How the Pirate Bay Will Be Legalized

Death Metal sends along this excerpt from Torrentfreak about how Global Gaming Factory, the company who is buying The Pirate Bay, plans to change the site in order to avoid the wrath of the entertainment industry: "In a letter addressed to [shareholders], the company confirms that the new Pirate Bay will become a pay site, while revealing some additional details on how GGF plans to legalize it. To please the entertainment industry, GGF will install a system that will allow the copyright holders to either authorize the 'illegal' torrent or have it removed from the site. If the copyright holder chooses the first option, they will be compensated every time the file is downloaded. In addition, the board says that it will pay penalties if it has to. 'The holder will be able to leave the file and obtain compensation or ask for removal of the file. GGF will also pay any penalties that may arise,' the GGF board announced."

Comments

Model

[pete-classic]

So, the business model is to take away the things that people are probably most interested in, and start charging for whatever is left?

I can't wait for the IPO!

-Peter

Re:Model

[MaerD]

Maybe. I think what they are going for is a "pay a monthly fee and get all the games/music/etc you can download" and plan to pay the rights holders from the monthly fees..
I doubt that will really happen without DRM out the ying-yang, which will lead to the model of "oh crap, we're bankrupt".

the by-nobody-going-there-anymore dept.

[clone53421]

From the looks of their plan, nobody-going-there-anymore is about right.

Wow

[GofG]

Will it keep the name "The Pirate Bay"? That name implies piracy.

Re:Wow

[jerep]

They're thinking about renaming it "The Ninja Bay"

Re:Wow

[BlueKitties]

That's stupid. There's already a Ninja Bay. (And don't say you haven't ever heard of it, it's the NINJA bay, that's the point.) There server is at the center of the Earth.

Re:Wow

[ionix5891]

"The Kamikaze Bay" seems more appropriate

If they go through with this

[grahamsaa]

The pirate bay will soon be very legal. . . and very dead.

not gonna work

[pak9rabid]

That's like buying a whore house and getting rid of all the whores.

Re:not gonna work

[Rogerborg]

That's a ridiculous analogy.

It's much more like when you've gatecrashed a party full of drunken horny half naked cheerleaders, when suddenly all the hot ones disappear, and the fugly ones turn into whores.

Seriously, if we can't get whore-based analogies right, then we're no better than animals, or Belgians.

Re:not gonna work

[TheSpoom]

I'm sorry, as much as whore analogies are fun, I can't understand what you're saying when there are no cars involved.

How much will the pay site cost?

[badfish99]

The copyright holders are now getting fines of about $100000 per illegal download, if I remember correctly. So if the Pirate Bay will pay this as compensation every time it slips up, it's going to have to be a rather expensive pay site, isn't it?

check riaaradar.com

[Dan667]

When you buy music, make sure to check http://riaaradar.com/ to see if the album is from a company that funds the RIAA. If they do, don't buy it and stick it to them a couple dollars of lost earnings at a time.

misunderstanding the issue

[Aurisor]

The IP cartels' opposition to piracy isn't just about the piracy itself; they are scared to death of the creation of a decentralized alternative to their existing systems for finding and exploiting artistic talent. The only reason they would embrace *any* method of distribution they don't have total control over is absolute desperation.

It's not about monetizing piracy. If they can't sell you a new version every couple years, control release dates, price a product differently in different regions, censor products for certain markets, or control how the product is presented then your distribution channel is a *threat* to them and they are going to try and take it down. If a kid can record a hit album with two grand worth of hardware and software - and, even worse, distribute it with two hundred bucks worth of hardware, how can they make their millions?

It's not about money. It's about them retaining the control they need to foist their ideal business model on the rest of the world.

So let's see if I get this straight.

[Junior J. Junior III]

• It's legal for me to make a backup copy of my media, in case of theft or destruction, except that owning or building the tools to allow me to create the copy is not legal -- although arguably this makes any turing machine attached to a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive illegal.
• It's legal for me to watch tv or listen to radio for free by receiving transmissions, and I can even record them and keep the recording indefinitely as long as I only use it for personal use, but it's illegal for me to stream media over the internet and capture the stream, and it's illegal for me to transmit over the internet.
• It's legal for me to trade or lend CDs, DVDs, etc. with friends I know, or to buy or sell used copies, as long as they're legitimate (not pirated), but it's illegal for me to use the internet to facilitate either the search or the trading or to expand my group of "friends", even though I could go to a public library and essentially achieve the same ends by swapping media with a large group of people (the public) who I don't actually know.
• If something is out of print, or censored, or otherwise unavailable, but copyrighted, I have no legal recourse to obtain a copy.

Did I miss anything?

Re:So let's see if I get this straight.

[Desler]

It's legal for me to watch tv or listen to radio for free by receiving transmissions, and I can even record them and keep the recording indefinitely as long as I only use it for personal use, but it's illegal for me to stream media over the internet and capture the stream, and it's illegal for me to transmit over the internet.

Yeah and? Fair Use has never allowed you to rebroadcast copyrighted content without consent of the copyright holder whether it be on the internet or through a TV transmitter.

It's legal for me to trade or lend CDs, DVDs, etc. with friends I know

Actually this can be arguable. It's more of a gray area that is most likely ignored.

or to buy or sell used copies, as long as they're legitimate (not pirated),

Yes, this would be the First Sale Doctrine.

but it's illegal for me to use the internet to facilitate either the search or the trading or to expand my group of "friends",

You've never had the right to willfully facilitate copyright infringement. This is a 36 year old precedent. I suggest you look up the ruling on Elektra Records Co. v. Gem Electronic Distributors, Inc.

even though I could go to a public library and essentially achieve the same ends by swapping media with a large group of people (the public) who I don't actually know.

Yes, because this falls under fair use. Your previous example has never been considered fair use.

If something is out of print, or censored, or otherwise unavailable, but copyrighted, I have no legal recourse to obtain a copy.

Why would you have a legal recourse? No one is obligated to sell you a product, let alone sell you one in the form you desire.

DHT Hash sites

[Danathar]

You know what is going to happen? We are going to get sites that do nothing but list DHT hash URI's (or maybe just the hashes) instead of torrent files. I wonder how the powers that be will take that?

Try google.com

[Joce640k]

Just add "filetype:torrent" to the end of your search, eg.

watchmen filetype:torrent

Multifail! You get zero points!

[Hurricane78]

The Pirate Bay already *was* legal. What they did now, is openly state that they themselves think it's not legal. Which would probably be the biggest failure they could possibly do.

If it weren't for their plan to try, what a bazillion of other sites tried in this exact form, where they all failed horribly without exception, and where there still are retards trying it again and again. Are they drunk? Did they learn nothing? Did they never read the news? Or is it like flies flying into an bug zapper?

Re:Sooo

[Crimson Wing]

So anyone know what the new pirate bay will be? I'm not exactly up to date on what trackers are currently the best.

Mininova, TorrentReactor, Torrents.to (formerly ISOhunt) for general torrent needs. For anime, check datorrents.com.

Re:Sooo

[moxley]

DRAT!

Foiled by anonymity again....

But beware, you have violated the code of usenet, several rules of which are "never mention usenet," as well as promoting an indexing website that allows the uninitiated access to some of our secrets....and should the guild find you, well.....I don't think I have to tell YOU what will happen.

so...

[SCHecklerX]

Who is going to pay the people who take the time and effort to encode (pirate, if you must use the term) the stuff? Yeah, it's not their original content, but certainly the *value* in the stuff you get from TPB is the format, and that stuff doesn't just magically happen, you know. I mean, if I wanted a permanent copy for myself, I could rent and rip myself. But I have better things to do with my time. And for stuff I only intend to watch once, well, TPB is a better option than blockbuster or netflix.

Profit!

[AttilaSz]

1. Create a moderately funny home video. Heck, create crappy home video.
2. Upload to PirateBay
3. Instruct your 1000+ machine BitTorrent botnet to download it 24/7
4. Ask GGF to pay royalties for downloads.
5. Profit!

What about the subscription?

[williamfrantz]

Unfortunately, step 3 of the plan ignores the new subscription fee TBP will expect from all 1000+ of your BitTorrent bots. In the end you are just paying yourself or somehow stealing money from the owners of the bots.

Re:Sooo

[Shadow-isoHunt]

Torrents.to is *not* isoHunt.