Pirate Bay buyer lines up record deal

The Swedish firm set to buy The Pirate Bay, Global Gaming Factory (GGF), has said it is about to ink a deal with a major record company, a move that will enable it to sell the label's content through the file sharing site.

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GGF, which is set to acquire the illegal download site, revealed on Wednesday that a deal was imminent.

"We almost have a contract ready with one of them," chief executive Hans Pendaya told AFP.

He declined to name which record label GGF was planning to strike an agreement with but said it was one of the "Big Four" from EMI, Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music.

Pendaya explained the idea behind the deal was to sell the record label's content and back catalogue through the Pirate Bay, which it agreed to buy at the end of June.

He added GGF's purchase of the popular download website is set to be rubber- stamped by shareholders by August 27th at the latest.

The Pirate Bay is one of the world's largest download sites, claiming to have 20 million registered users.

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files for free using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site -- yet none of the material can be found on the site's server.

Its three founders and the site's main financial backer were sentenced to a year in jail in April by a Stockholm court.

Their sentencing came at a time when many countries across the world were looking at ways to tighten up the law on internet piracy.