Iceland’s Largest BitTorrent Tracker Shut Down
Written by Ernesto on November 27, 2007Torrent.is, the largest BitTorrent site in Iceland has been taken offline due to efforts from a coalition of anti-piracy organizations. Their request to seize all computer hardware associated with the site was rejected.
Things are heating up in Iceland as they witness the first BitTorrent related lawsuit. Torrent.is, the largest BitTorrent tracker in the country has received a preliminary injunction which has effectively shut down the popular tracker. The case was initiated by four anti-piracy organizations, who filed for the preliminary injunction earlier this month. The regional District Commissioners office granted their request last Monday.
Torrent.is had around 26,500 active users before the site was taken offline, this made it by far the largest and most famous private BitTorrent tracker in Iceland. The tracker only allowed Icelandic IPs to connect to their tracker to ensure fast connectivity between peers.
The tracker was founded in May 2005 and used TBSource , it only recently started to generate media attention, which led to its downfall. The site is owned by Istorrent ehf., which is a company established for that purpose.
Svavar Kjarrval, the head administrator of Torrent.is is determined to put up a fight as he told TorrentFreak: “I’m going to fight this as far as I possibly can. The general public seems to be on our side.”
As a result of the takedown, Snæbjörn Steingrímsson, the executive the Icelandic equivalent of the MPAA (SMAIS), received death threats and other hatemail. SMAIS is one of the four organizations that requested the takedown of Torrent.is and has been the leading war against filesharing in Iceland and it can be safely said that Mr. Steingrímsson is one of the most hated people in the country.
The war on BitTorrent is getting tougher with (upcoming) lawsuits in Canada, The Netherlands, Hungary and of course the U.S. The question that remains unanswered, however, is whether it is illegal to host, or even link to .torrent files that point to copyrighted material. There is no reason for BitTorrent’s popularity to wane until that’s cleared up.
Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk47)
Next: Etology Removes All BitTorrent Sites From Their Ad Network
126 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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bjork is either pissed or happy, whaddya think?
it’s nice to see the general public supporting them unlike america where they don’t seem to give a f*ck, i feel bad for the american file sharers :/
i hope they win.
Well, that is a lot of users. 26.500 out of 300.000 Icelanders on one torrent tracker.
Lol, so if im right roughly 12% of the population of Iceland are active users of the tracker.
about 10% not 12 I think
Still, 10% , that’s a pretty high number.
Enough to sway politics.
[quote comment="224654"]Still, 10% , that’s a pretty high number.
Enough to sway politics.[/quote]
revolucion! :)
[quote comment="224657"][quote comment="224654"]Still, 10% , that’s a pretty high number.
Enough to sway politics.[/quote]
revolucion! :)[/quote]
http://www.wpclipart.com/blanks/shapes/che_guevara_01.png
hey add some graphics capabilities to the comments man….or tell us how to. It’ll just be a blog then…not a news site.
it’s more like 8.83333333333333333%
[quote comment="224657"][quote comment="224654"]Still, 10% , that’s a pretty high number.
Enough to sway politics.[/quote]
revolucion! :)[/quote]
Click!!
[quote]It’ll just be a blog then…not a news site.[/quote]
This is a blog and not a news site…
This is definately interesting considering the isolation of Iceland. I think they will fight and hold their own, them scandanavian countries have that tendancy.
ouch
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
–Albert Einstein
Wow lOOk at the insanely high number of Icelanders with their local torrent fix down. I think this proves that file sharing is pretty much a staple these days no matter where you are. Instead of demonizing this sharing phenomenon, why not realize that people sharing with one another only strengthens bonds of love, friendship and trust? Why not? Becuase Corporations have no souls, no heart, they are not alive, they cannot see the wintersnows, nor feel the summer sun… they care only for their most precious…money. As in currency, which is wrong. The answer should not be to litigate, but to understand why. Ever hear of a fair market value for goods? Or convienance? Why should I buy a whole CD for one song I like? Or pay 99 cents even for ine song? P2P gives FREE advertizing, promotes community, and ultimately increases sales.
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
President Thomas Jefferson
1743—1826
here is a solution that might stop the crackdown on file sharing…
The main thing the corps are going after BT sites is that the torrent file is hosted on the server. Thought the server is not responsible for the stuff ppl put on the site, why not instead get rid of the .Torrent instead use a system like morpheus or kazaa where the files don’t actually exist but the trackers will remain and a program can find all the torrents based on ur search from the various trackers and this will pop in all the information into ur BT client instead of the .torrent file. So pretty much the program will be the middle man, and as for comments, they still can be hosted on the sites just in a way that u will see it in the program instead of the site.
~312,851 is the icelandic population accordoing to wikipedia
and if 26,500 people use this traker then the % is acctually 8.5%
26500/312851 X 100 = 8.47048
still a very large amout though.
so harsh:)
One torrentsite is attacked in Canada. One torrent site is attacked in Sweden. One ISP is attacked in Norway. One torrentsite is attacked in Iceland.
I thought it was all doom and gloom, that piracy and sharing are about to die and that the end of the free internet is nigh; and then I realized; this is just a show of force, and they are full of shit.
Allow me to pull some numbers out of my, err, hat:
1 out of 100 Canadian sites is THREATENED; 1 out of 100 Swedish sites is THREATENED; 1 out of 100 Norweigan ISPs is THREATENED. A measure to persecute end-users in France is PROPOSED.
This is the pussy (cat) side they _don’t_ want you to see; that they are a threat, but even in their most vicious, powerful, self-righteous Crusades in the history of anti-(piracy? nah…)SHARING!!!, they are able to effect only a small, even tiny fraction of their victims, and that only through intimidation!!!
I wont be surprised if leaders of anti-piracy start getting killed. In fact, I welcome it.
sharing will never die
despite scare tactics
just like the war on terror…
we will continue to fight for our freedom. we are freedom fighter
freedom lover…
screw dictatorship also known as censorship. slavery = worse then death. war = hell
knowledge= wisdom
power to rule all= corrupts everything.
If our government is corrupt and won’t support whats good for the people and won’t even support the majority, then there Must Be a civil war!
If we can get arrested for going after leaders that cheated in elections, then we must bring together a civil war before it’s too late.
once we are thrown into prison or a concentration camp We will never win the war on freedom.
Where is your fucking source, Mr TorrentTard?
[quote comment="224829"]sharing will never die
despite scare tactics
just like the war on terror…
we will continue to fight for our freedom. we are freedom fighter
freedom lover…
screw dictatorship also known as censorship. slavery = worse then death. war = hell
knowledge= wisdom
power to rule all= corrupts everything.[/quote]
I almost feel bad telling you this-but the so called American ‘War on Terror’ is really just a scheme to pump all the OIL out of Iraq-there is credible evidence to suggest that President Bush was fully aware of the September 11th attacks but did nothing to prevent them-so he could have a reason (besides the OIL) to attack Islam, Iraq in general. I do agree that if enough people protest the harsh, unrealistic Anti Sharing laws that there can be positive change, but not until their lies and hypocrisy stink to hugh heaven. Thanks to endless lobbying and HUGE campaign contributions by the MPAA & RIAA the American congress is already bought off.
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