The Pirate Bay is hanging up its peg legs; it's sheathing its swords.

The ship has sunk.

In a move that follows months of legal hearings, bias allegations, and a court conviction, the BitTorrent tracker has been bought out by Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) for almost $8 million -- a gross undervaluation, as even the Bay's former owners acknowledge.

The changeover is scheduled to begin in August, when GGF will take control of operations. The company plans to introduce a new business model allowing copyright holders to not only distribute their products through Pirate Bay, but to also (gasp) get paid. It's not yet known, however, whether this will require the new service's users to pay a membership fee -- though such a fee is more likely than not.

GGF CEO Hans Pandeya said:

"Pirate Bay ... is among the top 100 most-visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary."

Pandeya added that "file sharers need faster downloads and better quality." Apparently, he's never downloaded a Blu-Ray (SNE) rip on a 50-gig connection.

Besides being traded on the Swedish stock market, Pirate Bay will decentralize and cease to run its own BitTorrent tracker -- according to initial reports. Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, speaking with TorrentFreak.com, indicated that the site's existing torrents will no longer be found on its servers -- which could potentially ruin that download of Night Court, the complete series, you currently have in progress -- and which remains mysteriously stuck at 99% complete.

However, Johan Sellström, GGF's CTO, provided a cryptic explanation:

"We had discussed closing it down initially so I think that's why he said so. The plan is to use technology from Peerialism that makes bandwidth utilization more efficient and then it would not make sense to shut it down. Peerialism will modify the tracker but it will be backwards compatible. But all this is subject to change if for some reason it would not work. It is our ambition to do so."

Something was likely lost in the translation from Sellström's native Swedish.

The buyout is reminiscent of Napster's acquisition in 2002. Following Roxio's (SNIC) acquisition of the firm, Napster's formerly free peer-to-peer setup was overhauled to comply with copyright laws. As users fled in droves, Napster was shuffled to AOL (TWX), Ericsson (ERIC), XM Satellite Radio (SIRI), and Best Buy (BBY) in rapid succession. In every incarnation, however,Napster failed to offer anything to distinguish it from its competitors; it's since languished in Internet obscurity (along with Friendster and AltaVista).

And history continues to repeat itself.