01/07/2009

Global Gaming Factory (GGF) has bought the controversial file-sharing website Pirate Bay for an estimated £4.7 million.

News of the sale follows the founders of the Swedish website - Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundstrom – being fined £2.2 million and threatened with jail for breach of copyright earlier in the year.

In a post on the website's blog, the founders said that Pirate Bay is worth more than it is being sold for but it is the 'right people with the right attitude' are acquiring it.

The founders said: 'We've been working on this project for many years. It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen.

'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.'

Pirate Bay was initially set up in 2003.