I got a an interview with TPB’s spokesperson Peter Sunde, and in this podcast he talks about how the deal is set up, why Pirate Bay is sold, the heat TPB is getting from some disappointed fans and the future of the site.

Disclaimer: Peter Sunde and I share office space at Idyllen.

Update 1: I have problem with uptime and have asked A2hosting to look into the problem. If someone have the time to create a torrent of the interview and post it in the comments I would be really happy.

Update 2: If someone has the time to help out and transcribe the interview I would appreciate it a lot.

Transcribtion of the interview

Thanx everyone for all help! Listeners have transcribed the first minutes of the interview. Additional help is appreciated! Post your part in the comments.

TW: Hi and welcome to What’s Next. I am Tomas Wennström and today the Pirate Bay announced that they will be acquired by a Swedish company for 60 million Swedish crowns, which is about 7.8 US dollars I think. And I like to welcome Peter Sunde, the spokesperson of the Pirate Bay, to the show.

PS: Thank you. Hi

TW: So it’s around 1 o’clock in Sweden and you had a crazy morning I guess.

PS: Yeah, it’s been one of those really crazy mornings but it’s not the first one we have with The Pirate Bay. But I think it’s one of the most uncommon ones. It’s something very new for us all of this.

TW: Alright, so let’s just backtrack and talk about what happened. So this morning it was announced that you will be acquired by a Swedish company. Can you tell me more about that?

PS: Well, we have been talking to this company for some weeks and we decided that they probably are quite well fit in order to bring our project to the next level, which we don’t feel we can do ourselves.

TW: And they are called the Global Gaming Factory X?

PS: Yes.

TW: Alright. So who are they?

PS: They are some Swedish entrepreneurs, mostly from … during the Dot-com bubble they were quite big and worked with all of the fancy companies in Sweden. They’ve also been working with some Voice over IP solutions and working with free advertising and so on, globally. But mostly they work with distribution for Internet cafes and so on. So it’s not really a perfect fit, but I think their values are what makes this something that can actually work.

TW: How?

PS: We’ve been approached before, but those companies haven’t really understood the value of The Pirate Bay. And the value is simply the users and nothing else. Technology isn’t ours, there is nothing revolutionary about it. It’s only the following and basically nothing else. So if you’re interested in buying that, you’ll actually have to keep that spirit and keep that type of profile up, otherwise you are going to buy something which is going to loose value rapidly.

TW: But to me this sounds, well, what should I say, crazy, from this thought that The Pirate Bay is acquired by a listed company. How does that work out?

PS: Well, we think it’s funny. That’s one of the bigger reason why we’re doing this, it’s because… basically we have no energy and possibility to go further with The Pirate Bay. So either we just let it be as it has been for three years. Many people just hate that we had this ugly design and so on.
And I think we have a visitor [...short interruption...] OK, so we are actually sitting outside an office space at the moment. This is something that happens.
But anyhow, we decided that it would be super funny to have The Pirate Bay as a listed company in the stock exchange. Because we have been criticized for our transparency regarding the ownership and the flow of money within The Pirate Bay, and it has been for legal reasons that we couldn’t really have a full disclosure on who is doing what and why and so on.

TW: And you think that will be clearer in the future?

PS: It has to be. There is a law saying that as a listed company you’ll have to do stuff really clear. And it also gives people the opportunity to not only share files but also share shares with each other.So, essentially, anybody can become part of The Pirate Bay. Which we see somehow really fitting towards the idea of the site itself, that it’s a site run by the users and not by the [unintelligible].

TW: So would I really be able to buy a share in The Pirate Bay, or whatever it will be called in the future?

PS: Yes. You can go today and buy it. The company is listed and it’s just up to you if you want to buy it. They haven’t [got] The Pirate Bay yet. A lot of people think that we already sold, but it actually takes a couple of weeks before they have the ability to buy it.

TW: OK, so let’s just go through the process then. So this was announced today, but must have started quite a while ago?

PS: Well, it’s been I think maybe two months or something like that, I’m not sure exactly. Time has been flowing really rapidly the last few months. And we decided that … essentially they are going to release the information that they are interested in buying Pirate Bay.
And they will have to fund it within four weeks. Not only The Pirate Bay, but they’re also buying Peerialism, which is a technology company in Sweden. So they need to get shitloads of money in the company in order to buy this.

TW: And they have four weeks to make that happen?

PS: Yes.

TW: And if not?

PS: Then everything reverts back to their owners, as it should be. So Pirate Bay will go back to the previous owners. And then we’ll see what we have to do. We don’t know if we can actually do anything if we don’t get some real funding for this. Because then we are going to die this slow soft death because nothing is evolving and so on.

TW: So you mean that if this does not get through then the energy is gone for running PB in the future?

PS: The perfect thing would be if the users would set up something and buy TPB and … join us in manufacturing a better site and evolving the technology and so on…but that’s a hard thing to solve and we need people who know how to do that and so on, and that’s why this felt like a good solution.

The people in TPB today are quite…I don’t want to said tired, but, exhausted..of working with this…and it’s been quite…a bad pay, minus 30 million…and it takes the energy out of you and you need to recharge your batteries and we can’t really go on a vacation right now…we can never do that with TPB. So that’s…[interruption by a car] I thought this street was a non-driving street! But anyhow..I think that…yeah, this is the only way to make TPB work in the future.

TW: I’m a bit curious about all this started to happen. Who approached who in the beginning, 2 months ago?

PS: They approached us, we had some meetings and talked a bit and we thought they were crazy and…the thing is, we like crazy people, and we like the underdog…and they seem to have a really, uh, big struggle, and that is… something we encourage to do, if you have a big struggle it’s not bad, you can do it.

TW: And who are they? Who is backing the company?

PS: I’m not sure who the financial backers are..I know somewhat the people they know…we have some mutual friends, and I trust those friends…that’s why we, all of us, trust these persons…

TW: I’m sure that a lot of your fans think that this might just go bad, that the new company will screw up and make all that’s good about TPB go away. What do you think about that?

PS: I’m agnostic about it. I think it could be true, could be faulty. Whatever happens at least something happens, which is the big thing here. I’d rather see TPB die in a chance of becoming better than just dying. It’s kind of…you know….we don’t have the necessary abilities to keep PB evolving and just keeping it going could be…you know, it could work for a year or two, but then eventually we die and that wouldn’t serve a purpose, so rather fight honorably and have a go at it than just die by old age without winning the fight.

[...] Transcribtion to be continued. If you feel for it, help out by posting a minute or two in the comments.

Hear Chris Anderson talk about:

How “Free” business models are spreading offline
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The future of the media industry
How startups will manage in a down economy
How he will market the “Free” book
His contribution to the Lego museum in Denmark (this is cool stuff!)

Host: Kristin Heinonen

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