back to article Pirate Bay website sinks as 'sell out' accusations fly

The Pirate Bay is currently out of action, hours after the site announced it was selling itself to a Swedish software firm. The BitTorrent tracker site's little lie down sparked speculation that is owners had pulled the plug on the operation already. But the latest Twitter update from co-founder Peter Sunde, aka BrokeP, claims …

COMMENTS

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  1. Robert Moore
    Pirate

    Quick shout out for a local guy.

    isohunt.com

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    None

    £4.7 M worth of unfair.

  3. david miron

    Cop Out - Belly Up - Sell Out - No such thing as Kosher Pirates

    This whole deal smells fishy. Anyway you read it it stinks. Check out my thoughts on and CARTOON on the sale of the Pirate Bay here http://www.pcdisorder.com/2009/06/pirate-bay-kosher-treasure-found.html

  4. D 13
    FAIL

    Piratebay was OK

    but there are plenty more trackers in the interwebs.

    It seems hard to believe that anyone would pay that kind of money for a site that will loose 99% of it's traffic the day it goes legit.

  5. The Vociferous Time Waster
    WTF?

    worth about as much a napster

    what are they buying? a site with questionable legality? the goodwill?

    If they are buying the site, the assets aren't worth much and the data on it is only worth something to the recording industry

    If they are buying the goodwill they are idiots because freetards move on to another site and have no loyalty

    So why buy it? It's going to be worth jack sh!t by the time the keys are handed over

  6. Mike 61
    Stop

    it simple really

    when you are the underdog fighting the man, you have support. When you sell out you have effectively switched sides, and become the man. No one supports you when you are the man.

  7. ZenCoder

    Some people are confused ...

    If you want idealists look to open source movement ...

    TPB is about people wanting non-free digital stuff for free, and people angry at the RIAA and wanting to annoy them as much as possible.

  8. Steven 8
    Badgers

    Douche bag alert.

    this david miron Aka saluto is pushing his cartoon on other sites with this story. Don't go to the site.

  9. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Well, literally...

    Well, they literally are selling out. I'm not going to throw a hissy fit over it though, with the court loss I SERIOUSLY doubt it would have been "business as usual."

    On a second note, MAN ON MAN look at these people piss and moan:

    http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

    I agree with brokep, they kept it going for 6 years, supporting freedom (and there's no user data around for the buyers to do bad things with). So it's a shame. But man, people are making it out like he kicked them in the balls and then insulted their mom.

  10. jimmy you
    Alien

    Hmm

    Oooh isn't it big news! Yet again the uselessness of twitter is seen as it almost chokes itself with redundant old news of the pirate bay bla bla bla.

    Hey Robert: isohunt is great and all that but you seem to have missed something, it has no tracker. TPB is supposedly so great as it has the open trackers that anyone can use, making it available to share anything anywhere. isohunt is just an indexer and search engine with a forum...

  11. Eduard Coli
    FAIL

    New Boss == Old Boss

    Getting 7.5 mil off of a site built on others work, he's right it is unfair, just not in the way he thinks.

    Now at least they have income to pay the fines, if or when they hit.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Where's the thanks?

    You built a "community" of people who'd rather not "thank" Big Content for making movies and tunes by paying them, and you wonder why you're not getting any thanks for putting said freebie-fest to death?

  13. Rikkeh
    FAIL

    Irony

    So, the guy who made getting other people's work for free a philosophy is whining that no one gave him anything in return for all his hard work?

    I'd be playing the world's smallest violin, but I've put it down somewhere and can't seem to find it..

  14. Chris C

    Color me shocked

    "'We've been asking people to open more trackers, nothing happens. We've been fighting for five years. Where's the thanks?', pondered BrokeP. ... 'People hate me now for wanting to pause the 6 year free work we've been doing. Feels unfair,' he added in a later tweet."

    Say it ain't so! I can't believe that the freeloaders, who used TPB to download music and movies for free instead of paying for them, would ever expect a website to operate for free. That would just be so uncharacteristic of them. They never take anything without offering compensation.

    As for the "DDOS" issue, how does he know that's what it is? Given the surprising and unexpected news, and the number of TPB users, isn't it possible that it's a legitimate slashdot and not a DDOS?

  15. Annihilator

    @robert moore

    and the majority of trackers for isohunt finds? TPB

  16. Eric Hood

    freetards

    Freetards want more things for free. I never would have guessed.

    A case of "what have you done for me in the last 5 minutes?"

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Ungrateful

    They've spent years providing a free service for people, and now they've made a bit of money out of it, they're "sell outs?" A lot of people seem to be being very ungrateful and childish.

    The people who run thepiratebay don't owe you s**t.

  18. Scottie Taylor

    Thanks

    Well, if BrokeP reads this, which is doubtful most likely, thanks! You've put years of your life into a project you wanted to succeed and work. So thank you. You did the world a service. Thanks.

  19. Someone
    Grenade

    An appearance of half-baked

    The shock factor is causing some of the hostility. A bang, not a whimper. This hasn’t been helped by the two parties managing to make it look like it’s not been fully thought through. We’ve had Peter Sunde and Johan Sellström, the CTO of GGF, giving conflicting information. There’s a quote from Hans Pandeya that’s not in the press release: “New technology would require users to pay to download films, games and music, but ‘they will be able to make money’ by sharing their files with other users, GGF chief executive Hans Pandeya said.” [1]

    There are significant problems with this idea. This has come up when discussing payment for those running a Tor relay. [2] Turning a non-commercial activity into a commercial one can change liability. Some countries require prior registration of all economic activity, even the UK requires post-notification for tax. Should any copyright infringement occur, it could then be treated as commercial infringement. For file-sharers using residential broadband, it’s not even their bandwidth to sell. ISPs around the world would be perfectly entitled to forbid such a new service.

    [1] http://www.thelocal.se/20364/20090630/

    [2] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/two-incentive-designs-tor/

  20. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Pot, kettle, black.

    “People hate me now for wanting to pause the 6 year free work we've been doing. Feels unfair,”

    A lot of the people who helped create content listed on the pirate bay might feel that it is unfair too.

  21. Dán

    Bizaare,

    I never did understand moaning about something that was completely free and had no requirement to do anything for you whatsoever. And, in this case, illegal. Bizaare.

  22. Gully666uk

    My tweets to brokep

    I was surprised when he actually responded to my tweets.Its nice to see my replys i got put in an article.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hilarious

    Wow - file sharers are ungrateful, who'd have thought it?

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not sure if this is news

    Was looking for the new Penn & Teller BS series over the weekend, and eztv.it was down, as was TPB. Some other people on different ISPs noticed it as well, so perhaps there are some intermittent technical problems somewhere being misinterpreted?

  25. The Indomitable Gall

    6 years of free work

    7.7million, minus fine, split between four...

    that's still $195 000 (US) a year. I'd hardly call that "free work".

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Yeah, people are ungrateful assholes and/or idiots

    They got something for free for years and when it stops they start bitchin about it. As if it was so hard to find another torrent site.

  27. drag
    WTF?

    wf pirate bay, wtf

    amazing... people who think that they should get everything for free are selfish, ungratefull, and unreasonable!!!

    Wow. I didn't see that one coming.

  28. Doug Glass
    Thumb Up

    People Are Upset Because ....

    ... they can no longer steal in the manner in which they are accustomed. Oh well, I guess that's called "getting the business".

    Sorry guys, you'll have to go do your robbery and stealing somewhere else.

    Why not just pick up your oh so big bollocks and go to your friendly neighborhood music store and just walk out with what you want for free? Not willing to do that? Afraid the local coppers will nab you? Well can you imagine that. Very big talkers here as long as your cloaked in the anonymity of the internet.

    ... end ...

  29. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Damn!

    Now where am i going to find all that wonderful free shit? Don't care what you paytards think, most of the crap including Adobe and M$ shit is way over priced. Yes use the argument "If everyone payed then the price would go down" you know that's bull and you pay regardless if its "pirated" or not. Ohh, the other argument "Well, software companies spend a lot of money trying to make it harder to pirate" Well if they didn't then they would still jack up the prices because they answer to shareholders who expect growth and a return on their investments. Its soooooooooo incestuous I piss myself laughing if i think about it too much.

    Maybe Paytards if 90% of us refused to pay for it we would get the big software for a reasonable price. No?

    If i could agree on one thing; it would be the small software companies that innovate get hurt the most but i will pay for them no problem. Little Snitch comes to mind.

    As for the music biz, FUCK THEM ALL! If i can send my money directly to a music artist then you will get money out of my cold dead hands. Those Cork Sokers are ultimately responsible for the proliferation of music piracy too! Gouge everyone any time for schlock and expect the consumer to just keep paying. How many albums do you own that you forked over $15 or even $21 for and it has 1 good song? I have way too many how about you? Yes, Paytards there is Itunes and others but it was a knee jerk to the situation the RI of Ass started in the first place. Bad business model and a failing product. Can you say EPIC FAIL!!!!!

    Paytards, I call all of you out to stop being such good consumers. Sony and the other cartels will listen when we make them listen. Unfortunately, your disease called consumerism has you hooked harder than a junkie and the dealers are pissed when some of us are hitting erowid.org looking for something that grows in the garden for our next hit.

    Moo Moo consumer cattle Moo Moo

    Where is the CCCP icon because they protected the people from the capitalist pigs that feed off us at will today

  30. Adam White
    Pirate

    Farewell TPB

    May all your cassette tapes stay taut

  31. Michael McLean
    FAIL

    yeah right

    yeah because every single one of those idiots moaning would turn down 7.8 millions, I DONT THINK SO

  32. D@v3
    Badgers

    I for one...

    would like to acknowledge and support the rantings of Mr/Mrs AC 04:43.

    Spot on!

    If Web2.fail is made of badgers paws, then twatter is made of rats testicles.

  33. Glen 9
    Megaphone

    Re: Damn!

    And with your call to arms you seem to remain the anonymous coward that you are.

    You are the greatest retard of all. Not only do you preech bull shit but you appear to be full of it aswell.

    Yes. Big software is over priced but so is food at a bloody french restaurant. You want decent food, you pay a decent price. You want everything to be free then you can go eat shit with the other hobos by the bins.

  34. h4rm0ny
    Paris Hilton

    What did he expect?

    If this guy genuinely thought that people unwilling to pay for other people's work would pay for his, well I genuinely feel sorry for his painful disillusionment, but it's a necessary step toward ridding himself of some stupidity. In fact the only people in this story showing greater stupidity are the company buying the domain for millions. Are they clinically insane? Just what do they think they'll be getting in return?

    The problem was that this guy was trying to run a business making money off other people's work. That business model is not sustainable unless you are a government and can back up your business model by threat of physical force. And even then, it has always failed in the long run so far.

    Paris - nothing worth having is free. ; )

  35. Andy ORourke
    Stop

    @ Damn!

    "Maybe Paytards if 90% of us refused to pay for it we would get the big software for a reasonable price. No?"

    No, if the major producers of software and "content" took a 90% reduction in income, there would be very few Major software / "content" producers around.

    "As for the music biz, FUCK THEM ALL! If i can send my money directly to a music artist then you will get money out of my cold dead hands. Those Cork Sokers are ultimately responsible for the proliferation of music piracy too!"

    No, People uploading / sharing music on the internet and a generation growing up to beleive that everything should be free (so long as they get paid for what they do) is ultimatley responsible for the proliferation of music piracy.

    As someone else on this thread has pointed out, if it is OK to rip CD's / DVD's off the web then why not just walk into HMV and take what you want, it constitutes the same thing doesnt it?

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thanks, BrokeP

    Seriously, thanks are indeed due to BrokeP and everyone else at The Pirate Bay from all their users. They ran a service, they took a stand on an issue that I believe they really believed in, and I do thank them for it. If I'd been fined millions, I'd probably cave and sell the site for millions to (more than) cover it too. Fair enough - and nice work getting that amount for it as well.

    Best of luck from this anonymous coward to the crew. It's sad to see TPB go, but as others have said, it's not a big deal, there are other trackers and other P2P technologies. Probably safer to head for GnuNet now anyway.

  37. Just Thinking
    WTF?

    @Doug Glass

    FFS why are people still spouting this "copyright infringement is theft" sh*t.

    Stealing a CD from a shop is theft. Sharing files is copyright infringement. Taking a single copy of a file for your own personal use is ... very very minor copyright infringement.

  38. Richard Jukes

    Yay!

    I think TPB has done a sterling job in showing the rest of the world that times have changed and that we need to move with the times. We dont want to buy over priced DVD's and Music, we want a flat rate subscription fee and video on demand!

    I would very much hope that the TPB founders will take the money, live a good life style and plough some of that cash into the Pirate Party. Its time to change the world gents :)

  39. JC 2
    Stop

    @ @Damn!

    Nope, walking into a brick 'n mortar store and taking a CD or DVD is not at all the same thing. You are then depriving the store of that physical product, it is then gone, not available for sale to someone else.

    On the internet on the other hand you are only reproducing a copy of data. Have you ever loaded a website that was copyrighted in your browser? BEFORE you went there with your browser did you have a way to know if they specifically granted an allowance for the COPYING of the files and displaying them in your browser?

    You might say we can assume it is implied we can since it's a website, but so we can say we assume it's ok to copy an MP3 to put it on an MP3 player because that's what it's for, the assumed purpose of an MP3.

    This does not mean I am trying to justify file-sharing of copyrighted content. As with downloading a website in your browser you cannot expect to recreate, to UPLOAD that website to someone else and equivalently those being pursued by the MPAA, RIAA, etc, are those uploading the content for the most part.

  40. jai
    Dead Vulture

    shocker

    ungrateful freetards, who'da thunk it?

  41. Chris C

    @Damn

    "If i can send my money directly to a music artist then you will get money out of my cold dead hands." -- So then you admit that even if was possible to pay the artists directly, you would not do so (unless, by saying "out of my cold dead hands", you meant that you would leave the money to the artists in your will, but I doubt that).

    "Those Cork Sokers are ultimately responsible for the proliferation of music piracy too!" -- If you're going to be an ignorant and arrogant asshole, at least have the fucking balls to say "cock sucker". More importantly, this is the one point in which I will completely agree with you. The music industry, from the top-level record and RIAA execs all the way down to the street performers, are indeed ultimately responsible for music piracy. After all, if they didn't create and produce the music and make it available, there would be nothing to pirate. That, however, is the extent of their responsibility.

    "How many albums do you own that you forked over $15 or even $21 for and it has 1 good song?" -- I have probably a handful, but that was from back in the 90s when you couldn't hear a CD before you purchased it. Now, since sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Newbury Comics have begun allowing you to hear samples of the songs, I can ensure that I like the full CD before parting with my cash.

    "Paytards, I call all of you out to stop being such good consumers." -- Sorry, but I'll carry on being a "good consumer". I believe that if I value something, I should be willing to compensate those who made it available to me. Simply put, if I think a CD is worth $15, I'll buy it. If I don't think it's worth it, I'll leave it and move on. Many times, I've listened to samples on Amazon and didn't feel it was worth for the full asking price, so I purchased it from one of the Marketplace sellers at a lower cost. If I cannot find it at a price I feel is reasonable, I move on. I will not steal it, and I will not try to find a place to download it for free. I expect to be paid for my services. Why should the music industry be any different?

  42. Michael 28
    Pirate

    If TPB is worth this much ....

    ....WITHOUT the torrenters, (hardware only) , how much would a private satellite based torrent tracker be worth? I mean a torrent tracker actually IN the satellite? Hmm ... wonder what they're using on ISS .

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