The founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, blocked the sale for a long time on the grounds that EBay violated an agreement not to tamper with the code without their approval. In effect, Ebay acted like a pirate, while the pirates became anti-pirates.
Perhaps someday someone will catalog all the other benefits that that the pirates developed.
I don't know how to break off the post to keep from taking up the entire screen,so here is some background information:
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/how-digital-piracy-creates-value/
