The Pirate Bay is "doomed to fail"

Plans to transform The Pirate Bay into a legal download site are unworkable‚ according to one industry commentator.

The new owner of file sharing website The Pirate Bay could lose its money within months, a market expert has warned.

BitTorrent users were previously able to download films and music free of charge via The Pirate Bay, but its buyer Global Gaming Factory X plans to ensure copyright owners get paid for work obtained via the site.

Ernesto, the blogger responsible for file sharing news website TorrentFreak.com, does not believe that the plan to become legitimate is workable.

He explained that in order to retain a substantial proportion of The Pirate Bay's user base, a lot of digital rights management-free content would have to be available free of charge.

However, that would involve Global Gaming Factory X negotiating deals with the majority of leading music and movie publishers almost immediately for the site to have "a chance of survival", Ernesto suggested.

"Their business model is doomed to fail and the site will be nearly dead in a few months," he added.

Based in Sweden, The Pirate Bay became one of the world's most visited websites because it offered users the opportunity to obtain copyrighted content free of charge.

However, intellectual property issues led to legal complications for its owners and in April they were ordered to pay £2.5 million in damages to copyright holders and sentenced to a year in prison.

Software company Global Gaming Factory X subsequently agreed to purchase The Pirate Bay in a £4.8 million deal - and it is promising major changes.

Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming Factory X's chief executive officer, explained that a new business model is being developed which will comply with the law, while helping users to obtain faster downloads.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site," Mr Pandeya added.