Two days after the Pirate Bay announced their to-hell-with-the-copyright video service the last thing we were all expecting was for Peter Sunde and Co. to cash in their legendary download service. But they have.

2) Seeders get paid

GGF has realised that they’re going to need something special to win the PB community’s trust and to keep them coming back for more. So they’re prepared to go one better than offering a free service and that’s by actually paying people to host content.

I’ve always slightly begrudged the quite reasonable no leeching policy so at least next time my internet connection drops through the floor and I can’t even search Google without it taking three days to load the page, at least then I’ll know that there’s cash in the bank for my pains.

3) ISP calming

GGF is looking into developing technology to make power-grids of P2P computers taking the load further off ISPs than they already will be doing by decentralising downloads in the first place. I can’t stand the whinging of the ISPs whether it’s about iPlayer or any other service. It’s not our business to look into the future of data usage and charge accordingly but it is theirs and if they’ve made some errors then that’s their problem.

So, if the ISPs problems are eased and their whinging silenced, then I’m a much happier man.

4) Artists get paid

The one slight pang of guilt from file sharing is that the artists don’t get paid. They’re the good guys in all this. We love what they do and they should be rewarded. The good thing now is that GGF will pay for having licensed music and movies on the network, so that’s exaclty what will happen.

We don’t know, as yet, whether that’ll be done on a per download basis or a flat fee but I don’t suppose that matters. Sadly, “artists” getting paid is very often a cloak for the fat cats getting their cream but at least this should shut the whisker lickers up along with the ISPs.

5) The Founders deserve some cash

They’ve created something incredible and fought the good fight balls out for as long as I can remember. You tell me they don’t deserve their pay day.

I appreciate that it’s not the most obvious of buys but, for one of the 100 most visited sites on the web, £4.7 million is not a lot of cash. Why? Well, one reason is because the Founders wanted to sell to the right people and, in my book, that’s enough to leave their reputation clean.

They could do with some revenue to help pay the £2.3m damages for the lost court case and can use the change to start proceedings against Sweden for the violation of human rights.

Conclusions

For all my reasons, all five of them, I’m still slightly gutted they’ve sold up. The Pirate Bay was one of the last outposts of the first age of the web – the age of the user. As much as GGF may have much of its heart in the right place, the idea of a piracy service being 100% legal just doesn’t sit right.

We’ll no longer be able to raise that skull and crossbones high but, more to the point, if it’s not legal, we won’t be able to get all the wonderful hacked, cracked and stacked software before it’s even on official relase. And that was half the fun of it in the first place.

My last thought though, the last chink if light, is about the Video Bay. Is that part of the deal or is it a strategically placed new arena for the founders to take the fight?