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bitGAMER BitTorrent Tracker Quits the Game, Shuts Down

The popular private BitTorrent tracker bitGAMER has shut down its operation. The site’s owners mention that the legal climate has changed over the years and say that they are ready to move on with their lives. The founders have considered handing over ownership but chose not to share any sensitive user data with a third-party. The site’s 65,000 members, meanwhile, are looking for alternatives to resume their torrenting habits.

Founded in 2006, bitGAMER has become one of the larger private BitTorrent trackers dedicated to sharing games of all sorts.

What started out as a sister site of the Underground Gamer tracker turned into a serious player on its own, amassing 65,000 members over the years.

However, at the start of 2013 the site’s founders have decided to quit the game for good, leaving a large and active community behind. In a statement posted on the site’s homepage they explain that they are ready to move on to new things.

“We’ve reached the end of the ride. bitGAMER has been an amazingly fun ride, but all rides must come to an end,” the notice starts, also mentioning the “legal climate” as a factor to pull the plug.

“You all know that the legal climate has changed over the years, so we won’t bore you with that stuff. More importantly, the founders are simply ready to move on with their lives.”

The news caused some confusion among the site’s members as it came without prior warning. This also led to the inevitable rumors that there is something more to the shutdown, but the site’s founders explained in a follow up statement that this is certainly not the case.

“We didn’t give advance warning due to the nature of the site. We don’t want to give any advance notice in case someone was ready to kick someone’s door in at the last minute,” read a message posted in the IRC channel.

The founders further say that those who donated to the site in the last month can ask for a refund.

In an attempt to save the community the bitGAMER staff explored whether it was possible to hand over the reigns to new owners. However, they decided not to do so as that would require sharing details on all its members with a relatively unknown third-party.

“We tried to find new, trusted owners to carry the torch, but after years of attempts fell though, we had no choice but to close down the site. We wouldn’t be willing to transfer sensitive database data to a third-party that we’re not well acquainted with,” the founders explain.

But that doesn’t mean the tens of thousands of members will stop sharing.

There are already suggestions of re-spawning the bitGAMER community at new BitTorrent tracker, as is often the case when a large site dies. Other members will simply resume their game-sharing habits elsewhere. Invites for other private BitTorrent trackers are being shared by the dozens behind the scenes.

But for bitGAMER it’s Game Over.

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  • CBA

    As if that’s a bad thing.

  • http://nejtillpirater.wordpress.com/ Nejtillpirater

    “You all know that the legal climate has changed over the years”

    Fortunately, it has, and another piracy site bites the dust.

    • HammyPirate8

      And 10 more will spring up in its place

      • Guest

        Are you sure? The hydra heads don’t grow like they use to…

        • Guest

          mostly because we have dht now; we just don’t use centralised sites so much any more. I assure you, I’ve made a point of teaching all sorts of people to pirate. It’s one-click easy these days.

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          If by that you mean the centralized sites, then no.

          What we are currently looking at is a steady progress away from centralization – and with DHT, encrypted onion routing intrinsic to clients, and the adaption of the ad-hoc clientside darknets as the new standard, central sites aren’t needed anymore.

          Even TPB today is more of a proof-of-concept than anything else.

      • Eric79

        But how many of these new ones will be any good?

      • Lol

        yeah, we can hear it everywhere. but look at the stats, BitTorrent sharing is less popular than a year ago. it gets relatively risky to use torrents or to operate a site/tracker.

        • Who

          because its starting to all go back underground again. less open BT sharing and more privet sharing going on as it should have stayed.

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          OPEN bittorrent is more risky, yes.

          Which is why more and more clients today are adopting the ad-hoc darknet as the standard. No more centralization and greater resiliency as a result.

    • RSVP

      The movie industry was born from Piracy (true Piracy capital ‘P’).
      The music industry was born of extortion (insisting on copyright/transfer of ownership before payments are made).
      The software industry I know nothing about. I haven’t played a game in 30 years.
      A waste of our allotted time on this earth in my opinion.

      While I don’t care about bitGAMER and it’s demise…

      I do know your sanctimony makes me sick.

      • Luke Solis

        “The movie industry was born from Piracy (true Piracy capital ‘P’).”
        German expressionism and Soviet montage films just to name a few.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003037095323 Jerilyn Nighy

        Gaming software industry was born of home users writing games on their Speccy’s.

    • Fredrika

      > “Fortunately, it has..”

      Yup, Napster was shut down, and with that piracy basically died, because there were no newer alternative filesharing protocols.

      Wait, i got that wrong, let me rewrite it

      Yup, bitGamer and a bunch of other torrent search engines were shut down, and with that piracy basically died, because there were no newer alternative filesharing protocols, that didn’t rely on central points of operation that could get shut down legislatively or technically.

      Wait, i’m not even sure i got it right this time either.. Maybe you could help me? Are there any next generation filesharing protocols that don’t rely on any centralised nodes or sites, that can’t be shut down either technically or legislatively, that make users completely safe from any judicial repercussions?

      Yes/No? I assume you know for sure, since you are a super expert on everything, in particular things you seem to know nothing about.

      • bobmail

        You don’t get it, do you? The site operators are seeing what you are willfully blind to, the basic fact that legal action is being taken against piracy sites, and people are actually going to jail, paying fines, or paying large settlements as a result of their illegal activities.

        it’s all fun until someone loses an eye… or spends a few years as Bubba’s b–ch in jail. These guys woke up and decided it wasn’t worth fucking their lives up to keep leeches entertained.

        • Fredrika

          > “You don’t get it, do you?”

          I think the problem is that you didn’t read my comment properly.

          > “The site operators are seeing what you are willfully blind to, the basic fact that legal action is being taken against piracy sites..”

          First of all this discussion is not about piracy sites, it’s about torrent sites. Torrent sites by definition can’t perform piracy.

          However, i did not deny the fact that legal action is taken against some torrent sites, and i most certainly see the exact same thing as the site operators. So far nothing in your reply touches to on what i actually wrote.

          > “..and people are actually going to jail, paying fines, or paying large settlements as a result of their illegal activities.”

          Which i didn’t deny in my comment, or even touched upon. Still nothing of what you have written has touched upon what i actually wrote.

          > “it’s all fun until someone loses an eye… or spends a few years as Bubba’s b–ch in jail.”

          Yup, once someone loses an eye or goes to jail unlawful behaviour stops completely. Correct. When the previous operators of Pirate Bay got sentenced running Pirate Bay was no longer any fun and it shut down. I don’t deny that either. So that part of your reply is also completely irrelevant to what i actually wrote.

          > “These guys woke up and decided it wasn’t worth fucking their lives up to keep leeches entertained.”

          Yes, and that’s why i asked the very question i did. Are there any newer filesharing protocols out there, that don’t rely on any central nodes of operation or sites, and operators, a protocol that can’t be touched either legislatively or technically?

          It’s a simple yes or no question, one that Anon couldn’t answer, or most likely wasn’t allowed to comment upon.

        • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

          Well, I think Tribler uses the bittorrent protocol, but doesn’t require any servers or websites, it’s pretty much decentralized, and it would be a great alternativer were it not so shite.

          ..but I have a feeling you already knew that. And it doesn’t answer about a new protocol or anything.

        • xpmule

          bobmail he also said there was no one to hand over the data too because the operator has some class and respect for the community.
          but we’re ignoring that part arn’t we ..convenient lol

          And you know nothing about Jail aside from what you have seen on TV smartass. Anyone that has served real time knows that getting raped by bubba stuff happens on TV. I know because i have gone to jail and visited my step dad in jail from about 5 yrs old to 16yrs old and i have seen the inside of about a dozen medium and max prisons and i have had dozens of family friends involved with criminal activity of the highest level and know EVERYTHING about what goes on in jails. It works the same way as Canada, UK, or the USA or where ever.. unless people have a beef for a good reason nobodies getting beat up unless they are a rat or a pedo.

          You keep think you “know” things.. your so full of shit its sad and pathetic.

          Maybe for your next comment you can quote some facts from CSI: Miami or The Simpsons or something.

          You wanna know who get their ass kicked or raped in jail ?
          People like you that’s who.. and i would be there with a mob of people laughing as you got your just and earned beating lol

          So lets here some mouth of that snotty big mouth of yours “expert” lol
          Wanna share any more fantasies ?

          And everyone I’m not exaggerating when i point out how this guy has a consistently aggressive and offensive attitude. If he talked like he does on this site in real life he would be beat senseless fast !

        • Meeting

          If they have decided to quit, that’s okay, now what is wrong is the laws.

          Illegal activities? Just in a nice list of “democratic” countries,
          which they’re wanting to own all the internet.

          Now, these governments will fight to death with file-sharing sites,
          they’ll even use the excuse “we are creating filters to protect your security”,
          but they won’t make anything against hate sites and similar webs,
          that could attempt against the life of innocent persons.

          Just look at Russia, they want to fight the “piracy”, even more, but they hardly made something about xenophobic and racist acts in their country,
          where some people have been killed and others have been beat on the streets and in trains. Something similar happens in Germany with their authorities
          and it’s just common people who’s making something to resolve those problems.

          Trying to watch a movie/series or hear music, that can make you happy,
          it’s a big crime, the rest it’s not important and must be ignored,
          big companies and corporations need your money.

        • bobmail

          “I think the problem is that you didn’t read my comment properly.”

          Actually, I read your (extremely) sarcastic comment, and realized that you pretty much don’t get it. You clearly don’t understand the difference between an ascending trend and descending trend. That alone marks you as pretty ignorant.

          Quick: list how many sites before Napster were shut down for mass copyright infringement and piracy online. Answer: not many, most of them didn’t last 10 minutes. The problem in the Napster world is that there were few other choices, so when Napster got shut down, others tried to fill the gap. There was no legal ugliness for them to face – or at least none that they feared.

          Today? Sites are shutting down pre-emptively, trying to avoid legal problems. They understand that they are running a risk of screwing up their entire lives, all to just make some freeloaders happy. What might have been a good idea as teenagers or whatever sounds like a really bad idea when you are an adult and have to face the real world. These guys are not alone in pulling the plug before they even get the knock on the door. They aren’t waiting anymore, they know there is too much risk.

          “Yup, once someone loses an eye or goes to jail unlawful behaviour stops completely. Correct. ”

          Again, your sarcasm masks your ignorance. Your assumption is a black and white solution. Piracy is a bit like smoking, plenty of people do it even when they know it’s bad, but long term education, long term legal pressure has changed the way the world looks at smoking, and while some people still smoke, that number is way down from what it was. You don’t get that by stopping one person smoking and everyone else goes “yeah!”, it’s a long term process. It’s pretty much in the same manner that piracy went from nothing to a big deal over a period of time. It wasn’t overnight.

          “Are there any newer filesharing protocols out there, that don’t rely on any central nodes of operation or sites, and operators, a protocol that can’t be touched either legislatively or technically?”

          The answer is pretty much on par with how drugs are smuggled. You can come up with increasingly complex ways to get the job done, but you still don’t address the underlying issue of harm and the law. Technically, you can pretty much always spot file sharing, unless you are willing to have your file transfers be so slow that you can mask them with your normal web traffic. But then you would likely transfer a single movie in a week or two, not an hour. Also, P2P in any form is easy to spot in that most individuals at home don’t get a lot of income connection requests, they are all responses to your web browser asking for something, your email asking for something, etc. Further, as pretty much any file sharing protocol requires some manner by which people can actually find you, your home system will always have to have some way to answer a request – something that can be done by anyone to trigger that reponse. Thus, you are always pretty much open, even with the best protocols to hide your traffic.

          So the answer is “no”. You can get close, but you cannot completely hide.

        • Fredrika

          > “Today? Sites are shutting down pre-emptively, trying to avoid legal problems.”

          You still haven’t understood the point i made about Napster. Piracy didn’t die with Napster because there were alternatives. Piracy won’t die with Torrent sites shutting down because there are alternatives. Do you get it this time?

          > “You can come up with increasingly complex ways to get the job done, but you still don’t address the underlying issue of harm..”

          Which there isn’t any.

          > “..and the law.”

          Which wasn’t relevant to the point i made.

          > “Technically, you can pretty much always spot file sharing, unless you are willing to have your file transfers be so slow that you can mask them with your normal web traffic.”

          Large high speed transfers doesn’t indicate illegal filesharing.

          > “Also, P2P in any form is easy to spot in that most individuals at home don’t get a lot of income connection requests, they are all responses to your web browser asking for something, your email asking for something, etc.”

          First of all statistical probability doesn’t constitute probable cause. Secondly, your answer doesn’t take encryption into account. Request are not seen in an already existing encrypted tunnel.

          > “Further, as pretty much any file sharing protocol requires some manner by which people can actually find you, your home system will always have to have some way to answer a request – something that can be done by anyone to trigger that reponse.”

          Nope, the response only comes if anyone provides the correct encryption key. How little technical knowledge you seem to have.

          > “So the answer is “no”. You can get close, but you cannot completely hide.”

          Actually, yes, with properly used F2F protocols, you become completely untouchable from either technically or legislative measures. Nothing of what you said has any relevance for those.

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          “The site operators are seeing what you are willfully blind to, the basic fact that legal action is being taken against piracy sites…”

          Oh, seriously, bobmail, are you competing with “Anon” over who gets to be Baghdad Bob today?

          Central sites have not been necessary for many years and the “tracker” today is like an old, lovingly maintained but decidedly obsolete model T automobile. Redundant and superfluous.

          So why should any sane person spend any time and effort maintaining such a tracker when decentralized ad-hoc client-client networks work just as well?

          “…and people are actually going to jail, paying fines, or paying large settlements as a result of their illegal activities….”

          They have been for many decades – as Fredrika says, we’ve seen this since napster. And the point still stands – even the Jamie Lee Thomas case and the TPB trial with their imaginative amounts of penalty did NOTHING to curb “piracy”.

          The most draconian antipiracy regime of all, worldwide – HADOPI – has turned out to be worse than useless. Nothing has changed. And piracy – just as it did in the past – hasn’t grown any smaller.

          “…it’s all fun until someone loses an eye… or spends a few years as Bubba’s b–ch in jail. These guys woke up and decided it wasn’t worth fucking their lives up to keep leeches entertained.”

          You don’t put nonviolent civil offenders in general population in a jail, to begin with. This is one of many differences between a crime and unlawful behavior to begin with. Aside from your personal belief that helping people making copies of media should earn the same hard time as violent assault it’s just far more likely that the people behind this private tracker decided that it certainly wasn’t worth their time and effort to keep maintaining an old and redundant museum’s piece in working condition.

          I realize how hard it is for a copyright maximalist to understand this paradigm, but progress means that methods change. And pirates, being tech-savvy, are always quick to upgrade for the newer model.

          You copyright maximalists all seem to share the belief that we pirates all work on a single huge 16th century galleon commanded by a few captains and keep getting confused by the fact that finding a single rowboat abandoned on the shore with a jolly rogers in it isn’t necessarily a sign that all the buccaneers have gone legit.

          That just isn’t so.

          Your spiritual predecessors literally came in their pants with glee when napster folded. Same with Kazaa, Limewire, at the TPB trial etc, etc, etc…the same gleeful cries of “Mission Accomplished” that you gave off in the 80′s, the 70′s, and the 60′s by the way…

          And you still haven’t learned. Be as bitter and desperate as you wish, but that news you are harping with glee over isn’t good news for you. It’s just one more sign that your latest efforts were all in vain. Again.

          Oh, we do get it. You, apparently, don’t.

      • Kyle Jackson

        Oh, it’s you again.

        • Guest

          yes, it’s him again.
          have something constructive to say?

        • Jimmy671

          Why don’t you come back when you have something
          useful to say.

      • Nej Loves GNUnet

        “Are there any next generation filesharing protocols that don’t rely on any centralised nodes or sites, that can’t be shut down either technically or legislatively, that make users completely safe from any judicial repercussions?”

        If everyone using bittorrent would make the switch to GNUnet, Nejtillpirater would be crying rivers along with all the other copywrong trolls round here. Why are we helping this anti-pirate industry build up, instead of stopping it dead in it’s tracks by switching to a protocol that has been designed from the beginning to allow anonymous censorship-resistant file-sharing?

        As for torrent sites, at the very least why not hang out on Tor or I2P?

        gnunet.org

        • Anyone

          because torrents are faster

          and in many countries they are perfectly legal, and if not a VPN will solve that while still keeping the speed

        • VPublicN

          My only reason to use VPNs or proxies is for accessing to those webs
          which have those awful regional restrictions.

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          Gnunet is one alternative, yes. And it’s still around, along with the rest of the Kademlia protocol.

          Indeed, all that really happens if by some magic torrent shut down completely overnight is that “piracy” goes back to the Kazaa/Gnutella days. Not that piracy was any less then, you just had to run your clients in the backgrounds instead of maxing your connection.

          And people did.

          So what are bobmail and Nej getting their knickers in a twist over? They should know by now that there are no silver bullets and that harsher punishments and more severe laws do nothing.

          And I think they do. Most copyright maximalists latch so desperately at anything they can possibly interpret as a minor gain anywhere their bitterness and frustration shows through like that of a westboro baptist church member caught in a hippie convention.

    • http://twitter.com/lolwhut13375 Chase Hanson

      Er… if these are your opinions, why are you on a site called “TorrentFreak?” Bad troll is bad

      • xpmule

        Trying to “educate” us of our bad ways lol

    • Guest

      MEGA MEGA MEGA MEGA MEGA

      • Giga

        Yep, that will be a mega opportunity for the internet,
        It’d just have been good if Megaupload would have been shutdown
        in January 1st, 2012, in that way, Mega would have been launched today.

    • UniversalSoldier

      Let me make somethings very clear to you, you anti-piracy clown.

      1) Even though bitgamer has closed down and I used to use it regularly, I know more than 100 more sites from where I can get my supply of games. I only play the offline campaign in games and these days games are 90% online and 10% offline and I am not going to pay for something I don’t use fully. Also instead of these DRM infested games, I prefer game from GOG which are DRM free.

      2) I have more than 500 public and private torrent sites in my bookmarks and the count is increasing everyday. Even your United States of Assholes cannot shut these many sites. They are bankrupt anyways.

      3) You cannot ban the bittorrent protocol since even facebook and twitter uses it.Even if you put some restrictions in your country, there are 200 more countries who don’t care.

      4) You cannot ban VPN, since they are used in outsourcing because of which your country is surviving.

      Overall you cannot do anything so just shut up and go and cry in your mama’s lap.

      • xpmule

        That’s probably why they come here and run their mouth..
        they have nothing else to do and have no real way of stopping us
        so they come here to antagonize us etc
        If their was some way for them to stop file sharing they would be doing it and not here running their mouth lol

        Liked your comment too i agree !

    • Luke Solis

      Keep in mind. Its also a tracker. With magnet links now, you don’t need old tech to share any torrent. the DHT will replace all old trackers. Anyone who is currently using the DHT is already sharing the content without bitgamer’s tracker.

      • Anyone

        private sites generally have the “private flag” set on their torrents, which disables DHT

        so their torrents are most likely dead without the tracker

        • xpmule

          A huge amount of peopled use a patched client..
          I have uploaded the last 2 recent versions of uTorrent v2.x onto TPB
          and other people had already posted previous versions and when i mentioned this on a file sharing site a friend/admin told me a super easy hex edit people are doing now on uTorrent v3.x to disable the private flag.
          Basicly its a big thing peopel have been doing for ages so the private flag means nothing and if you don’t believe me go to a place like Rutracker and download using a patched client with only DHT and you will see how it downloads fast and easy just fine lol

        • xpmule

          also to find Rutracker torrents you dont even have to be registered they show up in places like Bitsnoop.. always have..

          Although i am registered there its a good site :)

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          You’d be surprised at the amount of torrent files I’ve taken apart just for kicks and found that they’ve been edited to add DHT to the mix. If anyone on a private trackers decides to spread the goods elsewhere, it gets spread. So “private” torrents may theoretically exist but in practice not so much.

    • Who

      “another piracy site bites the dust”

      FYI FUCK HEAD they chose to close the site down.

      • http://nejtillpirater.wordpress.com/ Nejtillpirater

        Because they were smart enough to not risk going to jail, unlike the persons running TPB.

        • Fredrika

          >“Because they were smart enough to not risk going to jail, unlike the persons running TPB.”

          Since the courts already have declared unmoderated torrent sites to be in full compliance with all laws in the country where it currently resides, they do not risk going to jail?

        • Anyone

          those are also not in jail

        • Who

          actually it wouldn’t be jail it would be prison. YES there is a difference.
          but your so smart in this field your should have already known that.
          if not look it up shit for brains.

        • xpmule

          not risking going to jail ?
          going to jail means what ?
          Nelson Mandella ?
          Plenty of people go to jail to stand up for their rights etc..

          your logic is as always flawed .

        • Hmn

          you forgot to mention a person who broke no laws in their home country. I suppose since somewhere it is illegal to troll like you do, they should sentence you there and have you deported because according to you, its ok?

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          Because they felt it was redundant to take any risk at all running a redundant and obsolete service?

    • xpmule

      not by much if at all and do you have ANY idea how many trackers are out there ?
      I’ve never heard of this place and I’m sorry to hear they shutdown but there is plenty more out there so people will carry on business as usual.

    • http://twitter.com/VirtualSenate Virtual Senate

      You scumbags are just dying to throw your rights away aren’t you? You’re so eager to accept the corporate overlords new definition of stealing which apparently includes making a copy of something with your own fucking resources for your own personal use.

    • Scary_Devil_Monastery

      You mean the obsoletion of centralized private trackers has finally reached maturity?

      If so, I have more good news for you – in a similar vein the VCR cassette recorder is no longer a clear and present threat to the media industry either.

      We are for once in agreement that this is a good thing. Centralization is a thing of the decided past, vulnerable and increasingly unpopular.

      Though I doubt you meant to cheer what was a solid indication of pirate progress.

  • Anon

    The “legal climate” has changed. Yea. BitGamer gets it. Let’s see in the new year if people who continue to trumpet unlawful behavior are finally up to the same IQ speed as BitGamer.

    • Guess Who

      you mean the copywright whores will realize the error of thier myopic ways and open up everything to the masses? if only.

      • Anon

        Well, come on, Guess. Clearly the entire world will continue to work closely on this issue and float trial balloons like SOPA and PIPA until they find legislation that passes and takes more of our rights if we all don’t just grow a brain and stop breaking the law.

        Lots of things that “can” be done are not permitted in organized society, and this has been obvious since the advent of copyright protection hundreds of years ago. Claims that protection isn’t needed ignore centuries of a functioning marketplace that routinely paid for the content produced by working people and the lives they built upon this mercantile exchange and the format never changed this. Pirates appear nearly insensately blinded by greed at this point.

        Even third graders understand copyright protection and why it is fair, and why it has long been regarded as fair, and why the few who break the law are responsible for the punishment of the many who do not.

        • Guest

          “Lots of things that “can” be done are not permitted in organized society, and this has been obvious since the advent of copyright protection hundreds of
          years ago. ”

          This is a lie. The first US Copyright Act did not grant copyright for more than 14 years, and there was no criminal penalty for copyright infringement.
          So the first US Copyright Act did not grant a monopoly longer than 14 years; did not impose criminal penalties for non-commercial infringement and was more permissive than current law.

          Even commercial copyright infringement was not made criminal until the latest part of the 20th century. Non-commercial copyright infringement was legal until the mid 1990s. Congress only changed the law because the courts held that non-commercial copyright infringement was not criminal according to then federal law.

          Care to try again.

        • anon pirate

          pirates buy more cd’s films and games than none pirates

        • BuddhaFacePalmed

          Yup and the 2 millennia of human culture and arts before the 17th century were made by Aliens because human artists weren’t compensated in a “functioning marketplace” that did not exist before Queen Mary I of England passed the first copyright law. Pfffffft, you sound like a broken record…

        • djnforce9

          “Claims that protection isn’t needed ignore centuries of a functioning marketplace that routinely paid for the content produced”

          Before those “centuries of a functioning marketplace”, were many many more centuries where copyright law WASN’T used and I’m darn sure people still created art back then as well and made a living off of selling it.

          “Even third graders understand copyright protection and why it is fair”
          Prove it. As far as I know, young kids use BitTorrent just like older ones or are you referring to the corporate brainwashing that is occurring in certain schools where the students receive lectures on copyright which essentially say “BUY OUR PRODUCE OR ELSE!!!!!!!”

        • Anon

          @ djinforce9

          “I’m darn sure people still created art back then as well and made a living off of selling it.”

          Prove it.

          If you know your history of copyright and the timeline that brings us to the present day, you’d know that the original advent was to retain rights and thus compensation for the creator. That Statute of Anne was about book copying rights, but the concepts remain the same.

          The punishments have scaled up with the technical ability to destroy markets, which is why the curtailment of abused technology, coordinated government effort and jail sentences are next.

        • Fredrika

          > “If you know your history of copyright and the timeline that brings us to the present day, you’d know that the original advent was to retain rights and thus compensation for the creator.”

          If you’d known your history of copyright and the time line that brings us to the present day, you’d know that the creator doesn’t need any rights to be compensated. He simply has to sell something.

          Or are you advocating that entrepreneurs that don’t sell anything should be compensated? What kind of communist or planned economy reasoning is that?

          > “The punishments have scaled up with the technical ability to destroy markets..”

          Would that be the markets that currently have higher revenues than ever before, revenues that have been growing for each year for the last 10-15 years in perfectly working symbiosis with non-profit filesharing?

          Or maybe you talked about other markets, since you mentioned them being destroyed.

          But then again, markets are supposed to be destroyed when technological advancements make their products obsolete, that the way it has worked for centuries, that process is a cornerstone of capitalism and the free market.

        • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

          I thought the original intent of copyright was to control what got printed and what did not, a form of governmental (or religious, depending on how far back you want to take it) censorship?

        • BuddhaFacePalmed

          @Anon

          =.=
          No, punishment was scaled up because the amount of information that can be disseminated and distributed has heavily increased since the advent of the internet. Anyone can load up terabits of information to the public and that has become a cause of embarrassment for governments. A politician denies being corrupt and days later info about his wife receiving a tax-free 24 karat diamond ring can come out. Also, when people can instantly decide which products to buy or not, producers in the entertainment industry suddenly have to buck up or lose their relevance to today’s society.

          But they wont do so because the previous system was too easy and lucrative; I mean why innovate when people still buy the iteration of the same crap they released years ago *cough*Iphone*cough*.

        • bobmail

          Fredrika, you are sounding more and more ignorant all the time:

          “If you’d known your history of copyright and the time line that brings us to the present day, you’d know that the creator doesn’t need any rights to be compensated. He simply has to sell something.

          Or are you advocating that entrepreneurs that don’t sell anything should be compensated? What kind of communist or planned economy reasoning is that?”

          They don’t have to sell anything retail to be compensated. They can sell or license their rights to someone else, who pays them but may or may not choose to sell those on (if their license permits).

          As an example, Trent Reznor doesn’t sell his game or movie music directly sometimes, rather he licenses the rights (and shockingly, gets paid ) to the game company, who sell it as part of their games.

          There is no communist conspiracy to pay people random money. Where do you dream up such shit?

        • Fredrika

          > “They don’t have to sell anything retail to be compensated.”

          I don’t think you understood the comment i wrote, and the point it made in reference to the comment i replied to? The claim was “..the original advent was to retain rights and thus compensation for the creator.”

          My response was “the creator doesn’t need any rights to be compensated. He simply has to sell something”.

          Which is true. Sales are not dependent on any copyright.

          > “There is no communist conspiracy to pay people random money. Where do you dream up such shit?”

          I haven’t claimed any such, so that’s a straw-man. Try to read the comment again.

        • Hmn

          there was a piracy study a while back that said .03 percent of the population pirates stuff, so while stuff is avalable and whatnot, .03 is like wtf to spend billions combating something.

        • bobmail

          “My response was “the creator doesn’t need any rights to be compensated. He simply has to sell something”.

          Which is true. Sales are not dependent on any copyright.”

          Talk about playing word games. You must be high in your school debate club. Too bad you are once again more than a little ignorant. While it is true that some people will pay for things anyway (idiots), the reality is that more and more people like you pirate everything and pay for nothing. Selling something occurs when you have the right to something, and sell it. Well, unless you sell stolen goods, then you don’t have the right but sell it anyway.

          Without some form of rights of ownership, you couldn’t own your car, own your house, or lease an apartment – all of those things require some form of ownership rights, and some form of assignable rights. It’s how the world works. It’s how Russia and China climbed out of the dark ages, allowing people to actually own things. They understood (in ways you apparently don’t) that ownership is the first step towards having a functional economy.

          Put it another way: If there was no restriction, nobody would pay. Everyone would share everything around for free, and the creator would get the shaft. Sure, some people would still create anyway, but without the economic structure in place to support the time and efforts required to create the stuff, most people just won’t do it – or won’t have the time to do it (because they have to work a real job to pay the bills).

          Look up things like opportunity costs and speculative creation, and you may start to understand.

          until then, you can play word games. Perhaps it will get you extra credit on your next paper.

        • Fredrika

          > “Talk about playing word games.”

          He wrote something that was wrong, i corrected him by writing something that was right, something that proved him wrong. That’s the way it usually works.

          > “While it is true that some people will pay for things anyway (idiots)..”

          People have never paid for something because of copyright, people have paid for something because they wanted the products that were sold. Now you call these people idiots?

          > “..the reality is that more and more people like you..”

          Don’t pretend to now anything about what i do.

          > “..pirate everything and pay for nothing.”

          Incorrect. Pirates are in reality among the biggest spenders and the music industry currently have bigger revenues than ever before, so people most certainly pay for something.

          > “Selling something occurs when you have the right to something, and sell it.”

          Selling also occurs when there is no ban against it. Society have no need for copyright for sales to be made.

          > “Without some form of rights of ownership, you couldn’t own your car, own your house, or lease an apartment – all of those things require some form of ownership rights, and some form of assignable rights. It’s how the world works. It’s how Russia and China climbed out of the dark ages, allowing people to actually own things. They understood (in ways you apparently don’t) that ownership is the first step towards having a functional economy.”

          This discussion is not about ownership, which i understand very well. This discussion is about legislative monopolies, which is the direct opposite of ownership.

          > “Put it another way: If there was no restriction, nobody would pay.”

          Regarding physical property, possibly, but that’s not what this discussion is about.

          > “Everyone would share everything around for free, and the creator would get the shaft.”

          If the creator doesn’t sell anything, he should get the shaft. That’s how capitalism and the free market works. And you also seems to advocate something different, so the question about communism or a planned economy once again surfaces.

          > “Sure, some people would still create anyway, but without the economic structure..”

          A legislative monopoly is not an economical structure. It’s a ban on competition. Legislative monopolies have always stifled innovation and creation.

          > “..in place to support the time and efforts required to create the stuff..”

          Copyright does not support any such thing. The same time and efforts are required regardless of copyright.

          > “..most people just won’t do it..”

          You claiming this does not make it a fact.

          > “..or won’t have the time to do it (because they have to work a real job to pay the bills).”

          Since the revenues in the music industry currently are higher than ever before, and since the artists currently are making more money than ever before, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

          > “Look up things like opportunity costs and speculative creation, and you may start to understand.”

          I’m not interested in understanding how it used to work, because it doesn’t have to work that way.

    • Fredrika

      > “The “legal climate” has changed. Yea.”

      Yup, Napster was shut down, and with that piracy basically died, because there were no newer alternative filesharing protocols.

      Wait, i got that wrong, let me rewrite it

      Yup, bitGamer and a bunch of other torrent search engines shut down, and with that piracy basically died, because there were no newer alternative filesharing protocols, that didn’t rely on central points of operation that could get shut down legislatively or technically.

      Wait, i’m not even sure i got it right this time either.. Maybe you could help me? Are there any next generation filesharing protocols that don’t rely on any centralised nodes or sites, that can’t be shut down either technically or legislatively, that make users completely safe from any judicial repercussions?

      Yes/No? I assume you know for sure, since you are a super expert on everything, in particular things you seem to know nothing about.

      • Anon

        “Maybe you could help me? ”

        Maybe aspirin and more sleep. Or better yet, some maturity and a decent education.

        • Fredrika

          > “Maybe aspirin and more sleep.”

          You seem confused. I asked a question about the eventual existence of a technical product, and a simple yes or no answer would have been enough if you didn’t want to go into technical details. Are you saying that you can’t answer the question? Or are you not allowed to answer it?

          > “Or better yet, some maturity..”

          So asking you questions makes one immature?

          > “..and a decent education.”

          Do they have educations that teach people what technical solutions that are available?

          Speaking of educations, maybe you would benefit from one regarding basic economics or copyright? Remember the other day when you didn’t seem to understand the fundamental basic fact that all creative works are copyrighted?

          Or do you remember when you proved that you didn’t understand the difference between goods and services?

          Or do you remember when you didn’t understand that the only time you pay is when you buy something?

          Or do you remember when you didn’t understand the a functioning marketplace doesn’t require a legislative monopoly? (That was two comments down in this very thread)

          It definitely seems as if you’re the one that need educating.

        • Sense

          But she is already super mature and educated. She right well and have solid argument that you can’t counter. You sire want remove all liberties on the internet for the profit of companies. It’s not for the artist or the job, only for the 1% sucking cash on the 99%.

          Are you profiting directly for the sale of video game? Because, i don’t understand your logic otherwise. Ah, maybe you are just paid.

        • BuddhaFacePalmed

          @Sense

          Well, not quite. What Anon is saying that he wants his rights of privacy, but then pirates have to go upset the “status quo” and upset all the corporations for not buying their ‘goods and services.” He says that our natural right to privacy is nothing moar than a privilege that can be taken away at any time at the pleasure of the government for the sole reason that you’re making monopolistic corporations less money than they usually earn. So, he blames Pirates for the government intrusion of our right to privacy. How quaint and utterly moronic of him.

        • Guest

          What a hiliarious joke PMSL

        • Guest

          For those who don’t know:
          Anon is one of the best graduates from the Oxen school of arts.

          Watch, learn and be extremelly jelly LMAO

        • xpmule

          provoke and run or change the subject ?

          the usual in other words..

          congrats on another fail !

          Maybe aspirin or shut the fuck up with snotty remarks ?
          She tries to take you seriously and have a mature talk with you
          and you act like a suckhole..

          you win.. someone get this baby a cookie !

    • http://twitter.com/lolwhut13375 Chase Hanson

      Er… if these are your opinions, why are you on a site called “TorrentFreak?” Bad troll is bad

      • http://nejtillpirater.wordpress.com/ Nejtillpirater

        According to “About”, TorrentFreak is not openly pro piracy:

        “TorrentFreak is a weblog dedicated to bringing the latest news about BitTorrent and everything that is closely related to this popular filesharing protocol. We are not a news aggregator, but focus on unique and fresh stories. TorrentFreak is where news and filesharing collide. We try to be the source of all the latest breaking news in the p2p world.”

        So this page is open for discussion for both pirates and “antipirates”. Remember that bittorrent technology is not illegal, if used for sharing non copyrighted files or copyrighted files with the permission of the copyright owner, it’s perfectly legal.

        You’re not automatically a troll if you’re against piracy and active on TF.

        • Fredrika

          > “Remember that bittorrent technology is not illegal..”

          Bittorrent technology is not illegal under any circumstances. Acts is what can be illegal, if that act is forbidden under penal law. Acts forbidden in civil law, such as infringements, are not illegal. Maybe you should learn that once and for all? Just maybe?

          > “..if used for sharing non copyrighted files or copyrighted files with the permission of the copyright owner, it’s perfectly legal.”

          Those are not the only circumstances when it’s perfectly legal. It’s also perfectly legal if done in any of the countries where the copyright monopoly either don’t exist in the first place, or where it doesn’t regulate non-profit use at all.

          And then there’s still your problem of understanding the difference between penal law, which renders certain acts illegal), vs civil law, that doesn’t.

          Just ask for help if you still don’t get it, and we’ll help you. Ok? Cheers.

        • Who

          “if used for sharing non copyrighted files or copyrighted files with the permission of the copyright owner, it’s perfectly legal”

          did you also know that possession in the US IS 9/10th of the law. its all part of intellectual property rights law. *other nations law may vary*

          AND did you know THIS law supersedes copyright law. and Y this law is not used in copyright court cases as they fucking know this…..as it would mean a instant court case loss on the copyright holders.

          so I say again…..your so smart….you know ALL about this.

        • Heisenberg7

          “You’re not automatically a troll if you’re against piracy and active on TF.”

          And by that logic you’re not automatically a pirate simply for being active on TF.

        • xpmule

          but acting like one is what makes you one.. has nothing to do with the about page..
          maybe look up the word Troll on google ?

          Lets not forget this is not a forum web page..
          It’s a news story comment section and bearing that in mind i would have to say you and Anon and bobmail (if different people) are basically here Trolling to agitate people and since we are amused by your ignorance your tolerated (I’m guessing) many other sites would have perma banned you guys long ago for the comments that are effectively “flaming”.
          Not open discussion but open comments.. there is a difference !
          Its easy to see this is not designed to support a conversation by the lack of ability to reply to someone only so much..
          So the comments you bomb this web site with are usually carefully crafted to incite and agitate rather than any thing resembling a mature discussion..

          As usual your perception is seriously warped !

        • Purtytown

          i cant understand how somene have the energy to be an active “antipirate” as you stated it. (dont know why the quotation marks are necessary)
          i mean, if you are not an artist of some kind, you have no reason to be upset about it, if you are not a complete bitch.
          but if you are an independent film maker or music artist, (i doubt anyone from a big company would be here) there are so many ways to make money on your products where the audience can watch/listen to your stuff for free…
          But you probably suck so nobody want to view you, and thats why you are so grumpy and go argue with random people you dont know, on forums… i dont know, please explain to me, my brain goes on hyperdrive.. i just dont get it why you would care at all.

    • Guest

      What a hiliarious joke PMSL

    • xpmule

      The same IQ level as someone who comes here to run their mouth ?
      Not sure how a couple people probably less than .1% can come here and think they are smart by trying to piss off the other 99.9% everyday.
      You think some how this makes you look superior ?
      Irritating Troll here to disrupt and antagonize ?
      ..yeah your sure smart buddy lol

  • Sabfrompc

    I just woke up excited for the new year, and found this. I loved BG, and this is a major downer. I always thought it was better than black cats, but where else can you go? Hopefully some former members will restart the project or make a new one to help keep the torch alive.

    • 7th_Guest

      What’s wrong with simply sticking with Underground Gamer if you absolutely must do your games file sharing on a private tracker?

      • Cynic

        UGG is pre 2K releases only.

  • MadAsASnake

    Trolls are out in force today…

    • Jimmy671

      Sure are,it maybe Troll payday, and they all had a little to much to drink :)

    • Scary_Devil_Monastery

      Well, let me put it like this: They know they are losing when SOPA, ACTA and PIPA all get tossed out even after having been watered down to nothing.
      Every day some smart guy on a campus somewhere invents or refines yet one more protocol with the dual-use of enabling people to share files – including media files – with one another in an even more efficient and hard-to-trace way.

      Even the US judges are growing wise to their mass intimidation/mail extortion schemes and the judicial schemes they have tried have all backfired or gained no returns. Their crowning achievement – rowing the TPB trial to shore – gave them nothing – unless you count a massive surge in pro-piracy sentiment, and the Megaupload bust has only provided Dotcom a bigger platform to launch the next service from, and a lot of toxic fallout yet to land.

      Whatever political capital they had, they’ve spent and even politicians hungry for campaign money are dimly waking up to the fact that their electorate may not take too kindly to Chris Dodd crowing over how many senators and congressmen he owns.

      They are at the point where they are reduced to crying “You’ll be the DOOM of us all, you evil pirates!!” and have to resort to staggering history revisionism and untruths. covering every new lie with another even bigger one.

      And they are shit-scared because Hollywood last year decided to start cutting funding for the MPAA. The writing they are seeing on the wall now says “Game Over!”.

      They’re not dumb enough not to know their history and how this panned out every time before when technological progress met copyright in a head-on collision. Technology and progress wins every damn time, without even trying.

      At that point, desperate to maintain the status quo just a few more years, they eagerly seize any news and try to glean from it any grain of hope they can.

      In the end leading “Anon” to make grandiose claims about how IP-Utopia will be born and the evil pig-dog pirates paraded in chains before the Righteous.

      And “Bobmail” and “Nejtillpirater” keep harping that soon, any day now, the stricter punishments will make all the piracy go away. All evidence to the contrary, when even fines of 30 million+ completely failed to make even a single pirate quit.

      No wonder they’re out in force. they’re desperate. A bit like the last few guys in white blankets must have felt when they noticed the US south no longer would allow cross-burnings anywhere.

  • IvanTheTerribleSyncer

    BCG is open sign ups ATM

    • Gavin Heinly

      No, screw that site. I used to be a member there but maintaining my membership was too much of a chore, especially now when I’m pirating less than I when I was a member.

      • Who

        sounds like you don’t know how to share.

    • Guest

      Fuck BGC. Admins there have a serious attitude problem

  • Bitgamer

    Lonely_Man.mp3

  • Sad

    It was a shock to wake up and to find this on the site. I have been a member in there nearly from the beginning, and it’s difficult to think that my most trusted gaming torrent site has ended its journey.

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  • Guest

    :( RIP bitGAMER

  • djnforce9

    Nuts!! That sucks. I used that site very extensively too and I was just on it yesterday evening. Sure it’s sister site underground-gamer.com is still up but it doesn’t contain any of the “new” content that BitGamer had such as recent PC and console games. I do hope another alternative pops up somewhere and ex-BitGamer members are allowed in rather than having to know one of the admins or scrounge for someone with an invite (I got onto BitGamer through an Underground-Gamer member actually).

    Also, as a user, I do still wish they did give a heads up since I actually had a very high ratio and I could have used some of that if given a couple more days. On top of that, there was some VERY rare and hard to find content on there which I was planning to grab as well (granted not nearly as much as Underground-Gamer has though). What a shame that more and more torrent site owners are being frightened into submission. It’s fun to come on TorrentFreak and make comments bashing the MAFIAA but I guess when they strike close to home and threaten all your personal assets, it likely feels like a whole different ballgame.

    • Sense

      Internet give us more liberties than in the reality and MAFIA remove this only for profit. That’s a shame. You feel like a part of yourself just die.

      Even if 10 another torrent site is up, it doesn’t replace a specialized torrent site like bit BitGamer.

      • Who

        I hope you are understanding that this site didn’t get shut down by ANY authorities. the owners closed it.

        • Purtytown

          you cant possibly know that for sure.

      • BoboBohannon

        Uh, yes you can when THE OWNER of the site (in the article) says thats the case. Unless you are conspiracy theorist, in which case whatever I’m not going to waste my time.

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  • Dogboy

    Nejtillpirater, seriously. It’s a new year. Have you got nothing better to do than argue about piracy? Get a life dude.

    • Scary_Devil_Monastery

      Apparently, he doesn’t. Which is why I come back here after the christmas holidays and find good old NTP has spent the time whining about piracy when the rest of us were getting on with our lives.

  • Life_decendent

    In all honesty, good riddance. Private trackers go against the fundamentals of file sharing by making their content exclusive. And before someone mentions rare content, if there were no private trackers, it would more easily be on public ones. This is a benefit to the community as a whole.

    • Dan

      No one’s keeping people from re-uploading stuff to public trackers. The thing is, without ratio watch it doesn’t work, except for the 0.0001% of most popular content. Ever try to download a HD TV episode that is more than 2-3 months old? No seeds left. I’d rather have the content in a restricted, exclusive place where people are forced to share, rather than somewhere where all the seeds disappear after a few days. It’s not a question of preference or “fundamentals”, it’s a question of works vs. doesn’t work.

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  • Sabfrompc

    at least UGG, BCG, and GGn are all open right now…

  • Anon

    There is a reasonable pride and a certain nobility in standing up for what you believe in. Back in the early 2000‘s when we endured no surveillance or government pressure and when this issue was less sorted out, “information must go free” existed to test prevailing standards. That time has passed. It’s clear to any reasonable, educated observer that digital files will have a price or a price will be paid for evasion.

    You might as well honestly believe and demand that speed limits are an encroachment of your personal liberties because you’ve paid your taxes, bought your car and tires and purchased a tank of gas.

    At some point all well-adjusted people accept reality or Darwin forces it upon them. BitGamer is the latest, but they are only the next in a defined trend going forward. If a “free for all” is to have a chance of survival, pirates had best end this battle and choose their next one more wisely.

    • Disgusted

      Regarding your last paragraph.. This is the same mentality that allows people to turn their heads when genocide happens.. Better just accept “reality” and not fight it huh.. That is just sickening. You are disgraceful..

      • Anon

        Fine. Associate this with genocide. lol

        “Pirates.”

        • Anon

          you spent already ?

        • Guest

          Hilarious joke PMSL

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          Makes more sense than your often hilariously misquoted versions of what a “human right” is.

          Get a clue. Right != Privilege. If you have to redefine the dictionary definition, dear Baghdad Bob, then that is usually a hint that your argumentation is wrong.

      • Who

        I read what was said. and

        “Genocide” = the deliberate and systematic destruction

        so how is what was stated a part of Genocide again?

        you are just like Anon…you defiantly got your head up your ass.

      • Who

        my apologies man: site messed up my clicking. /cry

    • Fredrika

      > “Back in the early 2000‘s when we..”

      We? Who are we?

      > “..endured no surveillance or government pressure and when this issue was less sorted out, “information must go free” existed to test prevailing standards.”

      And the test worked out just fine, didn’t it? On-line non-profit piracy turned out not to be a problem at all to the culture industry, it’s revenues instead just kept growing in perfectly working symbiosis with piracy.

      > “It’s clear to any reasonable, educated observer that digital files will have a price..”

      It’s clear to anyone that has only the most basic fundamental economical knowledge, that only goods and services have prices, and that digital files doesn’t constitute either, so it’s technically impossible for them to have a price. They are free to manufacture, just as air is free to breath. No price is possible.

      > “..or a price will be paid for evasion.”

      Choosing not to waste your money on buying something that holds no economical value is not called evasion. It’s called being economically sane.

      Manufacturing something to save money isn’t called evasion that either, it’s called economically sane free market capitalism.

      Or are you saying that economically sane free market capitalism should be outlawed?

      > “At some point all well-adjusted people accept reality or Darwin forces it upon them.”

      Are you admitting to no being well adjusted, since you don’t accept capitalism, the free market, basic economics and reality?

      > “BitGamer is the latest, but they are only the next in a defined trend going forward.”

      Yes, and when all torrent sites are gone there will be no more piracy, right? Because there doesn’t exist any other filesharing protocols that don’t rely on central nodes of operation or sites? Right? Yes/No, it should be a rather easy question for someone that holds such huge knowledge as yourself.

      • bobmail

        “And the test worked out just fine, didn’t it? On-line non-profit piracy turned out not to be a problem at all to the culture industry, it’s revenues instead just kept growing in perfectly working symbiosis with piracy.”

        More ignorance. Recorded music sales are down 60% in the piracy decade… how do you explain that?

        • Anyone

          today’s music is shit?

        • Fredrika

          > “Recorded music sales are down 60% in the piracy decade… how do you explain that?”

          I’m not really interested in explaining that. If you wanna argue that it’s because piracy and not any of all the others blunders the recording industry are responsible for, you may try to prove that, but not one single independent scientific study has managed to prove that connection, so you won’t either.

          But here are three articles that might interest you:

          http://torrentfreak.com/more-music-sold-than-ever-before-despite-piracy-110110/
          http://torrentfreak.com/is-piracy-really-killing-the-music-industry-no-100418/
          http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-kill-the-music-industry-090227/

        • xpmule

          60% down ?

          answer is obvious but not the crap you said..

          iTunes etc
          i have friends and family that BUY music like crazy through iTunes etc
          AND they download what ever and when ever too

          The physical cd lost its advantages when Kerry gave her Father her portable cd player in 2004′s season 7 episode 19 “Ice Cubed” @ 1:12
          Jerry Stiller says.. “another one of your obsolete hand me downs”

          you know all this though.. your just playing games to justify torturing and harassing file sharers and blaming us for a dying business model.
          your portable cd / dvd players are not selling anymore ? Too fucking bad STOP blaming ME for that and fuck off !
          And quit harassing my fellow file sharers.. we’re sick of you people and will make you pay in the long run ;)

          You guys better watch who you screw with too.. it would be funny if you tried taking a 9yr old girls winnie the poo laptop when her Hells Angels dad is boot your door in and kick you in the face with steel toes a couple hundreds times !
          Some people out there you just don’t start shit with and people like you are gonna have to find out the hard way you don’t run around the world trying to extort money from people etc

          So lets here some snotty little retorts smart guy lol
          Keep em coming your hilarious LOLOL

        • xpmule

          oops forgot to mention i was watching “The King Of Queens” lol

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          “Recorded music sales are down 60% in the piracy decade… how do you explain that?”

          Other revenue streams? Or could it be that the average man’s wallet can support only a set amount of outlays for entertainment and that recorded music having to compete with games, a few thousand choices of cable channels and a few hundred thousand apps for his new shiny phone are vying with recorded music for attention?

          Seriously. Learn to read market studies. Or at least learn the fundamentals of math.

        • BoboBohannon

          I will also say that politics aside, in the last decade I went from making more money that I knew what to do with, to when will I be able to get a job again. That definitely put a big dent in the amount of entertainment I can allocate my budget to. And I know I’m not alone.

      • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

        I guess I have to admit to being insane then. I paid for “Joe Dies At The End”, despite its being freely available via bittorrent. woe is me.

        • BoboBohannon

          I downloaded it for free and turned it off after 15 minutes it was that bad. And you did mean “John dies at the end”, right?

        • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

          yeah I turned it off as soon as I saw the penis doorknob. shame.

    • Guest

      What a hilarious joke PMSL

    • ThumbsUpThumbsDown

      If your standard is Darwin……. I suggest …..You become…… A
      Pirate ………before it’s too late!! …….

    • GA

      I saw this post in 2003 too.

      I’m getting old waiting for your doom.

      Catch you in 2023. I’ll be a grandfather by then.

      • Scary_Devil_Monastery

        I’ve been reading up on some history. I found “Anon” – or at least someone writing exactly like him – making the same claim in the 80′s.

        And again with napster. I’m sure they were saying -word for word – the exact same thing when radio was invented.

        • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

          I would LOVE to see a source to support this. Seriously, I’m all pavlovian, drooling in anticipation here*

          *Okay, not ~literally~. But I am curious.

    • Anyone

      if digital items have a price, tell me how I can sell my itunes collection, I don’t want it anymore

      • Anon

        iTunes exists in its own ecosystem, Apples.

        You don’t own your iTunes collection. You entered into a license to possess and consume the music and as an educated consumer, you know this, right? If you didn’t you should read your EULA sometime. Much of the digital content we pay for is a license only, it was never actually “for sale” in the way analog stuff can be made for sale. If you don’t appreciate the terms of sale you shouldn’t pay for it, same as an analog purchase. But that’s no justification for pirating it.

        • Anyone

          so what is it?
          digital files have a price and I can own them or they don’t?

          you can’t have it both way

          and if I can’t own them why the fuck would I pay for them?

        • Guest

          PMSL at the hillarious joke

        • Scary_Devil_Monastery

          ” If you don’t appreciate the terms of sale…”

          So which is it? a sale or a license? Either way some form of right exclusively applies to the consumer.

          You, however, try to have it both ways. Normally that’s called “fraud”.

          Only Copyright could come up with such a screwed redefinition of the word “property”…

      • Who

        that’s Y you shouldn’t buy digital download content. you CAN’T re-sell it.
        and YEP they know this.

        like steam games……you pay $60 for a download and CAN’T sell it as a used copy.

        in FACT the copy(s) you bought is now considered an unlawful copy YES even tho you paid for it from a legit source. because its a copy from legit source it is a copy and according to Anon ANY copy downloaded is illegal.

    • xpmule

      Anon you skipped step 1 showing what we do is illegal.
      If you can’t prove that then the discussion is done ..nothing to debate.

      the furthest i can reach to see your side of things is like an teh following example..
      Say a random guy decides to buy a dvd from a store but on the way he decides specificly to stop, turn around and go back home and get on his PC and download that dvd title ripped from the internet somehow using file sharing. Now how would we know he really intended to do that in the first place ? The fact that people speak with their money says volumes..
      Its possible the guy never had any intention subconsciously to buy anything. And what if the guy bought the dvd and went and returned the dvd and went home and downloaded a dvdrip then MAYBE this is vaguely comparable but does he get a plastic case/slip cover, full color HD printing, physical cd/dvd for life time storage ? can he resell the dvd ? can he resell the downloaded avi ? Is the video quality the same as the dvd ? Does he get chapters and subtitles and menus on the dvd AND avi ?
      And what percentages are we talking here ? How many people actually seriously consider buying a physical copy of what they download and then don’t ? Probably not very many.. (so the problems you claim are dramatized and lost revenue is a lie !)
      Sorry but piracy doesn’t exist in the way you think it does..
      If people were getting the same thing as what is available for sale in a retail store i would agree with you 100% but its NOT !
      So your arguments are as always flawed from the beginning.

      Now if you wanna talk about REAL piracy then lets talk..
      Plenty of countries have big issues with fake/black market dvd’s being manufactured and sold on the streets.. and THAT is piracy !
      What we do is called file sharing. And our combined power puts money in your pockets unless you piss us off enough that we stop buying.
      Traditional I buy and download anything i think deserves the money but if this crap continues i will continue to scale back my purchases.. and i already started spreading the word to avoid cd/dvd sales because it supports copyright trolls and their quest to victimize people and i won’t fund that crap if i can help it.

      You think that 9yr old Winnie The Poo laptop girl an dher family were hardcore pirates ? No they were average people out there who got dragged into this mes and look what happened lol
      Apologies and no jail time and MASSIVE PR blunder for you Trolls lol
      THIS will continue more and more till your at the unemployment office getting Govt cheese ;)

      We’re not doing anything wrong and we’re not going anywhere and file sharing is not gonna stop ..so get used to it !

    • BJonesTF

      Funny you should say about speed limits. There’s a historical parallel. In 1865 the UK government passed a law imposing speedlimits of 4mph (2mph in cities) on the new technology of traction engines. They also needed a man to walk in front of them with a flag or lamp to ‘warn’ people, and stop if a horse came near.
      It was supposed to be about ‘protecting people’ but in reality it was about protecting the existing industries, mostly carters and the associated industries.

      30 years later, it was repealed.

      It was an example of the same kinds of laws, where technology was persecuted, because it impacted another. But eventually progress destroyed the old one. So do you have a car, or do you go everywhere by horse+cart?

      The thing about speed limits now, is that they’re mostly evidence-based in how they’re determined.

      The thing about copyright laws is that they’re NOT evidence based. If they were, the SUGGESTION in the UK Hargreaves review that they should be, wouldn’t have made such big news and been so revolutionary.

      Of course, your point kinda falls when your arguments are given their historical context, aren’t they. What a shame. Perhaps your PR company will get some new talking points, because these ones are, I have to say, getting kinda stale (or maybe that’s because I’ve read most of your comments, and they’re all rather samey and devoid of facts)

    • Scary_Devil_Monastery

      And as usual, you are arguing that Marting Luther King and Mandela should have sat the fuck down and shut up.

      It’s always good to know where you REALLY come from.

      Not that any of your arguments apply to a bunch of people who found it not worth their while to run an obsolete and redundant service.

      Because, frankly speaking, private trackers, being centralized, are as valid today as a model T is on a highway.

  • ThumbsUpThumbsDown

    “…..the bitGAMER staff explored whether it was possible to hand over the reigns to new owners. However, they decided not to do so as that would require sharing details on all its members with a relatively unknown third-party……”

    Consider: What private information may be in the site’s database, is perhaps the single biggest threat to every site member.

    • Who

      personal info implies that you have your real name credited info and SSN *US only* included in there database of the site. email’s may be tractable but are inconclusive for tracking down individuals.

      now if you have paypal info there and its linked to your bank account you are fucked.

    • Bobohannon

      And if you don’t supply fake information and junk email addresses you are crazy anyway.

  • Ash

    BlackCatGames is offline? I cant acess it :(

    Also WTF is UGG?

    • Sabfrompc

      UGG is underground gamer. Google it. Black cats closed about 30 mins ago when they reached their 33,000 user cap. Basically, they let 3000 people in and then closed the doors.

  • Ash

    BTW BCG isnt open invites right now , at least for me lol

    • Sabfrompc

      They closed registration about 30 min ago. Given how the site operates, they’ll probably open again for a short period in the next few days.

  • Cazzone

    any GOOD alternative?

    • Anyone

      TPB

  • http://twitter.com/JerkfaceMcGee Jerkface McGee

    >… But for bitGAMER it’s Game Over.

    HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG THAT PUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

  • Daedy

    Most members from bG are migrating to GazelleGames.net. The uploaders from bG are working to reupload the original packs in such a way people will be able to resume and seed their torrents where they left off.

  • Pingback: bitGAMER BitTorrent Tracker Quits the Game, Shuts Down | The Illuminati

  • Roswell1701

    “We wouldn’t be willing to transfer sensitive database data to a third-party that we’re not well acquainted with.”

    Good for you, Dude. Very commendable.

    • ThumbsUpThumbsDown

      Maybe the price just wasn’t “right”?…..

      • Roswell1701

        Now, now… Let’s be fair. Since he went to the trouble to mention it, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I can’t believe EVERYONE is a sell-out. :)

  • Sean

    anyone have a
    bitGAMER invite?

  • Pingback: bitGAMER cierra sus puertas. Game over

  • foff

    I have downloaded a lot of games that I will never play and certainly have better things to do then play an endless game online. I think the gaming industry has peaked and consolidated. Big titles take too much time and cost to much to produce quickly so releases of big games are not frequent anymore. I used to buy games when they were sold for $15 a few months after release but since that practice ended so did my purchases and interest in games.

    While we always hope for replacements they don’t always pop up. Nothing sticks out as a replacement to demoniod. I never knew this site existed but any good site helps spread stuff and I am sorry to see a good resource go.

  • Huehuehuehuehue

    even as someone who really never pirates and has more purchased game than I’ll be able to play in my life.

    it’s sad to see a community die.

  • Who

    already its a sad new year /cry

  • quawonk

    Another chickenshit torrent site that doesn’t have the balls to stand up to copyright bullies bites the dust. No loss. There’s a reason TPB survives.

    • Dan

      Read the article before you comment.

  • bedouin

    This sucks hard. BG’s rival, BCG would not allow me to register because I’m from Egypt, even after offering to show numerous screenshots of other sites I’m on where my ratios are awesome. The admin was a dick too.

    At least Underground Gamer is still active. I probably use it more than BG anyway.

    And I guess there’s a bunch of torrents I can stop seeding now.

    • xpmule

      manners seem to go out the window when your some uber leet admin on a forum lol

      its the official badge on the internet to be a mouthy asshole and then ban anyone that gives you sas..

      I love telling them to fuck off like when the cunts at PhychoCD started harrassing me and i kept replying back to various admin that i not my ratio is not that great and i have been working on it for a while please look at my stats.. i was spending almost 24hrs a day uploading only to prop up my ratio after they bitched at via pm in rude manner and i was polite in my replies but more and more just swarmed on my and they wouldn’t stop bitching and giving me threats. At a certain point i said i know i am(seeding) now what ? like back the fuck off already jeez.
      It would be obvious to see i was seeding only for a couple weeks straight..

      I had been there for a LONG time and had a ratio that was just below 1 to 1 and that wasn’t a problem until i said thank you on a torrent then bam they were all over me like wolves for some reason. So since it wasn’t a problem before i didn’t think i had to worry about it or that i was going to get an avalanche of back to back pm’s from admins threatening me with a nasty foul attitude.
      So i told those fucking assholes to suck my dick and waited for my ban..
      Now i can leech there all i want lol
      PhychoCD admin fags can suck my cock ;)

      • BoboBohannon

        Yes, those are the kind of sites that you are just better to walk away from. I’m a good user overall but I’ve walked away from many. It just isn’t worth the stress and disrespect.

  • Wanakakkanewf

    No wonder all my seeds turned red.

  • Guest

    Knock yourself out and set up your own torrent site and stand up to them. Let us know how you get on with that.

  • austinhamman

    here’s what really happened, bitgamer got more than 65,536 users and didnt want to rework it’s code base to prevent overflows so they just said “fuck it”

    (this is tongue-in-cheek btw i too am saddened by bitgamer’s demise but it seems eveyone on bitgamer have already moved to another site…so…)

  • SaddaySam

    RIP old friend

    At least you leave with your heads high.

  • Guest

    Videogame companies are overall not like the old executive based TV and Movie big corporations, they are smaller business managed by very normal and more human people, also smart futurists that understand technology and society and just want to make good games.
    Hence Videeogames aren’t doing some war on culture or trying to change the world into a big brother fascist dystopia of fear like big TV, Movie and Music studios or labels.
    So it is a great surprise to see a game related torrent site go away.
    Maybe they were approached by those men in black that tell them to quit or else they will sue them on a personal level to oblivion, who’d want to admin a site when it is required to be in a lifelong legal torture where all money will be thrown to defend against frivulous lawsuits?
    It’s what the copyright monopoly does to fight culture and progress.
    RIP bitgamer.

    • xpmule

      I’m sure they knew what it was going to be like before setting up the site..

      The climate has changed how ?

      Torrents sites were ignored when they setup and now they are harassed ?

  • Pingback: bitGAMER cierra sus puertas. Game over Where Is My Software

  • Anon

    From the DotCom article in SPIN Magazine:

    “As for piracy, it’s been on a steady decline for awhile. In 2005, 20 percent of Internet users were downloading music illegally. By last year that was down to 13 percent, and according to Russ Crupnick of market research group NPD, that number continued to drop in 2012. “This year, it’s going to come close to 90 percent who don’t download from peer-to-peer networks,” he says.”

    Peaking at 1 in 5. lol Some huge majority. More people jaywalk. lol

    • Anyone

      offtopic much?

      if it is that way could you please shut up, stop destroying the internet and move on?

      • guess who

        why don’t we just unplug america from the internet? that’ll save it. we don’t need it. there is a world beyond america, flowing to the brim of cultural wealth and treasure waiting to be discoverd and seen outside of its countrys borders. so you’d have to read subtitles, art is worth suffering for and not much of a hardship at that.

        america has been flooding us for years with thier so called ‘culture’, its about time _OUR_ culures had the exposure they deserve. just look at asian cinema, it is far superior to american cinema. the storiess are original and the cinemetography is superb, hollwierd is jealous and likes to destroy and dumb down a work of art with a bad remake and sell it to us. look at what they did to the ring, the grudge, män som hatar kvinnor (badly translated by the yanks as the girll with the dragon tattoo, which is nothing like ‘the man who hated women – an accurate translation). god only knows how bad the remade ‘let the right one in’ is.

        the flood of american culture needs to be stemed, or at the very least, damned and held back to a managable level.

        back in the 60′s and 70′s the beeb used to show lots of european kids shows, this was done to give us children back then a wide culture experience and counter the flood of american crap.

        america wants us to be all americans, world america as it where. fuck that for a game of soldiers.

        • guess who

          i know, not realy the right place for it, but none the less, it needed saying.

    • Guest

      PMSL at the hillarious joke lol

    • Dan

      Hah, I wonder what their source is. I have big doubts that these numbers are true, but if they are, good for them, they can consider it a win and stop being dicks to the few people who actually still buy their shit.

      But this reminds me of the world of music business press releases: read the press section and investors page of a major record label, and see how fantastic their numbers are, and how they keep getting better every year. Then head over to their representatives’ press section at IFPI, and read all about how horrible the sales have slumped and the industry is dying if something isn’t done.

    • MadAsASnake

      Might also mean they simply have no way of tracking them.

    • Scary_Devil_Monastery

      http://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=russ+crupnick

      So the executive of the MPAA’s and Ifpi’s official survey firm claims piracy is down?

      Would this be the same survey firm which went ballistic over actual statistic market research?

      The same Crupnick who kept saying “It makes no sense” every time he was confronted with empirical data?

      The same Crupnick whose job is to present good news to the Ifpi?

      Looks like you have worthy competition, Baghdad Bob.

  • chronoss

    if i had known i would have taken this site over…

    • Anyone

      if you’d actually read the article you’d know that wasn’t an option

      • Who

        it wasn’t an option for the simple FACT that they were UNABLE to find ANY ONE trust worthy. and for sure….its getting to the point that you can’t trust anyone now with stuff like this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/damin.graham Damin Graham

    Less bs talk about the laws and morals and more talk about alternatives. IGNORE THE TROLLS

    with BG and nTorrents leaving this year we still have UGG but that is folder older stuff and BCG which is a shit pile

  • VigVamVoo

    Wow thats insane man. Another one bits the damn dust!
    http://www.GoinAnon.tk

  • aeirei
  • Randomstuff

    first demonoid, now this. why must my favorite trackers go? why not something else? where will i find new home now?

  • Guest

    Thanks for the ride bitGAMER

  • Jim

    You know what, whatever happened to isohunt getting rid of that filter? IsoHunt used to be the way to go, now it sucks.

  • Hush

    RIP BitGamer

    You will be missed. What a wonderful community it has left behind…

  • Dsmithh94 Ds

    Why not just make a sharing servicr that randomly goes up? Inform members of the times, and have multiple nodes. Use a different node each time so it decreases risk? If thats possible

  • Hogspace

    It’s a shame they didn’t move off the open net to an opennic and .pirate identity.

  • Syborg

    I take some to complete my collection.

  • Guest

    Fuck you MAFIAA.

  • http://www.facebook.com/the.daydreaming.one Dante Morozov

    Sigh, well there goes one of the best websites i know. Though i knew this would happen eventually, i didn’t expect it to happen just as soon as 2013 hits the clock world wide.

  • Purtytown

    from napster to kazaa to Direct Connect to Bittorrent….

    Piracy isnt dying, its evolving, just wait, it will find a way.

  • sh3p1

    We opened registration on TPTB (The Powers That Be), so if anyone is looking for a new home, search no further! Yet another small private tracker with a unique community.

    • Bzhualyn

      The Powers That Fart are now open!

  • Dodd Jordan

    Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!!!!!!

    I feel like I did when that giant grey MPAA page had replaced Oink.

    Take that as a lesson morons. Did OINK’s death mean the demise of music trackers? As far as I knew many sprouted up, but I may be wrong

    DISCLAIMER – being members of some of the said sites that ‘sprouted up’, I know that I am not wrong in my claim. Piracy IS exactly like drug-smuggling, in that no matter who you take out, tehn are willing and ready to take their place.

    LOSING BATTLE MORONS!!!! :)

    And I do continue to enjoy all the free shit….. DAYUM!

    I should be locked up, eh? Damn I really want to live in Sweden.

  • Jordman

    Any Swedish folk here keen for an international backpacker/traveler after some decent internet bandwidth? Will pay well. Veeery well.

    Ahem

    :-)

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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