(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Treading troubled waters due to recent court rulings, file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been thrown a lifesaver in the form of an offer to be bought by Swedish software developer Global Gaming Factory X (www.globalgamingfactory.com), which plans to launch a new business model that compensates copyright owners for downloaded material.
In April, a Stockholm court sentenced the four Swedish men behind Pirate Bay to a year in prison each and ordered them to pay roughly $3.57 million in fines, a ruling that has been appealed.
According to its Tuesday announcement, GGF intends to buy both The Pirate Bay and file-sharing technology developer Peerialism (www.peerialism.se), to launch a new file-sharing platform that allows content providers and copyright owners to be compensated.
"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," GGF CEO Hans Pandeya said in a statement. "Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers need faster downloads and better quality."
Set to pay 60 million Swedish crowns (roughly $7.7 million), GGF anticipates the transaction to close in August 2009. Following the sale, GGF will be responsible for the Pirate Bay website and its operations.
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