accounts now!
  • Rotzooi, on 06/30/2009, -7/+87Remember this: http://digg.com/tech_news/BREAKING_Warner_Bros_Acq ...
    yeah, that was funny.
  • gnoffa, on 06/30/2009, -2/+81The money probably temped them to sell out, but it should be possible for the original crew to launch a new "Piratebay" with a little money left on their pockets hopefully. A "real company" running Piratebay seams like an easy target for RIAA/MPAA.
  • cjh24, on 06/30/2009, -5/+83I don't usually digg ascii art, I find it is usually unimaginative (ie. copy + pasted pedobears and face-palming ackbars), but this is new, and doesn't fill the whole page... so kudos.
  • JIZZED, on 06/30/2009, -5/+82UUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRBBBBBBBBBBBBBYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY !
  • JCPahl, on 06/30/2009, -1/+78From TPB's blog: "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."

    Lol. Yes, it's just about evolution! What a shoddy excuse. I would have respected them a lot more if they had just come out and admitted that they were selling out because they needed $3.7 million to pay off their fines.
  • dsanonline, on 06/30/2009, -6/+81This has to be some kind of joke. It HAS to be.
  • BigVi, on 06/30/2009, -1/+73That was posted on April 1st. Is there some special Swedish prankster holliday you Swedes are holding out on? The rest of us want in.
  • a5ph, on 06/30/2009, -1/+72
    Are they using some kind of old Scandinavian calendar system?

  • Gareth321, on 06/30/2009, -0/+64I just thought I'd mention something which makes this whole thing smell. The cash portion of the payment from Global Gaming Factory X, 30 million kronor, is EXACTLY the amount ordered as payment by the crooked judge in their trial.
  • uberduger, on 06/30/2009, -2/+62Oh *****. Someone needs to figure this out quickly. If you're right, we'd better shut up!
    *Whistles nonchalantly*
  • infamousjr, on 06/30/2009, -0/+57FTB: On the internets, stuff dies if it doesn't evolve. We don't want that to happen.

    So by his reasoning if they don't sell the site to a company then eventually it will die?? Is that a rule of the internets I missed somewhere?
  • Favreism, on 06/30/2009, -1/+57You say that a lot
    In fact you say that for every Pirate Bay acquisition
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -0/+54Sounds like it is the end of TPB.
  • Euphorian, on 06/30/2009, -1/+55Dugg for conspiracy.
  • StuartGibson, on 06/30/2009, -0/+53"We're not worried, we have $7.8 million in the bank."
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