Tech Crunch is reporting today that the Pirate Bay, famous for their file sharing bit torrent network, is going to be purchased by Global Gaming Factory X for about $7.7 million dollars. What is ultimately ironic about this it that for 5 years or so The Pirate Bay has been seen as the anti-establishment hackers fighting for freedom of speech and a change in our copyright system (which needs changing). They have even taken pride in posting letters from the RIAA and MPAA demanding that they stop what they are doing on their webpage and making fun of them. Recently, the founders of the Pirate Bay were convicted in Sweden of violating copyright laws, fined about $3.5 million dollars and sentenced to a year in jail. The case is still on appeal, but many view this sell-out as the Pirate Bay essentially throwing their hands in the air and giving up, something they swore they would never do. In a statement from the Pirate Bay, the founds say:
“A lot of people are worried. We’re not and you shouldn’t be either!
TPB is being sold for a great bit underneath it’s value if the money would be the interesting part. It’s not. The interesting thing is that the right people with the right attitude and possibilities keep running the site.
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.
We’ve been working on this project for many years. It’s time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!
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. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That’s awesome and will take the heat of us.
The old crew is still around in different ways. We will also not stop being active in the politics of the internets - quite the opposite. Now we’re fueling up for going into the next gear. TPB will have economical muscles to let people evolve it. It will team up with great technicians to evolve the protocols. And we, the people interested in more than just technology, will have the time to focus on that. It’s win-win-win.
The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don’t worry - be happy!”
I’m not sure I buy what they are saying here. It is pretty clear that they are settling for about the same amount that they were fined for and giving up the good fight. Why do I call it the good fight you might ask? Aren’t they essentially hackers who are breaking the law anyway, why would I defend them? These are good questions, but sometimes when laws are so unjust there must be civil disobedience in order to get them changed. Not that I compare a bunch of Internet hackers to Martin Luther King Jr., but the fact is that current copyright laws (especially in the United States) are unjust. Of course artists should be compensated for the fruits of their labor, that is not what this fight is about. This fight is about large recording studios using lobbyists to change copyright laws so that they can prevent information from ever reaching the public domain. Just as an example, Disney was able to get copyright laws changed so that Mickey Mouse would not advance to the public domain until the middle of the century, and I have no doubt they will attempt to do it again when the current expiration date approaches. The studios were also able to get the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed, which changed the law in numerous ways. You see, for these large studios, its not about protecting copyrights as they claim, its about protecting a business model that is clearly past its time. This is why people like the Pirate Bay are invaluable; they keep pushing the boundaries and help us think of better ways of doing things.
RIP Pirate Bay, we hardly knew thee. Oh, and I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.