This morning Global Gaming Factory X AB (a Swedish software company) announced to buy file-sharing service The Pirate Bay for 60 Million Swedish crowns (approx. $7.7 Million). The transaction is scheduled to be closed in August 2009.

The Situation Change

One year ago the founders of The Pirate Bay were sentenced to one year in jail and a fine of $3.6 Million for running the site, which counts to the largest downloading portals on the Internet.

Official Statements

About the future plans for TPB Hans Pandeya, CEO at GGF,  said:
“We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site”

TPB’s statement:
“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.”

TPB is the biggest BitTorrent tracker at the moment and so it might have a deep impact on the underground scene.

It will be for sure a very interesting transaction to follow.