Copyright holders rejoice! The largest torrent site on earth has been taken down by the US government a few days back. After posing as an advertiser they managed to trace the money back to a Ukrainian guy, Artem Vaulin. It's quite the story really, check out the full article here.

What do you think is going to happen now? Is this a hard blow to piracy or are most people just going to use another site? Will there always be another site to take the lead? Discuss.

 

[Dust2dust]

Been using usenet for 15 years and it's not the same as it used to be. A lot of spam posts, viruses and junk are posted in groups. Also, finding a decent NNTP server can be chore sometimes since a lot is taken down with DMCA notices, so the retention like you say with 7 years is not always the case with some stuff. Giganews provider used to be the best, yet their retention ratio is not like it was back in the day. Switched to Astraweb and that was great, yet became shit.

An example of that was recently this week when I downloaded Coinops 8 using Astraweb, as practically all the rars were corrupted. Switched to news demon server and all were fine.

Nowadays Dutch servers are better and hold better retention and posts are not always deleted due to their copyright laws.

Yes, I cannot disagree with what you say. It IS more challenging than before, with the spam and DMCA takedown. But the good stuff is still there, just more hidden. Posting plain filenames has a good chance of being deleted, especially for high profile stuff, but if it's masked with a hard to decipher name, it won't be touched. Spam is easy to spot. I use a secondary provider too, so it helps for completion.

 

[Smoker1]

Next thing you know, People will start Code Naming the stuff they put up. how.i.will.Terminator.you.while.playing.Genisys.mkv . LOL

 

[SonicCloud]

We meet again...UTorrent...

 

[richardparker]

no.no.no.
What about the 27 gbs of anime i downloaded!?
R.I.P
Piracy will make a comeback.

 

[Bladexdsl]

it's back up already as a clone

 

[retrofan_k]

Yes, I cannot disagree with what you say. It IS more challenging than before, with the spam and DMCA takedown. But the good stuff is still there, just more hidden. Posting plain filenames has a good chance of being deleted, especially for high profile stuff, but if it's masked with a hard to decipher name, it won't be touched. Spam is easy to spot. I use a secondary provider too, so it helps for completion.

Yeah, it's all like "12gdhsk4457j7134" stuff now which is better to mask the file names.

NZB grabit is not bad for getting nzb's for hidden files.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

All ISP's block torrent sites anyway.
Unless you had a work around, torrents have been useless for a while really..

 

[retrofan_k]

All ISP's block torrent sites anyway.
Unless you had a work around, torrents have been useless for a while really..

Zenmate for Google Chrome works good if you are in the UK, as nearly every torrent site is blocked by default. Google DNS used to work yet that is being clamped down now as well with some private torrent sites.

 

[Nyap]

;-; wwwwwhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
meh I barely torrent anyway

 

[Deleted User]

Why do torrent sites always support each other?? Do you remember when Pirate Bay went down? ISO Hunt instantly created a mirror site to it until Pirate Bay could return, and also shared the source code of the mirror so others would mirror it too.

 

[FAST6191]

Why wouldn't they support each other? Pure competition is not the only way, it also acts as an insurance policy (in the event then you sort me, I will sort you should the event happen to you).
Equally they might share behind the scenes trackers/initial sources, advertising methods (advertising is lucrative but big companies do not want to advertise for obvious reasons, however much like pirate radio they find a way), maybe some tech peeps, having competition prevents stagnation. Beyond that one has to wonder slightly if it is indeed a business and not something that might happen to pay nicely ( http://www.poltavatravel.com/articles/ukraine-average-salary/ is not terribly high so modest US wage could be considerable there).

 

[Deleted User]

How could they shut down kickass.to anyways? Isn't it hosted in CyberBunker.com or some sort of protected data centers? Even the SWAT team couldn't enter the Cyber Bunker.

 

[Reecey]

Or you can just check reddit for sites taking open registration. Or get on the IRC channels and take an interview. If you can't get into a private tracker it's because you're not trying. Once you're in one the rest are easy.

I think your misinterpreting me! When I say Private Sites, I don't mean IPTorrents or Torrent day or even say as high as Exigo even if you know it or anything similar. What I mean is, very private torrent sites that you only know the owner! It may have a membership of only say 200 - 300 members that they know personally, you wont of even heard of the sites anywhere, google does not even know the names. You type the url link in the bar and that is the only way of getting in, password, name and you enter, only under your private IP address using a VPN they would assume you have hacked your account and it would get shut asap, that sort of site.

 

[FAST6191]

How could they shut down kickass.to anyways? Isn't it hosted in CyberBunker.com or some sort of protected data centers? Even the SWAT team couldn't enter the Cyber Bunker.

I don't know what setups were used here, however about the only defence for people wanting to go in waving a gun and a badge and a court order would be to be in some third world hole or place not on various international Christmas card lists. The trouble there being such places are not typically noted for their robust internet connections. Also your go to example for jack booted thugs with the uber skills that can get their way in anywhere is a SWAT team?

Even without that cutting power, messing with funding (if paypal and credit cards/visa does not work then monies are harder to come by, and the thing about advertising is it tends to be fairly obvious what it is advertising for so you can go slap them around a bit), cutting internet connections or messing with routing protocols/DNS/blocklists is a potential option.

There is a reason hidden services, redundancy, distribution and masking are the order of the day for a lot of sites that might well piss off someone with a badge and a gun. You can certainly pick and live in countries amenable to things, pick hosting that has lawyers which will fight for you rather than capitulate at "hello" and help yourself out there but as a sole strategy it is not going to work for a public torrent site.

 

[Deleted User]

I don't know what setups were used here, however about the only defence for people wanting to go in waving a gun and a badge and a court order would be to be in some third world hole or place not on various international Christmas card lists. The trouble there being such places are not typically noted for their robust internet connections. Also your go to example for jack booted thugs with the uber skills that can get their way in anywhere is a SWAT team?

Even without that cutting power, messing with funding (if paypal and credit cards/visa does not work then monies are harder to come by, and the thing about advertising is it tends to be fairly obvious what it is advertising for so you can go slap them around a bit), cutting internet connections or messing with routing protocols/DNS/blocklists is a potential option.

There is a reason hidden services, redundancy, distribution and masking are the order of the day for a lot of sites that might well piss off someone with a badge and a gun. You can certainly pick and live in countries amenable to things, pick hosting that has lawyers which will fight for you rather than capitulate at "hello" and help yourself out there but as a sole strategy it is not going to work for a public torrent site.

According to them, they have got their own electric generators, as for the Internet, they don't rely on an ISP, but rather connect directly to satellites.

Their payment options are: Bank Transfer, Cash, Bitcoin, Western Union. I guess Bitcoins are a solid payment method which is really hard to counter.

 

[Noctosphere]

personally, I use t411, a private tracker, and when I don't find stuff i want, I used to go to KAT. I'll have to find alternatives or wait for a comeback.

 

[Deleted_11405]

the kickass was for me - occasionally when I went looking for a nice movie or show or game - have become familiar growing through time to correct downloads, after media currently playing / installing the software without upkicking errors in windows. That appearance was what the site was very fashionable for the golden era in the digital world of computers on the www. Because it is the timeless appearance had a "bad disc" issue which has come quietly, in turn, there and certainly also the cute little while ago on condition on a sametime know and unknown ranking appearing. If you see that CAT had also content about the explanation in clear detail the torrent info, was particularly nice. Better than your "bare" have freeware, ofniet then. (Including for example official spending on those with front inlay and back, with a terrible ugly white middle pages to do inside on the other hand you think of what it's there but certainly nothing beautiful about, let you think there not something to virtue, and that it still exists and note petition trade and payments need to be done. software is just an idea and miss with no connection along with the rest, which comes across as super selfish action but a time one per person which shows a performance display and not to update an improving capability and runs parallel with the memory of people.) you would only imagine that person kickasstorrent would do if he were all that was put on the robe, to show that there is no one (fellow human) to have to come. There would be as nothing to worry about but as an old law had come that causes than judgment, even though it did it would only have to detect the show and how it therefore stood jammed also immensely particle other useful information to sit wherever one which participates, to memories, recognitions and news, where the young and old like to extract from. Maybe there was truth about how the US government also partly very sure at belongs in this section.

the road where I was usually in torrent country was farther again on the piratebay and http://www.torrentroom.com/searchT?k=Music and torrent hound, and a bit torrent-like page that it not know right from my head to retell you.

 

[Bladexdsl]

All ISP's block torrent sites anyway.
Unless you had a work around, torrents have been useless for a while really..

our isps don't block shit we do whatever the fuck we want here

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personally, I use t411, a private tracker, and when I don't find stuff i want, I used to go to KAT. I'll have to find alternatives or wait for a comeback.

that's what i also use private tracker and kat for backup.

 

[Ritsuki]

He had a server in Chicago.

That explains a lot. Still, why homeland security? Aren't they the guys you call to prevent terrorist attacks and things like that? Ok the guy is not a saint but I fail to see how he's a threat to the USA

 

[Noctosphere]

our isps don't block shit we do whatever the fuck we want here

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


that's what i also use private tracker and kat for backup.

Herre in Canada too, also, here in canada, we are a lot of law that defend private life. So, police can't arrest you for piracy (download) without proof, and to get proof they must contact ISP, and ISP can't provide them any information without our agreement. Also, if anyone tells police "YO! NOCTOSPHERE IZ PIRACING 2DAY!!!" well, just saying he can't do that without getting in trouble