Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory has announced (PDF) a deal that will let it acquire The Pirate Bay Web site for the equivalent of about $8 million, half in cash up front and half in stock. In a related move, Global Gaming is acquiring P2P technology developer Peerialism for roughly $13 million (again, half in cash, half in stock) and plans to invest another $3.25 billion in developing the acquired businesses. And the goal Take The Pirate Bay—which is one the top 100 most-visited Web sites on the planet—legit.
"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site," said Global Gaming CEO Hans Pandeya, in a statement. "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."
Global Gaming runs gaming centers and Internet cafes in Sweden; its purchase price for The Pirate bay is about double the fine that was imposed on The Pirate Bay operators for illegal distribution of copyrighted material earlier this year. Assuming its board concludes The Pirate Bay can be used without running afoul of the law, they plan to take over operations in August and work toward setting up a legitimate P2P based service under the name.
Looking forward, it will be interesting to see how the content industry responds to a revamped Pirate Bay. The music industry in particularly is starting to realize the mistake they made by squelching the original Napster rather than embracing it; they may be quicker to work with a legitimate Pirate Bay and leverage its potential for reaching engaged customers rather than sticking with their current battle plan of litigating it into oblivion.
