The Pirate Bay's New Business Model Apparently Working Wonders
from the wonder-how-this-will-work-out dept
One of the key elements of the trial against The Pirate Bay in Sweden was the claim by the entertainment industry that the site's owners were profiting massively by selling ads on the site. The defendants denied this, claiming that they basically earned enough to keep the site operating, but not all that much more. However, the entertainment industry may now have evidence of a new lucrative business model by The Pirate Bay. Apparently, 113,000 customers have already signed up for The Pirate Bay's new anonymous VPN service, which costs around $6/month. So, we're talking more than half a millions dollars coming in every month from this alone... and that's just based on customers signing up in the first week or so. But would the entertainment industry really be able to go after that revenue as well? After all there are plenty of services out there that provide anonymous VPN services, so you can't say that this particular revenue is "profiting from piracy." Either way, though... it's yet another sign that everything the entertainment industry tries to do to "fight" file sharing seems to come back to bite them.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: anonymity, business models, privacy, vpn
Companies: the pirate bay
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Lawlessness isn't limited to Africa, attitudes need to be changed of course, but strong punishment on the supply AND demand side need to happen also.
Orrr, maybe shipping companies should just keep paying ransom.
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Recording Industry = dumb!
As for TPB = Somali pirates. I don't think so. TPB = The boat makers maybe. Just think, if we made it illegal to make and sell speed boats, pirates wouldn't be able to operate in the ocean! Problem solved! No more speed boats for you!
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Who are the *real* pirates?
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The Pirate Bay vs Somalia
JUST KIDDING!
I do think that the Anonymous person doesn't use TPB nor do they follow the Trials... so it's only fair to assume they're not aware of what TPB is. Insulting their intelligence is pretty immature.
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Re: The Pirate Bay vs Somalia
Perpetuating mistruths is a serious problem. Normally intelligent people seem to have lost the ability to reason with logic or to learn about a subject when it comes to copyright laws.
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SpeedBoats
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That doesn't make any sense. Of course you can say they are profiting from piracy.
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People are paying them for VPN access to the site. A big draw to the site is copyrighted content. The more copyrighted content on their site, the more VPN subscriptions they will sell. It doesn't take a rocket science to figure out what is going on here.
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This is where they have gone over the top and will get themselves in massive legal trouble.
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Re: No - Subject
That doesn't make any sense. Of course you can say they are profiting from piracy."
You can say anything you want - saying it does not make it true - or even where it will hold up in a court of law.
- Making anonymous VPN services available is not a criminal activity... at least not yet - but governments, especially those run by special interest groups do tend to frown on technology that supersedes the status quo.
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In fact, some RIAA revenues come from piracy indirectly. Indirect profits just won't outrage people like the direct sales of copyrighted goods.
And there are people like me, who try their hardest to not use pirated material, but who occasionally end up on torrent sites for legit stuff. If I click on an add or want encryption, then there's no profit from piracy.
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Bars get shut down because its patron's get in fights and buy and sell drugs in their place of business. Hotels are shut down because prostitutes use their business for their crime.
Why should the Internet be any different? Maybe we should send some of those warships to Sweden. If their government (like Somalia) can't stop lawlessness, maybe the rest of the International Community should do so. Just pop up elsewhere? Well, that's what cruise missiles are for.
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TPB owns boats ?
This is illegal - why?
TPB: Hey - Look, infringing material over there!!!
RIAA: Assume the position perp or I'll taze yer ass
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free as part of a model
here we see a bunch of scraggly haired kids from sweden leveraging the infinite (.torrent files) to support the scarce (webhosting space, vpn services, what next).
and demonstrating more acumen than certainly all record label, music execs and their acolytes combined.
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Nice troll
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if there is so much money being made...
i have suggested in the past that i would gladly pay for a "piracy pass" that let me keep doing what i am doing without all the hassle of tunneling, ip blocking, and whatnot.
being legal or at least guaranteeing no litigation has to be a competitive edge when competing with piracy. especially if the fee was reasonable.
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"As far as the real costs of bandwidth go, we spoke with Bruce at VPN provider Perfect Privacy who told us: 'There is a reason why we currently charge about EUR 10.00 to EUR 15.00/month (depending if you pay for 3 or 24 months in advance), namely that 1 mbps of dedicated bandwidth in the West costs about EUR 10.00 to US$ 15.00 at the very minimum. In Asia it costs about US$ 80.00/mbps. That’s US$ 1,500 (U.S/Europe) to US$ 8,000 (Asia) every month just for 100 mbps.'"
http://torrentfreak.com/company-offers-lifetime-anonymous-bittorrent-for-5000-090101/
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Re: TPB owns boats ?
It's all to hide away from the law, because they make their living offering "infringing" files.
Actually, this one has potential - they are now offering services in all of these countries. They are so going to get slapped from this one.
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Re: free as part of a model
They are just hi-tech fences, nothing more and nothing less.
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Work on that a bit. There were some good things in their but your start and your finish was really bad.
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I bet that is exactly what the Pirates in Somalia believe also. You guys keep good company.
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8-X
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Gosh, I'm so sad Obama shot down the close-shore drilling!
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Re: SpeedBoats
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
A. No they won't
B. According to the constitution, sometimes it's the government you need protecting from.
Seems to me the same thing applies w/VPN
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
I assume that you have no answer, which is what I thought.
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Yeah, anonymous VPN is a good thing. File sharing is a good thing. Skype is a good thing. America had been free of terrorism (unlike Europe) but out weak willed politicians decided to kowtow to every whacked out group there is. Then terrorists struck America. While liberals say they support America, all they are doing is importing Europe's model. Well, how do you think that is going to turn out? France and the UK will be passing Sharia law in the near future, Germany, well, you don't have to go far to see what they produce.
This is the problem, very few are willing to stand up to the people and just say that something is just plain wrong. GWB tried to do so and now the media and liberals portray him as the worst ever. Europe compares him to Hitler. Obama is nice and good and willing to talk to everyone. Columbia had Iran's president speak there (yet banned ROTC and Dick Cheney) but hey, who cares about North Korea's missle launch? Who cares about Iran buying the missiles from North Korea? Who cares about China selling the missiles to North Korea?
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Recent copyright infringement notice
I also inquired if HBO had provided a fund for the ISPs legal fees as they have been given the brunt of enforcement for these or if they were simply paying lawyers to draft these notices out of the goodness of thier hearts or a long-standing business partnership with this particular company as they are also the local HBO cable provider.
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Is that you ?
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Re: Recent copyright infringement notice
Bingo
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
why were they born there? obviously criminal reproduction by their parents.
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GWB tried to stand up and say something is just plain wrong? Admirable, except that he also stated that God told him to end tryany in Iraq because that was just plain wrong too...
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa
That isn't moral authority, it's psychosis.
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Re: Tgeigs
Not that I have anything against tpb but I'm pretty sure guards are trying to avoid the crime, not aid it so your comparison is not valid. I don't believe they get paid more the more crime there is like tpb does.
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Sweden fosters the thinking that champions not equal opportunity for all, but equal results for all.
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At the time they do, I would love to see TPB and others present a nice fat bill for all the research done up to that point that directly benefits any new model the entertainment industry finally does decide to adopt. Of course, I also think that any legal fees throughout the course of this research phase should also be included in this invoice.
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More horse and buggy
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Why should the Internet be any different?"
You know your right we should do the same thing since a few people are getting unlicensed files and some see that as being BAD then shutdown the ISP (note to self dissreguard safe harbor provisions in DMCA). That will show them infringers.
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I'd go with TPB's VPN service for that reason alone, and it would be used on much more important things than TPB's torrents, of which it is prudent to note that I probably haven't downloaded more than 4 torrents from them in the past 2 years.
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People really like privacy and many people realize that TPB will stick up for their rights. That alone is enough incentive to go with them for NON-piracy reasons. I will be soon enough.
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They will graduate from school one day and give it up.
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No No No No No No No No No No
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Look, your comment is TRUE, but applied legally its the same as saying that companies like Symantec and McAffee must be supporting the secret development and release of viruses and Malware because it creates demand for their products.
Pirate bay has every right to venture into a new business model and the appropriate response to a law that allows tracking IP addresses (and it could be said specifically targeting Pirate bay for RIAA) in Sweden would be offering a service to provide privacy. I cheer every time they (TPB) give RIAA the middle finger.
One day this B.S. RIAA will no longer be a viable business tactic and they will go away. How can that be you ask? Because there is no consumer demand for RIAA. They are in fact growing the P2P problem by existing and operating as they do.
Anyone here for a party to throw a container of music CROMs into the Boston Harbor? This time let's dress as music executives instead of Indians.
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No No No No No No No No No No
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the pirate bay is not selling drugs, hookers, or starting a fight club.
As for somalia, people don't rebel for no reason. Tomorrow's terrorists are todays refugees, war survivors, and orphans of war. You call it lawlessness, they call it their only source of income.
Whatever happened to civil disobedience? When you disagree with a law, you break it. You show how ineffective it is. You rebel.
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However, I'm one of those people that actually doesn't see AV firms secretively funding malware creation as an impossibility. I know I'm kind of a conspiracy nut, much more so than most people, and I'm okay w/that.
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There's a reason most socialist countries have higher standards of living, because they PAY LESS for equivalent or better services. In addition to actually HAVING workers' and citizens' rights, such as sick leave, the right to your retirement WHEN you want it.
Capitalism is a plague on your nation, your education, and your people. The ones who really know the truth in America make a damn fine profit of keeping the lie believable.
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VPN
TPB supports Terrorism!
Actually I'm gonna gonna use the VPN to connect to Obama's site so I can troll.
TPB supports Republicans!
OK, I won't troll.
TPB supports Democrats!
OK, not Obama's site, maybe Techdirt.
And since I'm still here ...
Techdirt supports me!
and since you're still here...
You support me, and my views on Terrorism. Because if you didn't, you would be out banning Techdirt for allowing such atrocities as this.
"Welcome to the Machine"
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Re: Recording Industry = dumb!
More to the point, it will be argued that the RIAA can't/won't make as much on that model as they do now, ripping of artists, suing customers, and selling plastic discs for $20+.
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Music, free. Healthcare, free. You want to pay for nothing but want everything. The world doesn't live work like that. You can try for a while, but it just crashes and burns.
The world owes you nothing. America gives you the opportunity to succeed, not the right to succeed. Seems to me to be the best system out there so far.
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Because there is no mass theft here, potentially only one "car" was ever stolen. So if you wanted to put it in better terms it'd be more like this.
Let's go steal a car and then build alot of other cars exactly like it and give it away for free.
And even that isn't quite right either.
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Re: Re: Tgeigs
Of course, a security firm acts the same way -- the more crime there is the more clients they have because more people are afraid of being victimized. So... maybe it's not such a bad analogy.
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What these people are doing is illegal. Don't try bringing the law into it.
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
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Re: Re: free as part of a model
Please explain it to me how they can make money from something people want to have but don't want to pay.
"They are just hi-tech fences, nothing more and nothing less."
And who has decided that what they are doing is illegal ? I was never asked.
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Treating symptoms instead of curing diseases? Yes.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Tgeigs
The CIA backed drug/weapons cartels would like to kindly disagree with you.
"The deputy director of the CIA revealed that over 30 universities and institutions were involved in an extensive testing program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens at all social levels, high and low" - Senator Ted Kennedy, 1977 Senate Committe on domestic human drug testing
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I would probably agree. It seems to me that the difference between us -- and correct me if I'm wrong here -- is that I see those exceptions as a reason to question everyone else that seems fishy until I'm satisfied they aren't, where as you think that since most of the time you'll be questioning legitimate practices, it isn't worth the time.
I happen to think my way is how you avoid Bush regimes, Dick Cheney Continuity of Government programs, Hitlers, Iran Contra, etc.
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TPB will go down on this one.
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wha?? *head asplode!!*
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$6 a month...
but $6 a month for just that may be slightly too high.
add the access to TPB trackers in a "safe" way and it flies, apparently.
get the **AA's to offer access to their back catalogues this way for say $10 a month and that would fly as well.
yes some people would pirate them, but most wouldn't bother, so thats a revenue stream. note I said back catalogue, maybe don't offer stuff till its been 'out' for maybe a few months. yes some more will pirate as a result of this, but many would wait.
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I don't want national health care (nor would that be free). I like having the ability to be one of those low risk people.
No, you do not have the right to succeed, nor douse the **AA, but they seem to be taking that right and removing our right to choose.
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Though, since so many people mistrust their governments, making them want to have a more anonymous connection, I think that should really be a sign that the government is no longer representing the people.
Demand for privacy is not an admission of guilt, despite what you've seen on Law & Order.
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Guns don't kill people, people kill people...vpns don't hack computer networks, hackers hack computer networks
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Hackers, on the other hand, don't need VPNs to hack. Good ones force their way threw other PCs and the not so good ones ether higher bot nets or create programs to do it away from their PCs.
TPB will not go down on this one since they are not violating the law in their home country.
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Speaking of which, since I'm just a paranoid nutjob and all, did anyone happen to hear about the bill that Representative Rockefeller is proposing that would give the White House the ability to flip the switch off on internet connectivity? I think I saw it on one of the other tech blog sites, but can't seem to come up w/it now.
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Re: Re: free as part of a model
Is that what you meant to say?
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Missing the point
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Re: Missing the point
The people who run tpb don't *just* run tpb, they have other business ventures too.
They saw a demand for anonymous internet, and now are supplying that demand.
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Following your train of thought, the ISP that provides sevice to tpb is "Profiting From Piracy". At what point do you draw the line?
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Re: Re: Missing the point
I thought the VPN access was something that was directed towards annonymizing traffic only on TBP. I didn't realize it extended beyond that.
My apologies. My conclusions were based on an incomplete understanding of the facts.
With that said, there are still a number of issues that may spring up under TPB's VPN business model, especially if it can be linked to their tracker.
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Re: Re: free as part of a model
So what is the difference?
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What are you trying to hide?
If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear - right?
What? That's different you say?
Really - how so?
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Downloading from the internet is not illegal, either.
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So what's "lawless" about TPB?
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
Wow. You just can't help yourself from repeating that lie, can you, Harold? TPB isn't hiding anywhere. Period. In fact, they thrive on publicity.
Bookmark another Weird Harold lie.
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Re: Re: TPB owns boats ?
Good question, Harold. What are YOU hiding from? You promised to provide your identity but you still haven't done so. So what are you hiding?
Hypocrite.
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Re: Re: free as part of a model
Weird Harold is just a liar, nothing more and nothing less.
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"Why offer VPN? Why try to offer a way to hide? What are you hiding from? Why is TPB hiding in Sweden, and not operating in any other country?"
They're not HIDING in Sweden, but Sweden is the one place that hasn't been CORRUPTED by lobbyists - although, it's well on the road to that now. They run their site from Sweden because it's legal to run it from there and the corporations don't have as much ability to shut them down.
Let's be fair here - the pirate bay has NEVER hidden. They've always been forthright about their claims, their beliefs, and their attitudes toward file sharing and the law. They have always been right out there in plain site, and have even made strong attempts to aggravate copyright lawyers by sending them frivolous and often hilarious responses.
The Pirate Bay does this because in a fair legal system, their site should be viewed like GOOGLE. You search for all manners of torrents on it, and none of the uploading or downloading goes on through the pirate bay. CONSUMERS make the decision to infringe upon copyrights. If the companies have a problem with this, why aren't they trying to stop it through LEGAL means, instead of crafting the law to their advantage.
The question you need to be asking, Weird Harold, and the question I like you (if you respond to me, answer this) is why is it okay for corporations to influence the law in ways that criminalize people who weren't previously criminals?
"It's all to hide away from the law, because they make their living offering "infringing" files."
Why do you have to be so biased? You're just completely irrational. SOME people here might listen to you if you weren't clearly so one-sided. A rational beings can have two different opinions on two different subjects. A rational person can agree that copyright infringement is not stealing, while still thinking it is very wrong or just as bad for different reasons, for example.
It's funny how mistaken you are. Mike's article clearly says that the pirate bay doesn't make a living off copyright infringement. Lots of their money comes from other means, and they make money off advertisements for hits to their sites.
It's like saying pro-gun sites make money off murder. It's exactly like that. Is that what you're saying?
"Actually, this one has potential - they are now offering services in all of these countries. They are so going to get slapped from this one."
I hope not. I hope The Pirate Bay continues to fight for our freedoms, and I hope people begin to realize who the real righteous ones are in this situation, because the public needs to wake up and start fighting for its rights before it loses even more of them.
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a) Take and Keep the ship for themselves.
b) Take and Keep the goods in the ship for themselves.
c) Take the ship and ransom it off or sell it for payment.
d) Or some of or all of the above.
So the Pirates in Somalia seem to fit that. I'd say the Somali Pirates, deserve the name Pirate. Joe, maybe you should read up on their tactics, it's not small time and all and very organized.
In fact most pirates of old were actually privateers condoned by one country to attack and take the ships and goods of other countries.
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It's funny how mistaken you are. Mike's article clearly says that the pirate bay doesn't make a living off copyright infringement. Lots of their money comes from other means, and they make money off advertisements for hits to their sites.
First off, let's get this straight: Mike is just a man, like you and me (assuming you are over 18). He can say plenty of things, it doesn't make them true.
The Pirate Bay makes their money by operating a website that offers people direct access to copyright violating movies and music, hacked software, and so on. They make their money because these sorts of files attract large numbers of surfers, and TPB inserts advertising into the pages to make money from their website.
If they did not link to infringing files, they would not have the traffic, and therefore they would not make money. Would you visit if the only thing on there was linux distributions and mods for a few games? Certainly, their traffic would be much, much lower, as would their income.
It's like saying pro-gun sites make money off murder. It's exactly like that. Is that what you're saying?
Nope, it isn't the same at all. No doubt you got that line off of torrent freak. It is pretty stupid. It is actually so stupid as to be unanswerable. Maybe if you made it a "pro-murder" site... different things. If TPB did nothing but explain how P2P worked and didn't link to any files, you might have something. But you are attempting to take something that is two or three jumps apart and compare it to the direct connection between TPB and infringing material.
They're not HIDING in Sweden, but Sweden is the one place that hasn't been CORRUPTED by lobbyists - although, it's well on the road to that now. They run their site from Sweden because it's legal to run it from there and the corporations don't have as much ability to shut them down.
Again, more torrent freak material. Sweden has lax copyright laws (which are being tightened) that had not been updated to address the sort of thing that TPB does. Anywhere else in the world (except for China, maybe Cuba, and maybe Iran) running such a site would get you shut down very quickly. They are hiding there. Any move to any other location would have them in very serious legal trouble. Basically, they site behind their government and thumb their noses arrogantly at the world and play robin hood.
Yet, it has been shown that TPB is taking in millions of dollars every year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7893223.stm
"But the Pirate Bay's Robin Hood reputation was sullied in July 2007 when a reporter, posing as a potential advertiser on the site, estimated that the site was earning up to £55,000 per month that was being channelled into a front company in Switzerland. "
In the end, they are laughing at you, because they are stacking away huge amounts of money offshore, and at some point they will pull the plug and go live the lives of millionaires, laughing at everyone.
The VPN deal is just another attempt to thumb their noses a little harder, but this one will likely get them in a ton of trouble, because the service is being sold to people outside of Sweden, and further, they are specifically not keeping any logs of use, which may be in violation of the new tracking laws inside Sweden. Their arrogance will make them fall.
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VPN is bad - outlaw it now
... so what do you have to hide?
Why not send your company proprietary information in the clear? If you have nothing to hide ...
Yes, lets abolish all VPNs so that the content folks can better police the net, we need them out there removing the scum and villainy which steals stuff and is bad.
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How about saying your identity?
Yeah, I know who you are: A lying troll.
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No, WH, you are not just like Mike or me or most other people. You are a professional liar. That's a big difference.
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Another Weird Harold lie.
They are not violating any Swedish laws.
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Sweden sees boom in legal downloading
Is it the only place that has legalized the pirates and their downloading?
Downloading is evil and must be stopped.
http://www.thelocal.se/18770/20090409/
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Damn jaywalkers
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Thank you so much WH
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Prove you don't rape little kids.
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When they come for you at 3am, will you say "I did nothing, I don't fear". When they torture you to find out the location of the nuke they "KNOW" you have, will you say "I did nothing, I don't fear". When they exterminate entire populations because you were unlucky enough to be born into the wrong race, sex, skin color, or god belief system, will you say "I did nothing, I don't fear"?
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Unbelievable twists
It is outright offensive.
What in effect they did is calling "Swedish = N***gers" or "All Somali are pirates"
Both statements equally offensive and wrong.
Shame on the media for not having a better command of common sense and the English language.
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