| I was handed an interesting link this afternoon detaining a correspondence of sorts between BitTorrent search engine Meganova and those "ad slingers" over at Targetpoint. It appears as though a year back the guys (and gals?) over at Meganova were contacted by reps from Targetpoint wishing to purchase the site for a paltry $20,000USD. In response they not only only refused, but also discontinued any further association with them, including a hurried removal of all their ads from the site. The blog goes on to detail some eyebrow-raising business relationships that exist between Targetpoint and several other popular torrent search engines. The first is Empornium, which as you may have heard was the recent victim of a "hostile takeover." The site initially took on Targetpoint as an investor to "to use their resources to make the site better with better servers, a complete rebuild and a potentially wider audience." But, unfortunately what happened is that a proverbial deal with the devil was made and Targetpoint slowly took over complete control of the site and eventually locked out the site's admins. To further the blow's sting, it was quickly converted to a pay site. Is it just me or is BitTorrent and paysite an oxymoron? When one stops to consider that is by and large copyrighted material being distributed without proper authorization, how can one have the gall to charge you for it? It reminds me of that sketchy situation over at AllofMP3.com, whereby you can buy a whole album "legally" for like a buck and a half. The second, and the most painful to read about concerns The Pirate Bay, which was recently crowned home of true-blue swash-buckling pirates for having apparently fought off Swedish and United States "G-men" after a midnight server raid. They sailed back into port from self-imposed exile and were cheered and hailed as heroes the world over. Yet, all the while they were quietly raking in millions of dollars from Pirate Bay schwag sales and now, as it comes to light, from obscenely huge Targetpoint ad sales as well. Not only is the site operating with revenues that far exceed it's operating costs, which is fine, I'm no communist, but when you have ads that can cost in upwards of 20,000 euros ($25,580USD) for a single day, it makes you stop and wonder. Cofounders Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm want people to think it's some sort of "blue-collar site," that it's more of a hobby than it is a full-fledged corporation. Yet, with revenue rising astronomically, especially after the recent media attention, it makes you really want to question your support for such a site. To reveal a bit more of the financial undertakings of the Pirate Bay and its efforts to stash its "booty," read the except below from Rixstep: Eastpoint sell ads for The Pirate Bay in the Scandinavian market. File sharing is most widespread in Sweden where many people have broadband. But The Pirate Bay runs in twenty five different languages and gets visitors from all corners of the planet. In other countries other ads are shown. The total revenues are therefore much more than what Eastpoint arrange. Eastpoint keep a bit of the revenues and then put the rest in an account with Random Media who in turn pay the money to the owners of The Pirate Bay. Random Media have a telephone number in Stockholm but an address in Geneva Switzerland. At the same address can be found Geneva Management Group (GMG). This latter company specialise in tax planning and estate management. They help corporations and private individuals move money to low tax countries with strict bank confidentiality where authorities can't control them. GMG refuse to reveal their relationship with Random Media but they do offer a telephone number to Random Media's representative Daniel Oded. Oded works for Target Point in Tel Aviv Israel. In 1999 Oded received an international patent for a technical system for selling ads on the Internet. When SvD rang Daniel Oded he refused to reveal what Random Media are and why the company have an address in Switzerland but a telephone number in Stockholm. And he refused to reveal where the ad revenues for The Pirate Bay disappear to. Now I don't know about you, but it really makes you wonder what kind of support your giving the Pirate Bay each time you visit them. I mean it's one thing when you visit a place like OINK for instance, and the cash generated goes to things like maintenance, upkeep, and yah even a few bills or two in the pocket for sweat and tears. But, when it becomes to such a degree that you have offshore tax havens involved and shady ad companies like Targetpoint skulking about it gives one pause for reflection. Meganova has made some interesting suggestions as to what one should do if you feel as they, and now I too, about the matter. They write: "Here’s what I suggest and would like your opinions on this one. Stop using these sites, not just because we have personal beef with them, but because the torrent scene is getting fucked up a bit more every day, there are tons of better sites then these: Torrentz.com , isohunt.com , filelist.org , fileporn.org , Torrentspy.com , fulldls.com , bitenova.nl etc.. Don’t be blinded by the public opinion about mininova and the piratebay because everything they claim to be is everything they are not. All they care about is money money money and more money." Okay so might be a little jaded from the whole experience, but there is truth in what they have to say. I think the future looks pretty grim for the BitTorrent community if we continue to patronize PAYING torrent sites, or even those whose revenues are seemingly out of touch with the reality of their services. I know a guy has to make too, but do you think it really makes the BT community look good if guys are making huge profits off of stuff that isn't even theirs? It's one thing to facilitate a place where people can trade stuff and enjoy it irregardless of the legality, as I think it speaks more towards the importance of the free flow of media nd information. It's entirely different creature when people are profiteering on the exchange of that very same media nd information when they had no hand in creating that content in the first place. Moreover, it risks the health of the BT community in its entirety as it allows it's opponents a perfect example to which they can argue the case that pirates are indeed "pirates," that they make money hand over fist at the expense of others. So I suggest we do as the guys over at Meganova suggested and visit sites other than Pirate Bay, Mininova, and the like where profits are totally out of line with operating costs. Or better yet, is there any way can we get some of this cash in the pockets of Bram Cohen? He's the guy who made all this possible without much money to show for it. I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude, more so than Pirate Bay anyhow. UPDATE:I came across some more figures in regards to Pirate Bay's financial picture from Bemmu's Blog. He writes: After several Swedish magazines attempted to calculate advertising revenues for Pirate Bay, Svenska Dagbladet said that the advertising revenues for the past four months reached 600000 SEK (84000 USD or 65400 EUR). This information was provided to the magazine from the advertising company Eastpoint Media. Svenska Dagbladet reminds that in reality even larger sums are involved. Pirate Bay operates internationally and advertising sales are therefore also international and being sold by more companies than only Eastpoint Media. In addition it was recently written in Dagens Nyheter that going prices for advertisements on Pirate Bay have recently been on the rise. Digg This Story |
|
|
If I create a business (selling software or running a site) and it starts making 1,000,000 a month..I deserve that money (as long as I am not scewing anyone out of money or committing any crime).
The guys over at thepiratebay are providing a great service. I have been able to find almost any bittorent file there. Also, they have to pay for bandwidth..are you willing to split the cost of the bandwidth with them as well? (I would imagine it is > $10,000 per month)...I didn't think so.
Bram Cohen created bittorrent..but he DOES NOT DESEVE ANY MONEY FROM THEPIRATEBAY. That's as rediculous as saying that Microsoft Deserves Money from a company that makes money using a word document or excel spreadsheet. Bram just happened to be the one that didn't get completly destroyed after the RIAA went after all of the programmers of various P2P apps. I have been coming to zeropaid since the opennap days (anyone remember opennap)? How about audiognome...or Filenavigator? All Programs that pre-dates Bittorrent by at least 4 years and had better technology and or functionality.
Pirate Bay has done an excellent job creating a successful business model and I particularly like their shifty money handling and Tax avoidance. Why pay more taxes when you don't have too. Keep in mind they really are Pirates its not just name. I only wish two things. #1 I wish I lived in Sweden and thought this. #2 Use some of the money to improve the shitty search function and page lag time.
simple.
I personally use Ad Muncher and I don't see a single ad on any site
I've added a couple of exclude entries so I can choose which sites I support.
zeropaid.com is one of them.
http://www.admuncher.com/beta.pl
This is the proverbial "no brainer" ;)