While not actually hosting content, Pirate Bay did enable users to hook up with those who did, often resulting in the illicit distribution of copyrighted music, movies and TV shows. In April four men involved with Pirate Bay’s original file-sharing operations were sentenced to one year in prison for facilitating copyright infringing activities and fined 30 million kronor ($3.8 million).

Swedish software firm Global Gaming Factory X acquired the domain name and related Web sites in June for 60 million kronor ($7.5 million) and immediately began plans to turn the operation into a legitimate content distributor.

Now Global Gaming is revealing some of those plans, including charging users a monthly fee. Users will be able to work off those charges by sharing content or storing content on their computers. Under Global Gaming’s business plan, described as “give and take,” content suppliers and copyright owners will receive payment.

“For the great majority it will be free of charge, for a minority it will actually make them money, and for a small portion it will cost them,” said Global Gaming’s chief exec Hans Pandeya.

Turns out the four men sentenced to a year in prison for operating Pirate Bay may not have been the actual owners. Pandeya said Global Gaming purchased the site from a foreign company through lawyers, and that his company isn’t sure who the previous owners were.

Regardless, one of those sentenced to jail time said he and his associates approve of Global Gaming’s plans to charge users and then pay them back for storing and distributing content, saying he and his Pirate Bay buddies had taken the site as far as they could with their available resources and money.

Along with charging users for access, and then giving them opportunities to work off the charge and perhaps even earn a little revenue, Pandeya also said Pirate Bay would make money from advertising and would implement more “give and take” opportunities for users in the coming months.

“We know that unless we’re able to create revenues for the filesharers they’ll just move on to the next free site,” Pandeya said. “Filesharers are our best friends.”

The revamped Pirate Bay is expected to launch in about a month.

Click here for Global Gaming Factory X’s official site.