[Ace]

BTjunkie, one of the largest BitTorrent indexes on the Internet, has decided to shut down voluntarily today. A combination of legal actions against fellow file-sharing sites and time-consuming projects have led to the drastic decision that takes out one the main players in the BitTorrent landscape.

Founded in June 2005, BTJunkie has been among the top BitTorrent sites for more than half a decade.

The site was never involved in any legal action, and to keep it this way the site’s operators decided to shut the site down for good today. The following message was posted on the BTjunkie homepage a few minutes ago:

“This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!”

Talking to TorrentFreak, BTjunkie’s founder said that the legal actions against other file-sharing sites such as MegaUpload and The P***** B** played an important role in making the difficult decision. Witnessing all the trouble colleagues got into was cause for a lot of worry and stress, and those will now belong to the past.

That said, BTjunkie’s owner still thinks there might be a future for other BitTorrent sites.

“I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure,” he told TorrentFreak.

While BTjunkie was never targeted directly by copyright holders, the site was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) November last year. Both the RIAA and MPAA listed the torrent index as a ‘rogue’ site that facilitated mass copyright infringement.

BTjunkie is also one of the search terms censored by Google because it’s piracy related, alongside The P***** B**, R****S****, uTorrent and others.

As a result of the decision to shut down BTjunkie, one of the top 5 torrent sites with dozens of millions of users a month is no more. Judging from previous shutdowns like that of TorrentSpy and Mininova, users will quickly find a new home at one of the many alternatives.

Nonetheless, it’s the end of an era.

Source

Aye, a very sad day for pirate around the globe. It was one of my personal favorites, but it's time to move on, I suppose.

Edited by Ace™, 06 February 2012 - 05:02 PM.

[Necron]

I hope this is not starting to become a trend

[Hyro-Sama]

Inb4 people starting saying it's not a big deal and to use private travckers.

[Foxi4]

Hyro-Sama, on 06 February 2012 - 05:05 PM, said:

Inb4 people starting saying it's not a big deal and to use private travckers.

To be perfectly honest I don't remember ever using BTJunkie. I heard of it, but I never used it.

[Hells Malice]

I saw BTjunkie when googling torrents aimlessly before, but I can't remember ever even using it.

[frogboy]

I never used it myself, but I can see many people getting frustrated over this...

[Foxi4]

frogboy, on 06 February 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

I never used it myself, but I can see many people getting frustrated over this...

Oh, definatelly.

The torrents aren't "physically damaged" - whatever was stored there can be salvaged. Nowadays a torrent that's *not* on a Multi-tracker is generally ignored anyways. This isn't followed by any loss of data, the torrents from the site are still floating in the web. All we lost is a search engine, and with an abundance of engines nowadays it can be pretty much ignored.

[Lucifer666]

I haven't used it myself either, but this is beginning to worry me, especially when FileSonic and Megaupload pretty much died out not too long ago.

Edited by Lucifer666, 07 February 2012 - 03:22 PM.

[Ace]

Lucifer666, on 06 February 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

I haven't used it myself either, but this is beginning to worry me, especially when FileSonic and Mediafire pretty much died out not too long ago.

Silly Darmanitan, Mediafire is alive and well, and I still basically use it for all my music purposes.

[frogboy]

Lucifer666, on 06 February 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

I haven't used it myself either, but this is beginning to worry me, especially when FileSonic and Mediafire pretty much died out not too long ago.

Uhh, MediaFire is still running...

EDIT: 'd

Edited by frogboy, 06 February 2012 - 05:31 PM.

[DarkStriker]

The incredbly pieating bay that all pirates resides in eating pies..... eod.

Edited by DarkStriker, 06 February 2012 - 05:53 PM.

[Foxi4]

Very naughty DarkStriker, you're not supposed to mention that port where corsair ships dock.

[Depravo]

It was my site of choice when torrents were the only option*. Oh well, nothing lasts forever. Thank you BTjunkie for the many hours of entertainment you have given me access to.



* excluding legal purchase

[Hop2089]

frogboy, on 06 February 2012 - 05:31 PM, said:

Lucifer666, on 06 February 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

I haven't used it myself either, but this is beginning to worry me, especially when FileSonic and Mediafire pretty much died out not too long ago.

Uhh, MediaFire is still running...

EDIT: 'd

Fileserve is back too.

[saberjoy]

okayy, well i found peanut butter? to be better because it had more seeds??? ( )

Edited by saberjoy, 06 February 2012 - 05:57 PM.