Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Businesses The Almighty Buck The Courts News

Pirate Bay Buyer Sued For Bankruptcy 102

Posted by Soulskill from the thanks-for-playing dept.
pharazon writes "Global Gaming Factory (GGF), the prospective buyer of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, has been sued in the Stockholm District Court for bankruptcy due to an unpaid debt of up to 1.4 million SEK (Swedish Crowns, roughly 200k USD). The issuer is GGF's trading partner, Advatar Systems. GGF was recently de-listed from the Aktietorget.se equity market due to financial and reporting failures, but was able to re-list later. The Swedish Tax Office was also claiming large sums of unpaid taxes from the owners of GGF. The discussion in the Swedish media has been skeptical about the Pirate Bay deal due to financing issues."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Pirate Bay Buyer Sued For Bankruptcy More

Pirate Bay Buyer Sued For Bankruptcy

Comments Filter:
  • What are some good alternatives?

    • Re:Pirate Bay is dead. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19, 2009 @02:14AM (#29474571)

      Your local retailer?

      • <quote><p>Your local retailer?</p></quote>

        ahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Good one!...............

        wait.... you weren't serious right?

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Naw - they sell inferior copies.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AVryhof ( 142320 )

        Pawn Shops. You want the crap on the radio.... get a radio. I understand the desire to hear a certain song at a certain time, but in my theory.... most new songs are over played enough on the radio that by the time I want to own them, I can get them at a pawn shop.

        You want new music? Go to local shows, support local artists. I live in a relatively small city and we have a pretty kickin' local music scene with everything from Punk Rock, Lounge Music, Adult Contemporary, and Hardcore Rap.

        I know people's horr

      • But ... but he wants that stuff called MONEY for the content, I can't pay with other content I have. Or not at all.

      • Your local retailer?

        Why would I go to my local retailer for stuff that's out of copyright? Like most of Hitchcock's films (I've been on a Hitchcok binge recently), or for that matter all other films earlier than 1959?

        I mean, OK, I can see that some people might be feeling so generous to their local retailer that they're willing to donate money for material that is public domain. As it happens, I'm not. So the GP's question is a good one.

      • Your local retailer?

        It's becoming difficult to find any home theater audio or video device that doesn't support streaming media out of the box.

        It won't be long before you'll just key in the title from your remote and the movie will launch.

        If you want the full experience - multichannel theater sound - the ultra high definition 2K x 4K [engadget.com] video on the 50 or 250 or 1250 GB optical disk, it will be a one-click order that arrives by post in two or three days from Netflix or Amazon.

        The sea going pirate retired fr

        • i hope for a day where a digital library will have everything a physical library has and more, all for the same cost of membership.
          i don't see how you can be for one and not the other.
          the truth is, when something can be replicated as fast as digital material, the value of said material does decrease very, very much.
          when we are able to replicate almost everything, the value(s) we currently apply to those things will be turned on its head.
          people better wrap their heads around that, because that is the way

    • Demonoid is pretty good and does not have dickhead mods like TPB has.

      • Demonoid now prevents people who are not logged in from browsing any torrents, making it useless for people who are not registered.

        The site has also been down for "maintenance" for several days now.

        • Getting an account there is super-fucking-easy. Invites are everywhere and effortless to acquire (hint hint). Don't know about the downtime, I haven't stolen anything lately.

          Yes, it's not so sunny up in torrent land, but this is only temporary. There's loads of other ways (albeit old-school) to get stuff: usenet (which I personally don't use), IRC bots, FTP servers (not that hard either, you just have to look in the right direction, pro-tip: paid sites who spam you isn't the place). Eventually there will be

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cpghost ( 719344 )

            Getting an account there is super-fucking-easy. Invites are everywhere and effortless to acquire (hint hint).

            I've tried for months and months to register online with them, without success. I won't try to get nor use an invite for very specific privacy reasons -- and I'm not into begging either. If they don't want to open for regular registrations, so be it.

            • They usually open up for registrations at the start of each month. I actually stumbled upon some blog which was posting invites out in the open, and I've been doing the same eversince. I thought the reason no one talked about it was everyone had them already. YMMV :)

              If it's too much to ask, what privacy concerns trouble you so much? Having an account? What you d/l isn't stored anywhere (except the amount of traffic), peers/seeders are hidden on site and besides a username, you're pretty much good old anon.

          • I've always shied away from IRC downloads. Maybe IRC is a lot better than it used to be, but I remember the war scripts, I've witnessed script kiddies taking servers down, mIRC and others are still constantly updated to patch newly discovered exploits. There are still people who measure the size of their penis by the number of channels they control. These kind of people wouldn't introduce malware into a channel, would they? And, IRC always seemed to lack the "feedback" of torrents.

            I certainly wouldn't r

    • Re:Pirate Bay is dead. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by QuantumG ( 50515 ) * <qg@biodome.org> on Saturday September 19, 2009 @02:32AM (#29474653) Homepage Journal

      Yep, because 12 out of my last 12 torrents all being tracked by The Pirate Bay tracker really indicates that too.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by mqduck ( 232646 )

      Mininova [mininova.org] is a really good choice and is pretty popular. Torrentz.com [torrentz.com] is a good index of torrents from other sites, though it's not clear why torrents are sometimes missing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mqduck ( 232646 )

        Although I should have mentioned that The Pirate Bay does not seem to be at all dead yet. The site is still fully operational.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by strstr ( 539330 )

        Better still, there's btjunkie.org [btjunkie.org].

        • I second parent. Although it must be said, that it's a generic torrent search engine. So it indexes the content of mininova, thepiratebay, private trackers, some small trackers, etc. It has its own tracker too, however.

          But since you find everything that you find elsewhere, and it even has login-management for those other sites, there's no point to going to the individual sites anymore.

          The only thing missing is, that I think they should share ads with those sites. Meaning that on a detail site for a torrent,

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by mtmra70 ( 964928 )

        Except mininova filters/removes torrents now.

        http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/08/0512246 [slashdot.org]

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by DemonBeaver ( 1485573 )
      Dunno, most of the torrents found on various websites still use the TPB trackers, which is sometimes porblematic

    • Long live the Pirate Bay?

    • The pirate bay is it's users , and they are very much alive.
      As long as there is one free minded individual on this planet , the essence and spirit of TPB , will remain alive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rdnetto ( 955205 )

      NowTorrents [nowtorrents.com] is good for finding torrents, since it's an aggregator.
      As for trackers, OBT [openbittorrent.com] seems promising, especially since it's effective a reincarnation of TPB, just redesigned to limit their liability.

    • Isohunt isn't bad they are heading up the fight against copyright to a lesser degree in Canada. As well they have 3.8 million torrents. Someone tell me if another site can top that. Personally I'm looking for a site with a lot of good japanese content.

    • What are some good alternatives?

      God is Pirate Bay -Nietzsche

    • Ninja Bay?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hkmwbz ( 531650 )
      Dead? It's up and running just fine as far as I can tell.

  • Sue them for every penny they're worth! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Oh wait...

    • yeah exactly. I dont understand the point of suing a bankrupt company. Who's going to pay the debts, AND the legal fees? The only people who will benefit will be the layers.
  • When The Pirate Bay was owned by people had little money, they were frequently sued by people with money. Now the opposite is true.
  • Quick, Lets sue Ronald McDonald for being a clown or Apple for falling from grace.

  • Smell of desperation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by matty619 ( 630957 ) on Saturday September 19, 2009 @03:00AM (#29474775)
    That whole deal stank of desperation from the getgo. The Napster sale earlier this decade should have been clue enough that you can't take a brand known for being A) Free, and B) illegal, and somehow turn a profit simply by using the name in a legitimate marketplace.

    • Yeah, if they'd tried, it probably wouldn't have worked. But they didn't even get that far.

      Honestly, it was clear from the very beginning that GGF was a very risky, very shady company.

    • But my guess is that this was just a way for a nearly bankrupt company to ramp up the share price temporarily so that certain insiders could sell out before it did go down.

    • Napster makes millions of dollars of profit every year.

  • Euro (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    1.4 million Swedish kronor = 138 545.887 Euros

  • It's the Curse of The Pirate Bay I tells ya

  • The Deal Never Closed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xombo ( 628858 ) on Saturday September 19, 2009 @03:36AM (#29474875)

    They never completed the deal. TPB continues to be operated by the founders. This only affects the sale, which everyone was against anyway.

  • These big corporations save themselves through chapter 11 while small investors go down the drain. http://next-world-war.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

  • The English word for the currency of Sweden is "kronor" or "Swedish kronor". There's only a few Swedish crowns in existence, and they're displayed in the Royal Armory Museum in Stockholm.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Vintermann ( 400722 )

      "Crowns" is literally what kronor means. It's a perfectly OK translation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by skrolle2 ( 844387 )

        There are literal translations of the words yen, dollar, renminbi, ringgit, peso, and several other currencies, but you don't translate those, do you?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kjella ( 173770 )

          There are literal translations of the words yen, dollar, renminbi, ringgit, peso, and several other currencies, but you don't translate those, do you?/quote

          We're simply not very consistent in this area, but "krone" is translated in English. I think all of Scandinavia (Norwegian crowns, Swedish crowns, Danish crowns) agree on this. Just like we translate some city name, country names and whatever but not others.

          • No, it is translated to "crowns" only by Scandinavians *themselves* when they are speaking English. Noone else does this, it's not translated outside of Scandinavia, and it's not like "kronor" or "kroner" is hard to pronounce in English either.

            • It isn't hard to pronounce, but you do occasionally run into ugliness with pluralisation/definitive vs. indefinitive forms.

              Unless Soulskill the slasdot editor is a closet scandinavian, I'd say some other people do it too.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mangu ( 126918 )

          There are literal translations of the words yen, dollar, renminbi, ringgit, peso, and several other currencies, but you don't translate those, do you?

          I don't know about yen, renmimbi, or ringgit, but which is the literal translation for "dollar"? AFAIK, the word comes from "joachinsthaler".

          Besides, it's not uncommon to translate currency names. The pound for instance, is only called that in English, a Spanish speaking person will call it a "libra", a French calls it a "livre", etc.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kidbro ( 80868 )

        That's a bit optimistic. Yes, one meaning of the Swedish word 'krona' can be translated to the English word 'crown'. That does not mean that all of meanings of the word can.
        Try the same trick with the Swedish word 'fil', and start talking about how your hard drive is full of soured milk, how you were eating lanes for breakfast, and that you're switching files on the freeway (yes, Swedish uses the exact same word for those three things).

        For Swedish speakers: http://lexin2.nada.kth.se/cgi-bin/sve-eng?krona [nada.kth.se]

        It

        • But in the historical context, the moneytary unit 'krona' is closely associated with the crown; it's not a homonym. The historical coin in question sometimes depicts a crown, and is always issued by the monarchy or their agents.

          My father collects larger silver coins (I am a history enthusiast but not well-to-do, so I collect old copper and bronze coins mostly) and the coins from all around the world (mostly European countries) are called 'kronen' or 'crown' or whatever the local language dictates. Here [predecimal.com] is

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by zes ( 1544775 )
        Har man bara någon enstaka beloppsuppgift, kan man med fördel skriva 800 Swedish kronor (800 Swedish crowns fungerar i princip också men är mycket ovanligare i bruket). Har man flera beloppsuppgifter, är det bättre att använda den etablerade valutaförkortningen SEK och följa internationell konvention med baklängesskrivning: SEK 800. Första gången man använder beteckningen SEK kan man gärna förklara vad det står för (d.v

    • Yes, and I bought a coffee lattè yesterday at Coffee By George at Gullmarsplan Station here in Stockholm, and the girl said, "That's 37 crowns, please". Just like virtually every other Swedish person I've met in 2+ years here says when speaking English (which virtually all Swedes do). So please come over here and tell them that they've all got it wrong.

      Tack för att du spelar!

      • Jag Älskar Sverige [youtube.com]?
        Fel Del Av Gården [youtube.com]?

        Ok, ok, I'm just pretending to know Swedish. ;)

        FAAAAHAAAANN! [youtube.com]

      • I *am* Swedish, and I *do* tell people that they're wrong when I hear them do that.

        The point is that it's only Swedes (and Danes and Norwegians) that translate the name of their currency when speaking English, in the mistaken belief that it's easier to understand, when in fact the opposite is true.

        • >I *do* tell people that they're wrong when I hear them do that.

          Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, *you* are wrong when everyone else is of a different opinion?
          Nitpickers are irritating, but when your actually wrong as well it's just plain sad..

          Just for reference:
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_krone [wikipedia.org]
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_krona [wikipedia.org]
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_krone [wikipedia.org]
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_kr%C3%B3 [wikipedia.org]

          • Yes, thanks for proving my point. Note the title of the articles, and note that they mention "crowns" only once. For the remainder of the articles, the currency is consistently referred to as "kronor" and "kroner" respectively.

        • It's not a translation, you fool. I do hate it when people go about correcting others without taking the time to find out what's wrong.

          Crown is the correct term, as it is a name of an English currency, now defunct. However, crowns were in use until the 60s. (For something you might recognise, remember that line in some Van Morrison song about half-a-crown?) Just as the correct term for the Hungarian forint is florin, as that is also an English name.

          Just to recap: proper names that have equivalents in

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tiq ( 23806 )

        You paid 37 kronor/crowns/spänn for a latte? At Gullmarsplan?

        You're crazy!

  • diealready

  • T' me,
    Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho,
    It's "Talk Like A Pirate" Day!
    That time in September when sea dogs remember
    That grown-ups still know how ta play!
    When wenches are curvy and dogs are all scurvy
    And a soft-wear patch covers your eye,
    Ta hell with our jobs, for one day we're all swabs
    And buccaneers all till we die!

    So hoist up the mainsils and shut down your brain cells,
    They only would get in the way,
    Avast there, me hearty, we're havin' a party,
    It's "Talk... Like... A Pirate" Day!

  • ...but suing for taxes are second most popular way how more "alternatively democratic" countries deal with opposition in business :)

    Anyway, as far as I know, deal is more or less dead in the water, so probably it is for the best.

  • Maybe they'll get some angel funding from Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

  • This is probably the first time i like the artificial body called Corporation: but this EXACTLY what the law intends.
    A corporation is separate from its shareholders. Financially and legally.
    If a company declared bankruptcy, the court can appoint a receiver and make sure every one gets their money.
    If not, then tough luck.
    Suing individuals behind the corporation however much shares they own, is a strict no-no.
    BUT, OTOH, its the lawmakers who have sued.
    So they can change the law to make sure pirate bay's backe

Slashdot Top Deals

Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"

Close