Demonoid: An Interview With Their Ukranian Host
Written by enigmax on October 22, 2009Demonoid is one of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the planet and, unfortunately for those interested in the site, also one of the most secretive. With the site currently out of action with little indication when it will return, there are certainly plenty of questions. An interview with Demonoid’s Ukranian host certainly proves to be of great interest.
While the admins of some of the larger public torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, Mininova and isoHunt are happy to give interviews, many others demonstrate a certain phobia of the media.
One major site that has showed an acute aversion to saying just about anything to outsiders is Demonoid. This semi-private site has nevertheless made the news dozens of times, most recently due to its recent downtime, as reported here on TorrentFreak.
“We are experiencing power outages that have caused some ram and hard drive issues. We might have to shut down everything to fix and prevent further damage,” said Demonoid in a statement six weeks ago, warning that downtime could run to “…days maybe, until we can change the power circuit.”
However, TorrentFreak has received possibly conflicting information from Demonoid’s host, Colocall in Ukraine, who said in a statement: “There were no problems with power supply at the location where Demonoid servers are hosted.”
While information about Demonoid is always scarce, information coming out of Colocall is a rarity too, since the company has previously refused to speak with journalists about their most infamous customer. That’s why it was of great interest when Ukrainian blogger Pavel Golubovskiy contacted TorrentFreak to say he had netted an interview with Colocall. Here is a translation of the questions related to Demonoid;
Why did you choose to host Demonoid?
The customer came to us and ordered a particular service. For us it wasn’t a political decision, Demonoid is an ordinary client for us.
What exactly do you host, the inferno.demonoid.com tracker?
They brought their servers, which are now located in our data center. We don’t know what information is stored there – we do not have access to this information. These servers are supported remotely by Demonoid technical staff.
Demonoid’s servers
Is there a way to contact the Demonoid admins?
They will not answer you. Many people want to contact them – journalists, fans, police, local authorities from different countries. But the Demonoid admins have a very selective approach to e-mail correspondence. When the police wanted to contact them, I specifically warned the admins that they had to respond to this request.
So the police already inquired about Demonoid?
Well, our local authorities are interested in Demonoid all the time. Rightholders associations are constantly trying to put pressure on us, including pressure with the help of Ukrainian authorities. We redirect them to the admins, but do not interfere or try to negotiate.
Are they putting any serious pressure on you?
It sounds strange, but Ukraine is still a jural state. Therefore IFPI’s personal opinion is just that, their personal opinion, despite the fact that the budgets of the IFPI participants are comparable to the budget of the Ukraine.
Aren’t you afraid that there can be a similar situation with Demonoid’s servers as there was with Infostore.org site? [famous Ukrainian file-sharing site, its servers were confiscated by police about a year ago]
As a hosting-provider we take such risks into account. This can happen not only with Demonoid, but with any client. We do not control what information is stored on servers, anybody can buy our hosting service.
Anti-pirates and the media-lobby are now trying to shift all the responsibility for file-sharing onto Internet providers, so that providers will have to monitor user activities. Will this affect hosting providers too?
We have such laws in draft in our parliament periodically. But the Ukrainian law “On communication” is clear about this: providers are not responsible for what their customers do. And the fact that rights holders want to change that is their personal opinion, they are not legislative bodies. Let them buy a parliament member and lobby for such law, then we will observe this law. But until then they are nobody to us, and we are nobody for them too.
About a month ago Demonoid reported technical problems. Due to those problems all data for the last several months has vanished. In an attempt to recover from these problems the site went offline. Do you know what happened?
Some time ago several of their hard-drives crashed. But that was several months ago and we don’t know what was the reason of recent problems.
According to their admins, the man who can restore the tracker is not available. Are they speaking about some Colocall programmer?
No, all the technical support of servers is performed remotely. They aren’t speaking about one of our specialists.
Torrentfreak wrote about the president of Lithuanian antipirates, who demanded the closure of access to Demonoid. He said that it is very hard to even make contact with you. Have you spoken with him?
Yes, someone called us. We just could not speak with him: from the start of the conversation he immediately began to threaten us, he was absolutely non-constructive. We sent him to the court and have said that if he brings the court’s decision, we will be happy to execute it, because we observe all Ukrainian laws. Until then we are not going to speak with him.
Access to Demonoid is blocked for several countries including Ukraine. Is this your initiative or the tracker’s decision?
It is the tracker’s policy, not our initiative. I think this is due to DDoS-attacks.
Are there any DDoS-attacks aiming at Demonoid?
Yes, there are many large and serious DDoS-attacks. But they are always the problem of every hosting provider. We have learned how to neutralize them, so such attacks have almost no effect on Demonoid’s operations. And, incidentally, Demonoid isn’t the only site to be attacked: during the last election we hosted the server of the central election commission committee, it was constantly under DDoS-attacks.
Previously: Court Orders The Pirate Bay To Delete Torrents
Next: 3-Strikes For Pirates Makes European Comeback Tour
97 Responses
Very informative.
I wish the demon comes back soon, this is def one of the best torrent sites in the world.
Some of the stuff you get here you just cant get anywhere else, plus their search works great unlike tpb where its easier to find content on tpb if you go via google or mini.
So when is it back ??? the most important question of all!!
thanks torrentfreak.. finally i can settle down in peace let hope demonoid admin read about this.
I’ll bring demonoid back for you all on Dec 25th
Ho Ho Ho…
not bad though.
Very nicely handled =)
Thanks for the info.
These guys got nice promotion! But they are really cool! I support them!
most secretive my ass
same hosts we had recently chosen as well coincidentally. They seem like gentlemen to me, servers were delivered promptly and the best part no more Brein pestering us.
The interview is pretty interesting, but it doesn’t tell us much.
“We have such laws in draft in our parliament periodically. But the Ukrainian law “On communication” is clear about this: providers are not responsible for what their customers do. And the fact that rights holders want to change that is their personal opinion, they are not legislative bodies. Let them buy a parliament member and lobby for such law, then we will observe this law. But until then they are nobody to us, and we are nobody for them too.”
Damn straight! Although, I wouldn’t advise them to “buy a parliament member”, ’cause they can buy many, and with many, the parliament members become corrupt, and then we get screwed.
@2www.eZee.se
I agree. I’ve had a demonoid account since 2006 and still haven’t found a site with as good or even close to search engine. I love the lack of viruses and fake files. When Torrent Freak mentioned EZTV, I checked out that site, I love it. But when I checked it out the first time, there was a TV episode EZTV didn’t have yet. I found it on ISOHunt, but it turned out to be a fake file, one where it says you have to download a certain player to view it. Later EZTV had the episode. Haven’t found a bad or fake file on EZTV yet. But that site seems to be down right now. :P
Actually our (I mean ukrainian) parliament has just passed an amendment to several laws concerning the issues of data circulation on the Internet in the first hearing (this means, the law hasn’t been adopted yet, there will be a second hearing, but 404 deputies of 450 voted for the draft, so their intentions are pretty much clear).
Basic idea, of those amendments is that service providers will be obliged to monitor information, circulating through them (basically anything, what customers upload or download) and report in case of law violations or submit requested data to the authorities without a court order. Actually, this part is not clear yet, but you can get the idea. Currently almost any contract with a local ISP has a clause, which expressively states, that all the all user data is private, ISP doesn’t monitor, track or store it. And now they want to change this.
But personally I don’t understand how is this technically possible…
So, it might not be such a good environment for Demonoid soon.
I hate demonoid and their stupid spam-infested torrents that block DHT. And now they are liars too. TPB is #1!
I think its a good interview to see the perspective of the ISP. Good questions with regards to politics and the ISP. Say what you will about an ISP but they will be defending our rights in future battles. If they sound more like Colocall admin does I feel confident that they will try and be more “Pro P2P”
While users from more civilized mountries (me being frm Russia) can take “byuing own parliament member as a joke” – it’s not really a joke.
Parliament members are cheap in Russia and even cheaper in Ukraine, which is a king of political zoo last several years with president (accused of rigging elections etc.) blaming PM, PM (accused of massive corporate fraud, even wanted by Interpol some time ago) blaming president, parliament (some members with a record of shooting citizens for fun while hunting – and getting away with it) blaming each other and everyone lying as much as they can while siphoning government money as much as possible. Really, it’s not a joke!
If RIAA wants to buy some new laws in Ukraine – it will be much more cheaper than to buy a judge in Europe. There are bulk discounts on parliament members this year. :(
Sad but true.
“What will grow crooked, you can’t make staight, it’s the price you gotta pay. Do yourself a favour, buy a ticket & get on the train”
(c)Thom Yorke
You pirates are doomed
I miss the Demon
I’m gonna save up my unemployment benefits, buy the Ukraine and donate it to Demonoid.
Enigmax, being non-Russian speaker, missed funny nuance in the interview.
I’ve tried to translate as closely as possible.
About Lithuanian anti-pirating guy: Peter Golubovsky said literally: “Yes, we’ve been called by some twerp boy and just could not speak to him: he started threatening us, absolutely non-constructive”.
That was in fact a mild insult. He did call him “twerp boy”. :)
As for the twerp boy mentioned – on photos he looks like a standard member of standard street gang in Russia.
@ 18
Get a job you lazy dole-scum
Pay some tax and buy some CDs.
@mustangx why http://1337x.org/ is down any info?
@ 20
…but I do have a job. While fraudulently claiming benefits, I work in a DVD pressing plant. Where d’ya think half the rips come from in the first place.
@16
Please refrain from posting copyrighted material, including quotes, on this board. It’s illegal (in some countries).
go to work! dont pay tax and dont buy cd’s!
@23 Just like Pirating movies then
Hey Thom, you left a line out of your song.
You shit stain
QNA we relocated the site and also are redesigning it entirely. Should be up this weekend or early next week at the latest. Had an issue with 1 of the servers and decided to just make the best of the unexpected downtime we ran into.
#13, you might as well have hit your keyboard with your fat arse for all the sense you’re making. Now shut your sh1t-stained mouth & go back to blowing your dad.
OTOH: Hurry back, the Demon. Those of us (TINU) with even a modicum of wit miss you like crazy… =]
What an awesome guy! The man interviewed really had antipiracy summed up in a really cool, calm way.
Great interview
and a Great Site! not so for the
babies who cant seem to get in.
Demonoid.com #1 – Best Torrents!
period.
R.I.P Demonoid
I think Demonoids is a pretty cool guy. eh pirates torrents and doesn’t afraid of anything…
Premium web site, hope its back soon…
R.I.P TPB <_<
Nice interview. Hope Demon.. comes back.
http://Pirlog.com
>It sounds strange, but Ukraine is
>still a jural state. Therefore
>IFPI’s personal opinion is just
>that, their personal opinion,
>despite the fact that the budgets
>of the IFPI participants are
>comparable to the budget of the
>Ukraine.
Wow that’s a quote, and true, the
jural and polical systems in most western so called “democratic” countrys is a joke…highly corrupt
I havent found any to replace Demonoid, but what sites are you all using?
Demonoid has one of the *best search engines around, it’s a great site, I have been a member for years and will continue to be a member as long as they exist…
Whatever issues they are facing right now, be it the “cover story” or whatever else, I do believe they will return…
@21
1337 is undergoing a major site overhaul, from what I have learned the site will be returning within the next few days…..
1337 is another *awesome site Ppl, when they do get back online I recommend visiting it…
The statements made in the interview have me wondering about other (the ‘real?’) reasons why the site has been down for so long. This article raised as many questions as it answered.
I have to echo #39 about not finding a suitable replacement.
Demonoid is the best…been hanging around a couple of different private sites…they have great speeds but lack content.
I found Demon to be a great site, I would actually see stuff that interests me on there. The whole power issue was a lie tho? With no clear what’s what as to what is really up with it tho :(
Also with Trackerchecker down… we need another site like that one…
Honestly, I wouldn’t be pleased if I were part of Demonoid… Someone who has been told to keep his trap shut all of a sudden doing this interview… It doesn’t seem to be damaging but just the littlest bit of information could hurt the site that much more. Though it does raise the question of what is Demon trying to hide by saying that non-existent power outages caused them to go AWOL.
“While users from more civilized mountries (me being frm Russia) can take “byuing own parliament member as a joke” – it’s not really a joke.”
HAHAHAHAHA!! It’s funny because it’s NOT a joke, and you believe Russia is somehow corrupt but the rest of the world’s politicians are there to represent their citizens.. THEY ARE NOT.
LOBBYISTS MAKE LAWS IN THE USA.
LOBBYISTS PAID FOR BY MEGACORPORATIONS.
“The People” stopped having a say years ago. Now they get to choose between Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich on election day every 4 years.
It’s Ukrainian, not Ukranian.
demonoid will not come back
Please Demonoid, come back soon! No other torrent site is quite like you! I have found so many things on Demonoid that can not be found anywhere else, and I have derived so much pleasure from uploading obscure treasures that the Demonoid community has very much appreciated. The Web just isn’t the same without the Demon.
demonoid was a mere shadow of its former self. I loved the site when it was humming with torrents, seeders and peers. Everyone kept a good ratio and that ensured the success of the site.
I doubt that we will see demonoid back, or if it comes back, it will be even more of a shell…
Anyway, best wishes to Demonoid and most of luck in bringing site back.
From your friends at http://bitsnoop.com/
“zarathustra” you are a real piece of **** and apparently stupid as well and you have also stolen even your name
heh, imagine how your life would suck (even more), if you were limited to music pushed on you by MTV and other Mafiaa shills.
But isn’t the Ukraine NATOs new best friend… etc, etc… ?
If the US can threaten Sweden (which is what happened over TPB) then SURELY they can threaten the Ukraine which is a less established country at this point.
The only two countries that could really say “p–ss off” about copyright complaints are Russia and China.
If I ever run a torrent site, that’s exactly the country I’d choose.
I predict that it won’t take too long until the Ukrainian duma or whatever they call it gets a call from their new friends across the Atlantic…
The people are liking the Demonoid here in Ukrainiztan. It brings nice American show like the Gladiators. Is nice, yes? SEXY TIME!!!!
Thanks for continuing to follow this. The proffered explanations come up short. I’m sure there is a far more complicated and interesting backstory here. I, too, have found no substitute or collection of substitutes for Demonoid. I wish it would come back but the longer this goes on the more unlikely it seems.
Good luck trying to get a host for an internation site in Russia, see how much you will pay for “out of Russian” traffic
dead and buried…..
@53
Total bullshit. Most large russian DCs provide unmetered traffic.
We’re using one of these – 100 Mb/s unmetered, no caps. And I’m talking 5+ GB daily traffic.
Great translation.
You are only promoting it as secretive because you probably paid a hefty price for it. Its kinda lame
I hope demo comes back they have a gr8 site with one of the best trackers in torrent world also you get pretty exclusive stuff on demonoid which you won’t find ne where else.
Good to get news from further East. The world does not consist of North America and the EU….
thanks torrentfreak
Anticipating Demonoid’s return. Bring back the tshirts on J!NX too!
Very interesting read, great article. This guy sounds like a really stand up businessman.
Thanks for profiling the suspect
Looks like a decent host.
Anybody knows of a list of Ukrainian, Bielorussian and Russian CoLo providers — that are not blacklisted by spamhaus.org’s DROP?
my guess is that demonoid closed due to sevral goverments sueing the.
these govs. forsed demonoid to
close.
R.I.P demonoid
@63
Forget Belarus for hosting, there is almost no internet there, pipes are really thin and very pricey – government phone company monopolized it. Anything not following dictatorship’s rule will get shut without a notice.
There is a rumour that Demonoid’s problems are internal… between the admins. As for what country, I would recommend they move to one of these tiny island nations that has decent internet… like .tt, .to, .tk, or .nu.
If they have any brain be heading to the two new republics of Abkhzia and Ossetia, these are only recognised by Russia and Chavez and there is no copy right laws and no recognition of anything, for few years they Demo crew can run a massive mayhem and screw the lot of the Anti Piracy people, but they new do research for a nice haven or harbour to anchor the Privateer or Buccaneer, even that pirate bay that is cashed up never worked out an unfettered locale.
THW demoniod, another had already sprouted to take her place. and many more to follow same as TPB. Our resources are boundless, let us all take a part in that. Yea … Ill miss her but, when the death comes, the child must commission.
Those that know it, love it. Those that don’t, good riddance. I’d rather a tracker be careful than arrogant.
@27 Glad to hear you’ll be back so soon, hopefully with user accounts still intact. Just like last time, except with a new design and shorter downtime. ;]
Long live the ‘noid!
jesus the picture of the servers is a mind trip, Maybe its just me, Scroll up and down repetatively.. Its like the picture changes severely every inch you scroll D:
I love Demonoid, but can’t understand why such a popular tracker is down so often, lacks backups, etc. I just hope it comes back soon. There is more ‘geeky’ stuff there than anywhere else, but in the meantime others keep me occupied ;-)
should go back to good ol’ soviet days..
thanks TF. very informative article. long live Demonoid!
i love demonoid i can find tons of old underground hiphop and indie and hardcore stuff i cant find anymore. when ive exhausted my options trying to find actual copies of old out of print stuff i can usually find them on demonoid
Unfortunately, the Internet is becoming more and more a real an effective way for monitoring all of us.
The disgusting argumente that internet must be a bussines arena also leads to a justification of a new attack against our unique real still sense: freedom
i missed the demon too ……where can i get some blurays from now……. and i hate it to cuz i gotta start all over again on gettn my movies but they closed for right now dam ……..isohunt aint cuttn enuff fa me
I wonder, at what hosting company is Demonoid hosted at?
I’m really missing Demonoid…..
thom yorke, or anyone pretending to be that liitle scum bag whiner, is a pure fail loser.
jk broadrick on the other hand will always get my money.
Demonoid is dead get over it.
Theory:
MPAA knows they can’t shut Demonoid down, so they do the next best thing:
Give them 5-10 million to shut down for 2 or 3 months.
Make sense? Demonoid’s been down before and came back.
It’s half a “victory” for both parties
concerned and the guys at Demonoid walk away a lot richer.
Either way, the MPAA has been poisoning minds for years
and i’m glad to see them get
screwed.
demonoid is something from where most of us started our torrenting and will never forget this platform which give us starter experience in torrenting .. we wish demonoid a happy return.
Please anyone…
I need an invite and will trade a Demonoid invite, once they’re back up. Demonoid is all I’ve ever known and recently found the following two that I’m trying desperately to get an invite to. Please send to, gadgetreg@comcast.net . THANK YOU!
what.cd
waffles.fm
Re: There is a rumour that Demonoid’s problems are internal… between the admins.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Things were a mess over there. Between Reported dupes never got removed and folks were posting racist and sexual material in the forums, it was quickly going down hill. Dare you mention a problem in their forums, chances are you got a rather nasty distasteful PM if not outright banned.
Loved the index. Hated the indexer.
@85
I too am a demonoid member who hasnt found a suitable replacement. Im looking for a site with lots of howard stern show files. I will gladly trade a demonoid invite when the site is back up. email me at tripledeke9@gmail.com
No invites until Demonoid comes back. Nobody can get them without site, and even if someone managed to save an invite or two before Demonoid went offline, there’s still no way to use it. Come again later.
DEMONOID IS THE BEST! NO COMPARISON…
Im really missing demonoid… I need a good private tracker that has good cracks for programs, no viruses, etc, i will gladly give you an invite to demonoid once the site gets back up… stangguyv6@aol.com
I had a 10.0 ratio on demonoid…
lol @ all you lazy people who dont know how to find files without relying on a site like demonoid.
it had the best audiobook collection, all the rest are either private or dead, i miss demonoid.
FLACs, that’s what I miss, best collection of FLACs anywhere.
Is clear that technical problems are not the cause of shut down, maybe the
management get a good bribe or they
intimidate.
i want demonoid back, anti-piracy? what the hell is it?
Miss Demonoid for karaoke CDG’s – Sunfly ,Mr Entertainer,EZH etc.
….anybody know any other sites that supply these????
Hell, I have some extra Google Wave invites – if someone wants one, I’ll trade for an invite to a quality private tracker (cough…cough…What.CD).
aron.critt [at] Gmail
Guys if you want invites to diffrent sites log in here: http://xtremeinvites.ning.com/. and your bound to get something :)
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