Labels pressure Global Gaming for Pirate Bay money
Music industry executives in Europe have begun pressuring Global Gaming Factor, the company that intends to buy The Pirate Bay, to turn over to them any money it pays to acquire the site.
Jo Oliver, the general counsel for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), wrote Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming's CEO, on July 24. Oliver told Pandeya that the group will ask authorities in Sweden to "issue an order prohibiting Global Gaming from paying the purchase sum" to the founders of The Pirate Bay. Oliver added that copyright owners will also ask the government require Global Gaming to turn over information about the acquisition should it go through.
In the spring, a Swedish court found the Web site's co-founders--Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg--along with Carl Lundstr?m guilty of having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site. The court sentenced them to a year in jail and ordered them to pay $3.6 million in damages. But Sunde Kolmisoppi maintains that the co-founders haven't owned The Pirate Bay since 2006.
Last month, CNET News reported that the IFPI planned to intercept any money Global Gaming pays to acquire The Pirate Bay. Copyright owners from the film and music industry allege that Reservella, the holding company that is the listed owner of The Pirate Bay, is controlled by Neij.
The IFPI also didn't mince words about what would happen if the new Pirate Bay continued to help users download pirated music.
"We need to warn you that if GGF takes responsibility for The Pirate Bay service in its current form, or if GGF operates The Pirate Bay in any way in violation of applicable copyright law, we will be forced to take legal action."
Oliver told Pandeya that he could count IFPI as a friend if he is successful in licensing music from the top record companies.
"We hope that your discussions with the rights holders reach a mutually acceptable resolution," Oliver wrote. "IFPI would welcome and give strong support to the launch of a new online service."
Pandeya has said that under his control The Pirate Bay will morph into a legal service that offers content in exchange for users' computer bandwidth and hard drive space.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
IOW, the current (not new) owners of TPB are still required to pay up, not whoever purchases TPB's goods without buying the corporate charter.
"A garnishment is a means of collecting a monetary judgment against a defendant by ordering a third party (the garnishee) to pay money, otherwise owed to the defendant, directly to the plaintiff." -- Wikipedia
Yep - but they still have to apply for it, and if they already had it, they wouldn't need to squawk about it. QED, eh?
If there's a process and the IFPI followed it, then the last thing they'd want to do is scare off a potential payoff by publicly demanding money from the potential payor, correct? Since they're stammering out a demand for money, odds are very good that either there is no process in place that suits them, or that they were turned down.
First, you wrote that "if GGF buys their assets (servers, trademarks, et. al), the IFPI can't do squat about it directly [...] the current (not new) owners of TPB are still required to pay up, not whoever purchases TPB's goods without buying the corporate charter." Total non-sense!! With the courts direction purchasers of any assets from a defendant can be compelled to pay the plaintiffs (IFPI in this case) directly.
Second, you're incredibly naive if you actually believe GGF wants to complete TPB's acquisition. "Naive" might be too kind of a word. Global Gaming is a puny company with puny financial resources. They're only "proposing" to buy TPB as a publicity stunt, with little intention of actually closing the deal. It's cheap marketing for them, to impress teenage Swedish kids who frequent their Internet cafes. Either the acquisition will fall apart completely or GGF will end up buying just TPB's name (trademark) for a nominal sum.
Third, IFPI isn't stupid. They're making public pronouncements precisely because they're up to GGF's publicity stunt. So IFPI is doing some saber-rattling on their own. They want TPB dead, not living on as some GGF marketing hype. Actually collecting a measly $3.6 million in damages means less to them than making TPB's demise as an example to other torrent or file-sharing sites.
and its founders might not get the money they deserved
@people who think tpb is against the law
the stupid DMCA doesn't exist over there
- by Michichael August 7, 2009 8:14 AM PDT
- So... the MPAA is trying to enforce a decision that is in appeals due to their biased judge via garnishment... I'm sorry, is it legal to attempt to enforce a ruling that is in appeals? It's not final, therefor the ruling isn't enforceable, as far as I know. I'm frankly shocked the MPAA hasn't pissed off the mafia... oh wait... they /are/ a mafia.
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- by cosuna August 7, 2009 3:11 PM PDT
- It's not the MPAA or the RIAA... it's their evil twin the IFPI...
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- by pentest August 7, 2009 6:10 PM PDT
- Guess what? There is no difference between the RIAA and IFPI, they have the same members and policies. IFPI is simply the international RIAA.
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(15 Comments)Then again, I think the Pirate Bay battle is just another Pirric battle by the Movie industry, just like the one the RIAA had with Napster, that is the won, but lost at the end (to iTunes).