Forced Exodus of BitTorrent Sites Is Imminent
Written by Ernesto on November 23, 2007The Dutch ISP LeaseWeb can’t take the pressure from BREIN anymore. As a preliminary measure they have now ordered dozens of BitTorrent sites - including some big-shots - to pack their stuff before December 1st, leave LeaseWeb and find a new home.
Last week we reported that LeaseWeb forced SumoTorrent to move to another ISP due to pressure from BREIN. In that article we published a list of other potential BRIEN targets hosted by LeaseWeb (we left out dozens of other sites) including mybittorrent.com, btmon.com, btjunkie.org, seedpeer.com, what.cd and waffles.fm.
Over the past few days several admins of the sites in this list confirmed to TorrentFreak that they indeed got a letter from LeaseWeb in which they were asked to move their websites before the end of the month. At this point it is not sure whether the dozens of other, mostly smaller private BitTorrent communities, received a similar letter. A questionable request since BitTorrent sites are not considered to be illegal according to Dutch law.
However, it seems that LeaseWeb has succumbed to BREIN’s pressure as it orders its clients to take all BitTorrent related material from their servers before December 1st. LeaseWeb takes this proactive measure to protect their clients they say, but it’s not needed since the court order that BREIN has applies ONLY to everlasting.nl and not to all other BitTorrent sites
One of the biggest mistakes they made in the process is to hand over the personal details of the SumoTorrent administrator. Somehow LeaseWeb was under the impression that they had to give this information to BREIN, thereby violating the privacy of one of their clients. This mistake also contradicts a statement LeaseWeb gave earlier this week to ISPam.nl, where they said that they are not allowed to give customer information to a third party without a funded request.
One of the big questions right now is where on earth all the BitTorrent sites will go now that LeaseWeb is a no-go. There are still some other options in The Netherlands and countries like Canada and Sweden, but they are slowly running out of alternatives.
LeaseWeb announced that it will appeal the decision in the everlasting.nl case, “LeaseWeb has filed an appeal and will keep fighting for its client’s privacy and right of freedom of expression up to the highest court.” We wish them well.
Previously: Marvel and DC Comics Join Forces to Target BitTorrent
Next: Poor Anti-Pirates: E-mail About Leaked IFPI Email Gets Leaked
122 Responses
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See http://www.i2p.net for info on I2P.
Apparently it’s possible to torrent entirely over I2P and the network is designed to allow this possibility. It would mean a reduction in speeds though. The idea of hosting the tracker over I2P only so it can’t be easily shut down is an interesting one.
Also, a possibility for private trackers would be to use OpenID (http://openid.net/) for authentication, so that they don’t handle any passwords, then make periodic database dumps (not including private messages or passkeys) available to their users, in addition to the source code. This would allow the site, if it got shut down, to be restarted by someone else somewhere else, with all users and torrents intact. Would be an adjustment, but it’s an evolution worth making in my opinion.
Very cool, thanks.
prq.se ftw
Wtf is this site?
http://mightynova.com
A mininova clone? O_O
“but they are slowly running out of alternatives.”
This is not true, there are hundreds of ISPs that would host BitTorrent sites, even in the US. They are slowly running out of already treaded “safe” territory…
[quote]This is not true, there are hundreds of ISPs that would host BitTorrent sites, even in the US. They are slowly running out of already treaded “safe” territory…[/quote]
American hosting for file sharing isn’t a good idea.
Great news, now all you socialists will have to pay for your “music”!
Interesting that Mininova (who are reputed to be trying to do deals to keep going) haven’t been hit, yet they are on the next floor to LeaseWeb. I wonder if Dutch pirates are ok, yet foreign pirates aren’t. I also wonder who in the Dutch government/BREIN is on the take?
Sweden isn’t an option, barely a year ago the police kicked in TPB’s door and snatched their servers. Despite all the bluster, TPB haven’t had the matter dropped or sued anyone over that. I reckon PRQ’s lifespan can be measured in weeks if not days.
As for relatively safe havens, one door closes and another opens. Singapore, the UK, Norway, Mexico, Brazil, India. The world’s a very big place and not everyone is as responsive to American bullying as they were once thought to be.
Time for people to get a little creative and stop putting all their eggs in the same basket
[quote comment="221389"]As for relatively safe havens, one door closes and another opens. Singapore, the UK, Norway, Mexico, Brazil, India. The world’s a very big place and not everyone is as responsive to American bullying as they were once thought to be.[/quote]
Brazil isn’t a good option for big torrent sites
maybe Poland ?
Noone did ever take-down torrent site here yet.
There was one raid on 3 sites, that’ve been makin’ translation texts for movies, but it was not connected by anyway with any-kind-torrent.
how can they force this if its not even illigal to their laws????
The sites can take legal action for it, and if they ganged up their ods would increase alot!
however only TPB seem to be willing to fight for the cause..
What about Romania? I haven’t heard of any trouble there and there are a few private sites there already.
we need to dig up some shit on BREIN…
[quote comment="221435"]we need to dig up some shit on BREIN…[/quote]
QFT.
I’m all up for blackmailing.
[quote comment="221352"][quote comment="221336"]As long as ThePirateBay and MiniNova lives on, I’m not worried. The day they die, the p2p community is in serious trouble.[/quote]
mininova doesnt have a tracker[/quote]
LoL
Torrentspy have tracker ?
they are not looking what a torrent site have, they just want to close ;)
torrentspy is same like mininova, the thing is, mininova is family ssafe site and torrentspy is full of crap/XxX. that’s why they are trying to close it!
The difference between torrentspy and mininova is that torrentspy adds most of the torrents automaticly by searching through other trackers while on mininova a user most upload the torrent.
[quote comment="221413"]maybe Poland ?
Noone did ever take-down torrent site here yet.[/quote]
http://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-university-dismantle-p2p-network/
[quote comment="221432"]What about Romania? I haven’t heard of any trouble there and there are a few private sites there already.[/quote]
http://torrentfreak.com/torrentbitsro-raided-by-the-romanian-police/
[quote comment="221309"]This European ISP has crumbled before the threats of the global (ie American) record industry, even though the target of mere torrents is completely legal, and it is the act of targeting it and forcefully oppressing it which is illegal.
Is this all so surprising? While there is any _possible_ moral precedent for the global content control industry to legally suppress all torrent sites on the planet they will - and there IS a moral precedent: that the content is being taken by people who do not pay for it. Theft is occurring.
It does not matter that binary choices are literally to screw or be screwed, to steal vast amounts of money from the content controllers or to let them steal vast amounts from you; nor does it matter that a middle ground should be found.
Either way, EMI steals from you ($1 for the CD, $1 for the artist, $1 for the behind-the-scenes guys, and $16 because we can, and you can’t stop us); or else you steal from EMI (”huh, I wonder if I like these 70 albums; I guess I’ll check them all out, and buy the ones I like).[/quote]
I don’t see how you can say EMI is stealing when people buy CDs of their own free will. If it’s too expensive yro you don’t want to line EMI or someone elses pockets, you have the option not to buy. High prices, however, do not confer the right to steal.
Yes, good point; all statements are made in the context of specific parameters.
My parameter here was that “the binary choices (, for those who like music, and would like to listen to it) are literally to screw or be screwed”.
I was also implying that, if you don’t want to “screw or be screwed”, then you can not “have”(ie have owner-level, listen whenever/however you want priviledges) any of the music cartel’s music.
The wikipedia article for I2P actually mentions some application using BitTorrent over I2P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P
I think these are using I2P for chunk transfers too which I would recommend against unless absolutely necessary because it’s far too much overhead. The .torrent files can actually carry some key or certificate which could be used to encrypt the chunk transfers between peers, so that nobody who does not have the .torrent file, could figure out what you are actually transferring. Finding all .torrent files out there and keeping track of them would not scale well.
Another disadvantage of few popular BitTorrent sites and trackers is also that they are easy to control with a relatively short list of IP address or domains. So even if everything is encrypted, ISPs can still figure out easily that you are using BitTorrent unless anonymization comes into play, too.
Damn the BitTorrent community is going down. Legal threats,a and shit like BREIN keep striking and striking. It will not be long…before the USERS of BitTorrent are targeted.
where can bt’s sites go… Sealand, the place pirate bay was trying to acquire. ^_^
Check out China, Cuba, Pakistan, India, they are more likely to take a shit on the C&D letters they get sent by the Web Sheriff
I have a random debian server lying about, anyone know a good tracker (as easy for me as possible) to set up? I’d be more than happy to do it.
Yup;
until, perhaps, the industry says “Here’s twelve million dollars; take down that site, confiscate the servers, and throw the operators in jail for the next ten years.”?
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