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Like WoW, The Pirate Bay Has Reached 10 Million
Posted by Mark Wilson at 2:54 AM on January 28, 2008
Torrent sharing group The Pirate Bay has asserted itself as "World's Largest Tracker," now claiming over 10 million peers sharing 1 million files. Not only is 10 million more than the population of New York City, it's just about equal to the user numbers of the most successful MMO on the planet, World of Warcraft, which not so long ago announced the same user milestone...and may have a thing or two to say about The Pirate Bay's title.
Blizzard, like The Pirate Bay, implements a P2P system. Instead of avoiding issues of copyright, the developer utilises P2P as an inexpensive way to distribute WoW updates and patches. And the last time we played WoW, which was admittedly some time ago, Blizzard's P2P updater was pretty much mandatory to play the game. So if you're thinking what we're thinking, The Pirate Bay may have jumped the gun with their announcement. And Blizzard may actually be the sleeper king of P2P. [slycknews via slashdot]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
leadster618
Posted 4:14 AM 28/1/08
So what you're saying is either that Pirate Bay is now the number one target of the government's "we're gonna shut you down filesharers!" List... or its so large it cannot be stopped!!! Muahaha!!!
leadster618
israeli
Posted 4:14 AM 28/1/08
i actually thought the number would be way higher.....
israeli
skeevelasttime
Posted 4:14 AM 28/1/08
Even if Blizzard has as many or even more registered users they don't have anywhere near the number of files on their P2P network so I'm pretty sure Pirate Bay is still the legitimate king.
skeevelasttime
Maltbrew
Posted 4:14 AM 28/1/08
@adammarcw: i was
Maltbrew
adammarcw
Posted 4:14 AM 28/1/08
As of 2006 New York City has about 8,214,426 people. for those who maybe curious.
adammarcw
ItsRabid
Posted 5:14 AM 28/1/08
I hate WOW.
ItsRabid
nealb
Posted 5:14 AM 28/1/08
@neoqueenx:
They tried, but the current owner wouldn't sell or allow them to operate there freely. Some kinda pirates they are...
nealb
neoqueenx
Posted 5:14 AM 28/1/08
I heard rumors that they are currently on or will be moving to a barge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, so that none of the authorities can touch them.
I doubt it's true, but it would be cool.
Long live The Pirate Bay!
neoqueenx
TriZz
Posted 2:22 PM 27/1/08
It's 10 million peers sharing 1 million files. Not 10 million visitors/registered users. TPB still wins...
TriZz
notamacnyc
Posted 2:15 PM 27/1/08
Proposed business model for tiered/unlimited legal downloading to pay off and cool off the industry a-holes.
10 million users paying a minimum of a dollar a month would be $10 million in revenue a month, $120 million a year. Plus added revenue from advertising and other Online marketing scumbaggery. Yeah. I think it's possible to create a business model that would please everybody.
notamacnyc
Rizzuh
Posted 2:06 PM 27/1/08
I would say Blizzard. You can't play WoW without using Blizzard's P2P updating system, at least not to my knowledge
Rizzuh
TailsNZ
Posted 1:44 PM 27/1/08
Didn't Gizmodo link to an interview with the creators a wee while back? I thought it was interesting they work on Pirate Bay only in their spare time, it's not even their actual job.
TailsNZ
Pepper
Posted 1:41 PM 27/1/08
The number really is higher if you think about it. I myself don't like download torrents because they download so slow, but I will download the files people get off of the piratebay from sites like rapidshare...
Pepper
thechansen
Posted 1:20 PM 27/1/08
More like The Pansy Bay. If they were real pirates that off-shore platform would have been taken by force.
thechansen
FredicvsMaximvs
Posted 1:19 PM 27/1/08
I think it's 'cause they've got such a cool logo. ;)
@neoqueenx: I believe it was the Principality of Sealand.
FredicvsMaximvs
apeguero
Posted 8:14 AM 28/1/08
Too bad I can't enjoy Bittorrent anymore ever since F'ing Comcast decided to throttle my broadband as soon as I start using bittorrent. Here's a question for you all, are you also experiencing the throttling? Does Verizon DSL throttle the broadband speed? Are there alternatives to bittorrent?
apeguero
csjk789
Posted 8:14 AM 28/1/08
i'm a big fan of TPB's browse feature. Sites like BTJunkie just don't do nearly as good of a job at filtering and indexing their files.
csjk789
illiniguy
Posted 4:45 PM 27/1/08
The site doesn't seem to be up, but TPB is apparently still actively looking for and island to buy and declare an independent nation with no copyright laws. Check out [buysealand.com] if it ever comes back online.
Also, comcast is buying out my current cable provider so I imagine I will start to suffer from the same packet sniffing practices, does anybody know of a way around this?
illiniguy
Rizzuh
Posted 11:14 AM 28/1/08
10 million WoW players who ALL payed $50.00 for the game, and who ALL pay at least 15.99 a month to continue playing it. Not to mention how many of those people spent an additional $30.00 on the expansion. Blizzard is pwning.
Rizzuh
JesusDeSaad
Posted 8:00 PM 27/1/08
depends on your point of view. Blizzard charges you to keep the numbers up. Pirate Bay doesn't. One up for PB in my book.
JesusDeSaad
Hello_Newman
Posted 12:25 AM 28/1/08
Not a really fair comparison. Blizzard makes a real game and sells a service. PB makes $60k a month selling advertising for letting people steal others content. It's what they do and there's no arguing the fact.
If the US government really wanted them, they would go after the US based advertisers with a RICO bust for conspiring under US law to aid a criminal organization. Bleeding them dry of US advertisers is the only current way to get them to hurt. Other than lobbying/bribing Swedish politicians to change the laws, only real way is to just cut off their money, which is the only reason they do it.
I hope people realize that PB isn't out to prove a point, they aren't out to save the world, it's the estimated $45k to $60k a month they rake in with advertising dollars so they can facilitate the stealing of billions of dollars of others peoples content. They are not some heroic non profit group doing it for noble reasons, they are in it for the money. If they make that cash, they don't care if US companies lose millions or billions, it's lining their pockets so they don't care.
Hello_Newman
nutbastard
Posted 3:15 AM 29/1/08
@FredicvsMaximvs:
It was the Principality of New Utopia, I believe.
nutbastard
nutbastard
Posted 3:15 AM 29/1/08
@Hello_Newman:
ah ah ah - ...for letting people Infringe Copyright. Not the same as stealing. It's semantics, I know, but seriously.
nutbastard
captmonkey
Posted 1:09 PM 28/1/08
@Hello_Newman: The Pirate Bay is providing a service for free that other companies cannot match even charging for it. The choices are to either to use a subpar service legally, which has slower download speeds, may not have the content I want, will use DRM or some proprietary so I can't view it how I want, or a multitude of other restrictions.
Alternately, I could obtain a copy of any TV show immediately after it airs in a format that all of my devices can read for no charge. There is no competition. If the companies want to fight this, they have to do it by improving their product, not from a court room.
If networks just did the following:
1. Host all content as soon as it airs from a reputable source (themselves).
2. Either charge a fee so small that no one cares about it (like 10-25 cents) or make it completely free and make loads off of the website adds.
3. Make the content completely DRM free and available in all major formats.
They would end piracy (for TV shows at least) almost immediately. The music/movie companies could do something similar. They have to realize that things have changed, and they have to change too. That's how technology has always affected business.
captmonkey
SneakerFiend
Posted 12:50 PM 28/1/08
@Hello_Newman: First i doubt n-e one on this website cares about piracy as strongly as you do.
Even tho you did make a strong point none of us probably care.
And i doubt they're only making 60k a month considering they have 10m peers.
Enough of this topic how about those giants??? LMAO!
srry for the double post.
SneakerFiend
SneakerFiend
Posted 12:45 PM 28/1/08
well i just took a look @ some of the torrents they have and they have a lot of seeders.
The game plan had 2.8k seeders.
So their download speed should be in the 100k's
IDk i'll give it a try l8r but im a fan of mininova.
SneakerFiend
ItsMrJP
Posted 12:36 PM 28/1/08
@Hello_Newman: step down from the soap box. you are preachin to the wrong choir
ItsMrJP