The Pirate Bay sold for £4.7million

lklklklk.jpg

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Pirate Bay. Firstly it was announced that the founders had been heavily fined and sentenced to prison in their court case in Sweden. Then the Pirate Party wins two seats in the EU elections. And yesterday we told you about their Video Bay project.

But today’s news trumps the lot – the Pirate Bay has been sold to Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB for 60million SEK (£4.7million).

Global Gaming Chief Executive Hans Pandeya stated that they would “like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site”. So copyright owners will be compensated? That’s not really the ethos of the Pirate Bay is it?

The Pirate Bay is keen to stress that the site will not change under the new ownership – their blog states that the buyers are the “right people with the right attitude”.

However, the relatively small fee paid – this is one of the 100 most visited websites in the world remember – suggests it may be somewhat of a fire-sale. Given the timing and the revelations of the huge fines they face it isn’t difficult to imagine that this sale is more a case of the founders cutting their losses and getting out whilst they can.

The Pirate Bay is saying otherwise though: “The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don’t worry – be happy!”

It’s hard not to worry though isn’t it? It’s going to be fascinating to see how the Pirate Bay evolves under the new owners.

(via Reuters & The Pirate Bay)

Creative has sold 25 million MP3 players now, according to…Creative

creative-mp3-player-pic.jpgFor a company battling the MP3 giant Apple, 25 million MP3 player sales is extremely impressive stuff. Staff in all the Creative offices across the world are popping the Cava over the news, and Waitrose has already reported profits rising by more than 40% in the last 24 hours for bubbly.

Recognised as the second-largest supplier of the gadgets, the announcement “marks a major milestone in Creative history, as our player unit volume exceeds the combined unit sales from some of the biggest names…

Microblogging site Jaiku sold to Google for undisclosed sum

google-jaiku.jpg
Very exciting news, everyone! Whilst you’re busy tripping out on In Rainbows this morning, here’s something that will send you into a spin – the microblogging start-up, Jaiku, got acquired by Google yesterday.

Created by possibly the nicest man in the web 2.0 world, Jyri Engeström, they put the news up on their site yesterday. “Wonderful Jaiku users, Exciting news, Jaiku is joining Google! While it’s too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the…