How Swede It is! Pirate Site Sold, New Owners Vow To Go Legit

Global Gaming Factory has acquired buccaneer file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, whose operators were sentenced to fines and jail terms after being convicted of copyright infringement. Both companies are Swedish.

The price is close to $8 million. The fines levied on the four owners of the pirate site totaled $14 million, suggesting that crime does pay but not enough to cover losses. The pirates generated enough public sympathy to win a seat in the Swedish legislature, however.

Eric Pfanner, writing in the New York Times, reports that the new owners hope "to turn it into a legal source of free music, movies and other content, using a novel, untested business model." The model? "He envisions charging Internet service providers. The Pirate Bay could also generate revenue from advertising." The new company's owner assures us there will be no further violation of copyrights: “'It has to be legal from Day 1,'” says Hans Pandeya. “'We are on the stock market; we can’t start playing games.'”

Well, Mr. Pandeya, as the old Swedish proverb goes, lots of luck.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.

Swedish Pirate Booty: a Seat in Europe's Parliament

This one's going to blow your minds, folks.

BBC News reports that Sweden's Pirate Party, campaigning on a platform of reforming copyright and patent laws, has won a seat in the European Union's Parliament with 7.1% of the vote.

As we wrote in April, four men involved in the Pirate Bay file-sharing website were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay about $4.5 million in damages. Richard Falkvinge's Pirate Party seized on the high profile suit to rally supporters to a victory in EU parliamentary elections. "Last night, we gained political credibility," Falkvinge gloated as his bloc of one began negotiations with other EU parties for political support and credibility. "People were not taken in by the establishment and we got political trust from the citizens. "

It's hard to know what the citizens of Europe trust about the principles on which the Pirate Party bases its quest for power. "Many people just don't see illegal file-sharing as a crime, however hard the media industries try to persuade the public that it's just as bad as shoplifting," writes BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones. Falkvinge enunciated the piracy position succinctly: "The establishment is trying to prevent control of knowledge and culture slipping from their grasp."

Well, now, in a development that will delight freemongers, the Pirate Party has joined the establishment. Read about it in Swedish pirates capture EU seat.

RC