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Sweden Launches Criminal Probe of Pirate Bay Sale
uolamer writes with word that the Economic Crimes Bureau in Sweden has opened an investigation into the upcoming purchase of The Pirate Bay by Global Gaming Factory X. Quoting:
"The Swedish newspaper SvD reported Saturday that authorities are looking for possible insider trading after Global Gaming's stock jumped a week before they announced plans to acquire The Pirate Bay. Trading of Global Gaming shares was halted by AktieTorget, a Swedish exchange, on Friday after officials there requested proof that Global Gaming had enough money to complete the sale. Global Gaming has yet to produce the required documentation. Until officials get the proof they need, they said they won't allow the stock to be traded again."
Okay, I can believe in insider trading, it happens. But why on Earth would stocks rise on the news of such a numbskulled idea as buying the The Pirate Bay. Are investors that daft that they think this is a good idea? The Pirate Bay made money, not huge amounts but enough to make it worthwhile, by selling advertising without having to charge for product (they co-ordinated the downloading of other people's). How can this potential buyer possibly expect to make money from the site when they're no longer facillitating the downloading of copyrighted material? If they try to charge for their service, which is what elsewhere has been said is the intention, then they'll find the users of the Pirate Bay vanish in short order. People used it because they got stuff for free that they'd otherwise have had to pay for. That's not a market that you can suddenly slap a paid service on top of.
Buying the Pirate Bay is a terrible business decision. They're better off being blocked from it by the courts if they don't have the sense not to themselves!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Their plan is to make money off the residue of what TPB was. Their projection is that bots and spiders alone will generate enough advertising dollars to pay for the sale. Also they are working on a co venture with The Onion to expand on http://thepiratebay.org/legal
PS why is comment posting so horrible (Using Firefox on Linux). its laggy and loses focus (not me, the comment box). Just give me plain text, please.
(Clears throat:) "I'd love to charter an accountant - and sail upon the wide AccountantSea..."
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
From the article on CNET it appears that GGF is about to go out of business. I wonder if TPB will then look for a new buyer.....
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
Always loved Pirate Bay, didn't know it was being sold.
Try again, this time with the right emphasis.
"Authorities are looking for possible insider trading after Global Gaming's jumped a week before Global Gaming announced plans to acquire The Pirate Bay"
Before is implied by insider trading. The point is, someone with that info before the public thought it was a good idea, and was willing to pay more for the company stock based off of -- possibly -- the idea that they were acquiring TPB. The original poster's argument was "WTF? Are they all morons?", and that still stands.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Indeed, I also have a very hard time imagining that the new owners will be able to make a deal with the big studios to legally distribute their content. TPB has repeatedly mocked and humiliated them by publicly posting their legal claims and laughing in their faces. Do they really think Hollywood would want to associate with an entity that sodomized them in the past ? They must really believe in the Stockholm Syndrome
I assumed it was a way of shutting down TPB by buying it.
...who was a member of local MPAA/RIAA, had a vested interest in the judgement and possibly a financial stake in the outcome.
So, in short, a large corporate buys up a judge, gets custom judgement, makes donations to the politicians, and everything is A OK.
But when a poor company buys a bankrupt company, that is criminally investigated since the bankrupt company went bankrupt without paying the large rich corporate....
Wow!
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Insider trading is insiders telling investors about something they (the insiders) are going to do, to give those investors a chance to "get ahead". Generally the insider gets a cut of the profits the investor makes. Nothing in the GP's post indicates that he didn't know this.
Not a sentence!
The story as I understand it:
Business model: Arrange the free distribution of other people's intellectual property.
Company name: Don't hide the business model. Call it "Pirate" Bay.
Operation: Facilitate the distribution of pirated software, for years.
Income: Sell advertising to companies that are not concerned about the business model. Make $3,000,000 U.S. per year.
Arrange a sale of the company: Sale of what?
The story today: The Swedish government investigates possible illegal activity by the buyer.
The discussion today: We're discussing possible illegal activity by the buyer.
Insider trading is insiders telling investors about something they (the insiders) are going to do, to give those investors a chance to "get ahead".
And "getting ahead" may mean "getting a better deal on a stock that's going to be valuable long term".
Or it may mean "getting the stock and selling it when it bounces after the announcement".
Is knowing that the company is about to blow however many millions of Krona on a domain name that has nothing to do with your business really inside information that could cause the share price to rise.
If I had that information, I would probably think about shorting the shares rather than buying them. And seemingly I would have made a loss on the deal.
is this a controlled model of a free market ... :?
beware he who denies you access to information for in his mind, he already deems himself to be your master (SMAC-ish)