Thread: Is BitTorrent Done? Major Torrent Sites Consider Shutting Down

News of raids, arrests, seizures, extraditions and jail time in the file-sharing world hasn’t gone unnoticed by the operators of major BitTorrent sites. Yesterday, the owners of BTjunkie decided to close their site because the stress became too much, and there are others who consider doing the same. While there are still plenty site owners who are determined to continue, doubt and uncertainty are more present than ever before.

For nearly a decade BitTorrent sites have ruled the file-sharing landscape. In recent weeks, however, worry about the future has increased drastically among the owners of some of the largest torrent sites. Yesterday, BTjunkie closed its doors for good, and TorrentFreak has learned that at least two other sites in the top 10 have toyed with the same idea.
“There have been talks of shutting our site down, even before BTjunkie did it,” one admin told TorrentFreak on condition of anonymity.
The aggressive actions against MegaUpload – site founder Kim Dotcom was raided by an anti-terrorist squad last month – are frequently mentioned as cause for concern. So much so that several people involved with one of the largest torrent sites on the Internet have already dropped out.


“A couple guys on the staff decided not to be involved anymore with the site after the MegaUpload incident,” the admin told us.
The fact that a German citizen can be arrested in New Zealand upon request from the US authorities signaled that regardless of local laws, people connected to file-sharing sites have become a global target.
“It’s turning into a witch hunt. It is worrying,” said the admin.


The thoughts of this admin are shared by one of the owners of another major torrent site, who told TorrentFreak in private that shutting down has crossed his mind on several occasions.


Things have become more and more complicated in recent weeks. Even those who are as cooperative as possible with copyright holders, by swiftly responding to DMCA takedown requests for example, can’t be entirely sure that they won’t become the next target.

On the other side, however, there are also those who continue undeterred, such as isoHunt.com owner Gary Fung, who is battling in court with the music and movie industries.


“After 6 years of 2 civil lawsuits with MPAA and CRIA, we are still here. None of these events is really new to us. From Lokitorrent to Suprnova, we’ve seen sites we index come and go. And as long as the Free Internet exists, sharing will endure. As will isoHunt,” he says.
Ironically enough, isoHunt’s ongoing legal battle might be what keeps Fung relatively safe. If the authorities planned to launch a criminal investigation against a torrent site it would be strange to pick one that is already involved in a civil lawsuit with a copyright holder.
Besides not being worried about the future, isoHunt’s owner is going on the offensive and is urging the entertainment industries to embrace technology, instead if fighting it.


“Perhaps more than ever, I wish the content industries will wake up to the fact you can’t fight technological progress, that battles maybe won, the war is already lost. Unless Content really starts working with technology to accelerate spread of culture, as the Internet has naturalized it. And make more money than ever in the process,” Fung says.



“Because so-called piracy enabled by the Internet and media consumption is not a zero-sum game, a download does not equal a lost sale, and what pirates really want is not necessarily free as in beer, but free as in speech and convenience.”
isoHunt’s determination to continue operating is shared by Extratorrent‘s admin Sam, whose site became the 5th largest torrent site after BTjunkie folded.


“What happened with MegaUpload is not at all good for the torrent world, but I would say it is impossible to stop the unstoppable. After all, if one site is shut down, a hundred new sites will open,” Sam told TorrentFreak, adding, “We have no plans to shut down,we will continue running as usual.”


Another site that’s not going anywhere is The Pirate Bay, the largest torrent site of all. Although its founders are now very close to serving jail time, the site itself will remain online. In the coming weeks The Pirate Bay will replace .torrent files with magnet links, which makes the site more portable and resilient.


The above shows that the end of BitTorrent is not near, but it’s hard to ignore the changing climate. People who previously saw no problems with running a torrent site are now reconsidering their position. The exact fallout, and whether there will be any newcomers to fill the gaping hole BTjunkie left, will become apparent in the coming months.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/is-bittorren...ng-down-120207

I sure hope not, I only just started pirating HD content.

Originally Posted by bentemer

I sure hope not, I only just started pirating HD content.

In my opinion this whole story is bigger than anybody's individual needs in any kind of content (don't take me wrong, I'm not judging you). Think about it, the whole torrent "world" being attacked along with Sony imprisoning PS3 "hackers", the anonymous thing and on a larger scale the whole economic crisis. In my opinion they are all linked somehow and not in that Illuminati-Mayan-2012-is-the-end-of-the-world crap. Basically what I mean is that they are trying to make people hush and not expand and express their own thoughts, feelings and opinions which is what makes us human after all. I mean, they won't have to worry about anything if we all just walk around like flesh robots, go to work, then home to watch TV (actually commercials), pay taxes and die, right?

As george carlin so wonderfully put it, politicians are just b!tches of cronies-with-cash. I understand the whole pirating thing cutting (a lil bit) into their business, but they need to evolve and not stick to the 70s methods of delivering entertainment and expect us to pay up. No innovation = no money.

bitorrent done?? are you kidding me haha lol why do you think many of private sites are closing invites and this stuff?? so that people that are against pirates can't get in. There will be always private torrents sites running the big trackers like TL, IPT can be target of MPAA but the secure and small ones will stay. Torrenting will just become more hidden well we don't have nothing to worry about until the big public trackers like TPB isohunt rutracker torrentz.eu... are up

This is surly a sad set of events, But like how specialized put it it will just end up going deeper underground and so long as the big boys are still about don't have to be alarmed too much..

However, The whole geopolitical climate is geared up in such a way as to instil a sense of fear into the masses every now and again. The achieve this in many ways such as taking down the odd Group here and there or pull down the odd filelocker like MU, FS, etc..

While there is a free and open internet there will still be sharing ;) while there are country's outside the jurisdictional reach of the US there will be servers hosting warez content, and yes that incl. torrents. :)

Like the just recently defeated SOPA bill and their ilk, they will keep trying this crap on, even though it was defeated, the US government already had these powers to close these sites down (Patriot act, Electronic communications act, homelands defence act, list goes on...) which makes me think why they needed SOPA, etc in the first place? (Obviously for more control over us)

Just like what CyniC says, He hits the nail on the head in his comments, they do not want "Us" to have any kind of power, They do not want us to be free, They do not want us to express our thoughts and ideas in an open and expressive way. They do not like us to become knowledgeable or informed, They just want control over us. They want to have control over what we see, what we eat, what we think, buy, do, talk about and how much things cost...

The internet is a scary thing for them as its core principles are built on top of the one thing that they hate the most..

And that is the internet ability to Sharing things freely in an open way And also the fact that we do this kind of thing out of the goodness of our heart.

These are almost foreign values to capitalists way of thinking..