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".

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.

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?