Pirate Bay pulling in $80k a month from ads.
 

Very interesting and balanced article on the pirate culture:

http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/f...iratebay200703

thats awesome, thanks for the link :thumbsup

how many of these sites will now fire up next week?

I was reading an interview, in a Swedish newspaper, with the owners of Pirate Bay and they deny they are making that much money. According to them, they are breaking even. But who knows?

Anyway they are about to buy an island and form their own independent country :)

No, that's not awesome. pirating steals from all of us.

God xclusive, you're so strict.... you don't actually have to read a thread on GFY before you comment on it, do you? :winkwink:

They are making far in excess of 80k a month.

Their fucking hosting must cost them almost that. They are 301 on Alexa

http://alexa.com/data/details/traffi...tebay. org%2F

DH

Great article.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

i might release one in the next month ;)

yeah ... :'(

shhhhhhhhh :1orglaugh

torrent sites dont use a lot of bw

I didn't know you owned the Pirate Bay? Are you a new owner? LOL!

DH

Yes they are,even small torrent sites need dedicated server.

no, i thought the pirate bay was on a shared hosting plan.

Even if it's 5 grand/month for hosting, who cares? They are making a million/year at least!

dreamhost :)

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Interesting that they mention Guba as being a potential saviour of the movie industry.

Yea, that seemed strange to me as well.

Everyone wants something for nothing and in terms of anything which can be digitized, the internet is the perfect medium for granting their wish. The most interesting comment in that article was that some of the TV networks have stopped trying to turn the tide and instead make their programs available, complete with ads.

It isn't surprising that television executives are less protective of content, because to them the shows are just a hook to reel in the audiences which produce their advertising revenues. TV networks function exactly like many websites. At first glance and with a change in attitude, there really isn't a reason why the music and movie industries - porn too - couldn't go the same route.

One potential problem is the diversity of the 'net. A popular TV show will have an audience of 10+ million people for every episode and okay, they don't all remain glued to the screen through all the ads. But that apart, for around 20% of the time that audience is exposed to revenue-earning ads and station promos.

This is the context within which a production company can approach a network with an idea and if the execs like it, in one way or another the network foots the production costs. What would happen if instead of a major network with 10 million viewers, "TV" shows had to be made for 1,000 websites with 10,000 visitors each?

The problems are even more acute for those who cannot embed the revenue-earning element into their product. A pop song lasts 2 or 3 minutes: the idea of a 30-second commercial in the middle is ludicrous. So would the music industry, like those trying to sell still porn images, have to create some kind of stream with the ads embedded between each song or pic?

Because the hard fact is that internet advertising is not terribly effective. No-one would turn down the $1 million a year Pirate Bay is reputedly making, but even if that claim is accurate, it is taking over 1 million visitors per day to generate that sum. If PB were to buy or even just host the content they use to pull in visitors, their bottom line would look entirely different.

There is yet another issue facing online porn, which is that although giving it away to attract visitors is certainly possible, what then would we sell? Most non-adult products and services will not come near us and if all we had to promote was dating sites and sex toys, the future would be very bleak.

In the Chinese sense of the word, the next 20 years or so will be "interesting" and it seems to me that everyone except - possibly - the TV industry is between a rock and a hard place. Anti-piracy efforts are expensive and ultimately counter productive, yet so long as the latest rock band has a CD or a pornstar has a DVD free of ads for the bricks-and-mortar markets, those versions will find their way online. Regardless of how enlightened the producers may become in making their products available online cheaply and easily by legitimate means.

So if the pundits are right - and there is no reason to believe they will not be - that file-sharing will become increasingly popular, how can that trend be monetized? Not to the petty extent which allows a kid to buy a new motorcycle, but in corporate terms. And if it cannot be monetized to fully replace the billions of dollars that these industries are losing to piracy, who will be making movies, records and porn in 20 years time?

Large scale theft. Shut the fuckers down. Send them to prison.

If I steal a Disney executive's car or rob him in a parking lot I go to prison.

If I steal his movie and make thousands I'm a cool net guy? Fuck that!

cool net guys live by different laws that you or i.

So do coke dealers, what's your point?

: O !!

oh... that is a nice chunk of money!!

kinda sad that someone makes millions distributing stolen shit, and everyone gives them a thumbs up... :-/

that is fucked up

What they make off stolen content is pennies compared to the revenue lost by copyright owners.

im not saying its right to steal shit...but this problem isnt going away..

so the companies need to adapt just like they did with music...

but they cant charge so much...and by reducing prices, im sure they would get more sales, so it would even out...

and when a movie comes out in theatres, 1 month later, they should release the dvd...doesnt make sense to wait a year to release it

Amen.

Apple dragged to RIAA into bigtime online downloads and what does Apple make on the music? 2c/99c sale. Yet it's Apple's bandwidth and software distributing their music (taken into account for the net profit/track).

Because of pressure from certain European countries to ban iTunes because of its DRM, Apple posted an open public call to the RIAA to release DRM enforcing on it's tunes, to which they refused.

The MPAA and RIAA are in the same control freak bed.
Their DVD prices are exhorbitant - 20 Euros+ for a blockbuster movie - get real!!!

Yeah I saw that last year all of the movie stars in Hollywood as well as the driectors and everyone in volved with the bog money in movies had to turn in their Mercedes, and Jag and Rolls, for nissan Maximas.

No, those guys were the talent that made the movie work, just like talent in photos or lower cost porn vids. The losers are the investors public/private that finance the project ... return on investment.

If the return on investment becomes questionable the money will look elsewhere for investments and the quality of content goes down.

New technology is great, it should make a better product and lower costs ... It should not become a way to steal profits by those that have nothing to do with the entertainment industry.

Controling and having final say in your own property makes Sony, Paramont, Vivid, AaronM, Paul Markum, etc, freaks?

If you don't like the cost of Blockbuster movies look elsewhere for entertainment. What do you mean get real? Most porn sites charge $30.00 for a months membership! Get real? Get it free elsewhere? You are in the wrong business if you condone content theft ..... How about if I steal some of your bandwith is that ok? Or is that different, lol ........

yeah thx for that

And you feel the same way about the script you wrote? So is it now public domain? Maybe someone that bought it will upload it for everyone that doesn't already have a similar script.

Anybody can grab and run with a fist full of cash, but keeping it is another story.

The business plan sounds like a sinking ship to me.

I bet they go bankrupt in under a year.

:thumbsup

Too many people belong to the generation of .....

"I bought a computer so all my music, videos and photos should be free"

That's what the entire issue comes down to.

Anyone want to guess as to what advertiser is the top dog on this, yet another illegal site? You got it - AFF

Seems Lars is a pirate at heart - Arrrggggh!