QuebecTorrent Clone Outmanoeuvres Music Industry

Written by enigmax on July 16, 2008 

Just days after the QuebecTorrent BitTorrent tracker was taken down by an injunction in a blaze of publicity, a near identical clone of the 108,000+ member tracker has appeared out of nowhere. Allegedly the product of the old team, Torrent411.com is up and running with 109,000+ members – and counting.

Last week we reported on the final chapter of the QuebecTorrent story. After a long legal battle against 31 Canadian media organizations, the administrator decided that rather than fight and lose, it would be better not to mount a defense at all. After receiving a permanent injunction ordering the closure of the site, QuebecTorrent closed its doors for the last time having amassed an impressive 108,805 members.

Many people are drawn to BitTorrent news as it can be both exciting, confusing, intriguing and amazing all at the same time. Today we can report on a story which has all of these elements.

Seemingly out of nowhere appears Torrent411.com. Dubbed “The Torrent Yellow Pages”, this site will have the Canadian recording industry – ADISQ and CRIA et al – tearing out its hair out today. Hosted in Malaysia, from a standing start it already has 109,006 members, which is a couple hundred more than QuebecTorrent.

In fact, all of the QuebecTorrent user accounts have been transferred there – plus all the ratio stats and pretty much everything else. Adding insult to injury, categories that were removed on QuebecTorrent in a failed attempt to avoid legal action in Canada, have now returned. “No censoring blacklists will be tolerated on the site!” claim the Torrent411 admins.

Torrent411

It’s hard to imagine a bigger kick in the teeth for the media industry than this. A notice on the homepage reads:

Welcome to one and all! It is with great pleasure that we launch the Torrent411.com site today. All the team of Torrent411.com wishes you the most cordial of welcomes! Here you will find all the torrents imaginable which will be for you for thousands ofÂ’ hours to come! Filled with surprises that await you!

Of course, Sebastien Brûlotte, aka ‘Doditz’ the ex-administrator of QuebecTorrent, is abiding by the terms of his injunction to the letter. He assured us that he had no part in the creation of the new site and this is backed up the admin team at Torrent411: “All the members of theÂ’ team behind QuebecTorrent.com were preserved, except for late Doditz, our old Admin, who by court order could not join us.”

One area where the sites aren’t quite identical is the number of peers currently being tracked. Of course, to comply with the injunction QuebecTorrent is currently tracking zero peers but already there are instructions on Torrent411’s homepage to get the site’s old torrents working – either a simple edit of the .torrent file’s ‘announce url’ to match the format on Torrent411 – or users can simply re-download matching torrents from the site and use those instead.

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Next: YouTorrent Relaunches with 67,170 Legal Torrents

51 Responses

1 Jul 16, 2008 at 11:31 by Louis

Just give it up.

2 Jul 16, 2008 at 11:33 by Kwl

Hehe. That’s classic.

3 Jul 16, 2008 at 11:41 by Mark

Torrents are a joke… the industry is one big school yard bully there not looking for a way to use this to there killing it off…. when other parts of the industry thank the pirates this is a joke give up

4 Jul 16, 2008 at 11:47 by www.eZee.se

The coming of hydra baby!!!

Good job Torrent411.com, kick their ass, we are right behind ya!

5 Jul 16, 2008 at 12:33 by TonInter

The music industry is getting their asses owned by them ‘nasty’ pirates. =D

6 Jul 16, 2008 at 12:35 by Ernesto

funny >.>

7 Jul 16, 2008 at 12:46 by the.dwarfer

FUCK THE RIAA!
FUCK THE MPAA!
FUCK THE CRIA!

P2P WILL NEVER DIE!

LONG LIVE THE HYDRA!

8 Jul 16, 2008 at 12:55 by Sharky

Man you’re quick. I was just about to tell you about this site. Good work.

9 Jul 16, 2008 at 13:39 by steveballmer

Torrents are for criminals! We will catch and prosecute all of you freaks!

10 Jul 16, 2008 at 13:50 by Anonymous

This is god damn brilliant! Great news, great story…

11 Jul 16, 2008 at 14:49 by lulz

lol *sniff sniff*… oh whats that I smell..?

PWNT TOAST.

That was a real good job you did there mafiaa.. you managed to put 1 admin out of the game.

@9 – Steveballmer

Your blog is boring and stupid, learn how to do something constructive with your time instead of polluting the internet, moron.

12 Jul 16, 2008 at 14:52 by omg..

omg dudes look at all the trolls in here saying shit like Torrents are a joke and were going to catch you..

they are seriously pissed about this..

haha you know you won when they are so mad they actually post comments on TF.

try harder noobs..

13 Jul 16, 2008 at 15:17 by Aemony

The music industry just got owned!

14 Jul 16, 2008 at 15:30 by Nick

I agree with No.7, Screw them there going to lose, How can you stop sharing, Your going to stop the village pirate who sells them to village people? PIRACY IS A COMMUNITY like a village but rather bigger than a village a big VILLAGE

15 Jul 16, 2008 at 15:36 by Anonymous

Excellent work :D

16 Jul 16, 2008 at 15:54 by the.dwarfer

http://www.b3tards.com/u/e4a330e3e27aa99ebb20/mpaaprop.jpg

17 Jul 16, 2008 at 16:40 by Cal!more

Nothing more to say than:

ROFL… nice one!!! :D

18 Jul 16, 2008 at 16:44 by HAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

19 Jul 16, 2008 at 18:07 by Kochon

lol they kept QuebecTorrent’s user database, I still have my good old account hehe ^_^

20 Jul 16, 2008 at 18:18 by Franz

This is absolutely brilliant. Anything that annoys the suits is good in my book.

I agree it must have pissed them off as the angry trolls are posting here. LOL!

21 Jul 16, 2008 at 18:21 by anonymous

What about this – http://torrentfreak.com/malaysian-government-orders-immediate-torrent-site-blackout-080627/ ?

Didn’t Malaysia take down all sites?

22 Jul 16, 2008 at 18:21 by Pistol

The “late Doditz”?

He’s dead?

23 Jul 16, 2008 at 19:25 by Crynsos

Now that’s a return! Great work guys, now I just hope your old admin doesn’t get let lonely, he doesn’t deserve it…

(Damn, transferring a full userbase to a clone index site, really nice work, has anyone ever done that before?)

24 Jul 16, 2008 at 19:59 by Crynsos

@21: Look at the last part of that article…

“Update: Contrary to comments from a site admin, sources close to the situation are saying the shutdowns are limited to a small number of sites and aren’t necessarily part of a wider crackdown, despite government involvement.”

25 Jul 16, 2008 at 20:10 by KrazY KnucK

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
F**K YOU CRIA!!!
YOU LOSE AGAIN!!!
YOU JUST GOT
PWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

26 Jul 16, 2008 at 20:37 by Anonymous

And how much time, effort, and money went into the court defense? They were lucky also to not be sued, but what’s to stop it happening all over again? Nothing. All it takes is a threat, followed by a court application. Judges and lawyers are getting fat and bloated on all these cases. Or will they settle out of court next time? Cause they sure won’t drop the suit next time. And as they said, they will go after more torrent sites if this doesn’t dissuade, and they are guaranteed to win with biased authorities backing them.

27 Jul 16, 2008 at 20:39 by Anonymous

As long as no courts are ruling torrent sites ok, the cartels will continue their rabid rampage

28 Jul 16, 2008 at 20:59 by TorrentLove

Another site managed to escape, brilliant :) Plus not counting the hundreds of other private sites out there.

29 Jul 16, 2008 at 21:15 by Rekrul

“The “late Doditz”?

He’s dead?”

Sebastien (AKA Doditz) is alive and well. “Doditz” the online persona, is “dead”.

30 Jul 16, 2008 at 22:30 by yuriythebest

Sebastien (AKA Doditz) is alive and well. “Doditz” the online persona, is “dead”.

that or he was publicly hung by the MPAA after they accused him of witchcraft and heresy. The MPAA then went off to burn some houses and eat goat

31 Jul 16, 2008 at 22:40 by Doditz

I am not dead on the internet i have other site i run like free hosting images imasgesqc.com or my hosting cie dream-concept.com and i have others

im out of the p2p community after i did all i could for it

its sad but i sleep better now
thanks again to everyone that supported us in anyway :)

32 Jul 16, 2008 at 22:41 by Borat

Great success!

33 Jul 16, 2008 at 23:21 by Anonymous

> “im out of the p2p community after i did all i could for it”

We understand completely, thanks for all you’ve done and even more thanks for allowing others to continue that on :)

34 Jul 16, 2008 at 23:25 by braindrain

Its funny they can bully and pick on a handfull of people however they can not bully backup files…
Hope it was worth it to bully some people in the nation where you can abuse ones lobby powers to such extremes.
Bad PR is always good…
HYDRA POWAAAA

35 Jul 16, 2008 at 23:37 by Vociferous

Congratulations CRIA you have been TPB’ed :)

All your music are belongs to us?

so many quotes….

36 Jul 16, 2008 at 23:41 by gillbates

@11
Your comment is boring and stupid, learn how to do something constructive with your time instead of polluting the internet, moron.

37 Jul 17, 2008 at 01:01 by Anonymous

piracy forever

38 Jul 17, 2008 at 01:57 by KIMP

Cant access
http://www.torrent411.com

39 Jul 17, 2008 at 02:02 by prospective new member

so do i figure it right that -since the CRIAA the canadian recording industry ass. of America. wanted that side closed so badly- that this one is a community that is worth to try to become a member?
They have all the latest industry crap for free?
Cool then!

Thank you again CRIAA for another “editorial suggestion” where to consume your crappy product without it having interrupted with commercials for even crappier products or ahving the fade in and out of a song ruined by ultra crappy Radiostation personel!

One suggestion though, next time can’t you make your editorial recommendations without wasting so many taxpayers dollars as collateral damage jsut to get the word out.
When you just release some simple pdf file that tells the public the URL of the place where it should go that would be much cheaper then staging big legal procedings where taxpayers must pay court personel and all that just that you can advertise the places.

Look at MPAA: They know how to do it!
Just some simple press release about how happy they are about a shipwreck and everyone knew where he needed to go. Even though the got the URL wrong in their pdf! :-P

40 Jul 17, 2008 at 02:12 by burton68

Hey steveballmer, you are an idiot! All torrents are not illegal. Take your head out of your ass!

41 Jul 17, 2008 at 03:16 by torrentz FTW!

nice job…way to go guys!
never give up…FCUK D MAFIAA!

42 Jul 17, 2008 at 13:45 by The Wandering Perv

Take that up your virgin asshole, l’ADISQ! We will never die for we are the people! We are humanity! We are free!!!

HAIL HYDRA!

43 Jul 17, 2008 at 23:41 by CRIA

In 2003, world wide sales of legitimate sound recordings produced by the major record companies and leading independent labels reached $32 billion US. In contrast, pirate sound recordings were estimated to account for sales of approximately $4.5 billion US. An estimated 35% of music CDs sold in 2003 were pirate products. Total sales of pirate CDs, including CD-Recordables, topped 1.7 billion units.

Canada is currently the sixth largest market for the sale of legitimately produced sound recordings in the world. In 2003, the total retail value of all legitimate sound recording sales exceeded $940 million CDN. Based on industry statistics and international comparisons CRIA estimates that sales of pirated sound recordings drains an additional $23.5 million CDN from the legitimate Canadian market.

The loss to the industry, however, is measured in more than the monetary terms. Lost sales for record companies result in lower revenue and consequently lower investment in new Canadian recording artists and music. It is estimated in the recording industry that only 1 in 10 new releases actually generates revenue. It is the revenue from this small portion of new releases that allows for investment in new talent.

Sales of pirated sound recordings contribute nothing to Canada’s cultural industries. Manufacturers and distributors of pirate recordings focus only on commercially successful recordings. The manufacturers and distributors of pirate recordings do not develop talent or pay royalties to performers and composers. Often sales taxes are not paid by the vendors or the distributors of pirate recordings. Consumers will ultimately be the victims of piracy as the lost sales translate to less investment, fewer new artists and reduced choice of music.

44 Jul 17, 2008 at 23:43 by Marc

Yeah, all members received an e-mail giving the new name and address of the site, now hosted in Malaysia without restrictions on the material posted (I don’t think they allow porn though, that doesn’t bother me). Up and running right now, it was good news for users of this active site. Don’t stop ’til you get enough.

45 Jul 18, 2008 at 00:21 by Anonymous

I lol’d

46 Jul 18, 2008 at 03:07 by Norm

at 43:

You are obviously out of touch with the modern world. I am a musician, and I give my music away for free. My music is too strange for a record company to take a risk, but thanks to the internet, I get more exposure. I am able to play live shows and I get payed well for them. If it weren’t for torrent sites, which I use to distribute my music, me and other experimental artists would not be heard by most people. Reduced choice of music? Bullshit. If we reduce the barriers to obtaining music, people will discover music they would not usually listen to. Increased piracy can only make music better. It’s when record companies dominate the media and dictate radio playlists with tired tracks from mainstream artists that music suffers.

47 Jul 18, 2008 at 05:22 by Anonymous

Badass move. And all they did was spread it’s name even further

48 Jul 18, 2008 at 10:05 by Anonymous

A big problem is that CRIA keeps on their propaganda influencing court results and having superior resources, whereas the file-sharers have almost no avenue to get their message out, and get the support from fellow file-sharers or supporters or possibly financial help, putting them at a severe disadvantage to the CRIA.

49 Jul 20, 2008 at 20:29 by Anonymous

im sure you get message all the time,so im hopeing you might read this one,are you aware of the problem with isp at the moment,im sure you are, if on a torrent site a film was upload like this,Batman as the tiltle which becomes the folder then within the downloaded folder the film Batman.avi.
is there not a way to advertise on the site the title of the film,but the dowload folder would state B and within that folder B.avi. that way once download was finshed we could rename the folder and avi,this way isp could only see the file size downloaded but could not prove what it is,as torrent clients are not ilegal its the contents which we might download which could be

50 Aug 07, 2008 at 20:33 by Anonymous

thats why they put a encryption protocole in bittorrent client so ISP cant sniff what you are sharing

just use it :)

51 Jan 30, 2009 at 03:23 by Mike

LaughingOutLoud (spelled for you illiterate baboons.)

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