Piracy Payback

Feeling guilt over P2P use? Piracy Payback wants to help

Feeling a sense of remorse, contrition, guilt, shame, and self-loathing over all that unauthorized peer-to-peer downloading you've been doing? Salve that stinging conscience by giving some cash back to artists!

That's the pitch behind Piracy Payback, a website that collects donations from downloaders and distributes them to rightsholder organizations in Europe and North America (where much of the content originates). I spoke to Drew K, the Australian proprietor of the site, who says that his inspiration for the venture came when he couldn't find a particular TV series available anywhere except in the darker corners of the Internet. In a moment of weakness, he downloaded, but he wanted some way to give back to the creators.

Finally I can sleep through the night!