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IFPI describes The Pirate Bay as a "company" and claims that "[its] business model is based on selling advertising to brands that wanted to reach its 10 million users in more than 30 countries, while paying nothing for the content it uses to attract those users." We spoke to Peter Sunde, The Pirate Bay's fearless captain, and asked him to comment on those allegations. "They do not want to even talk about charges so it's easier for them to just try to throw dirt at their opponents," Sunde told Ars in an e-mail. "To be honest, the things they've found regarding money is not even money that all together has something to do with The Pirate Bay. And some of the money is accounted for twice, because the money has been taxed, then sent to another company because that was the company that took care of the payments, and then sent back for paying bandwidth." Sunde says that claims made by the Swedish government and IFPI pertaining to the revenue generated by advertising on the site—which include estimates that The Pirate Bay's annual revenue exceeds $3 million—overstate the real situation. Although Sunde did not provide Ars with specific financial details regarding The Pirate Bay's operational expenses, he did argue that the site's high bandwidth, power, and hardware costs eliminate the potential for profit. The Pirate Bay, he says, may ultimately be operating at a loss.
