TaffyBox Shut Down by BTjunkie for Leeching Resources
Written by Ernesto on October 26, 2009The new torrent search engine TaffyBox took the web by storm during the last couple of days, offering a newbie-proof download service. The site was featured by TechCrunch and several other sites, but just a few hours later it is no longer operational. BTjunkie cut it off since it was stealing resources without permission.
TaffyBox is a torrent search engine that allows its users to download torrents directly through a Java applet in their web browser, instead of a regular BitTorrent client. The idea is not entirely new, as Vertor and a couple of other sites also offer a direct download using Bitlet’s Java applet, but nevertheless the site received a fair share of news coverage after it appeared on TechCrunch.
This level of coverage is a great accomplishment for a new torrent site, but the fun didn’t last very long. Those who took a closer look at the site could easily see that TaffyBox was simply using the resources of another torrent site, BTjunkie, without informing the site’s founder.
Needless to say, the BTjunkie team was not amused when they found out and they responded by preventing TaffyBox from accessing the site’s backend. As a result, the newly launched site no longer functions.
“Sites like TaffyBox drain costly resources without putting into the pot. Most sites that utilize our backend reciprocate and when they don’t we ban them,” the founder of BTjunkie told TorrentFreak. “He just ripped off the site and stripped the ads,” he added.
Whoops!
The disconnection which rendered TaffyBox useless didn’t go unnoticed by Jake who runs the site. Just minutes after BTjunkie disallowed the newcomer from using their resources he offered to link back to BTjunkie, but unfortunately for him that is not enough to earn a reprieve.
BTjunkie’s founder explained to TorrentFreak that those who want to use the search have to link to the site’s download page instead of hotlinking the torrents. “You would think the least he would do is put some reference to BTjunkie, not wait until I cut him off and offer to add one link,” he added.
What happened to TaffyBox is probably a good lesson for all the people that want to use existing torrent indexers to create their own torrent search engine. Sites like BTjunkie don’t see any problems in sharing some of their resources, as long as they get something in return. After all, BitTorrent is all about reciprocity.
Update: TaffyBox switched to The Pirate Day and seems to be working again.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: Sony CEO Pleads Poverty But The Movie Industry is Loaded
95 Responses
copyright infringement =(
Well, thats what you get.
gave me a chuckle good story.
Stealing resources is NOT nice!!
Just you wait until Reasoned Tard and neo-tard hear about this!!!!! :O
I am currently busy raping my little sister, but as soon as I am done with her, I will gladly comment on, ah -whatever.
Hahaha, that’s brilliant!
Way to go – too many free-riders lately.
Pirates getting upset when their work is stolen? I never would have thunk!
LoL…Pirates will be Pirates after all…
Aint gettin caught a bitch..LMAO
@7
You probably cannot read or something?
What BTJunkie has to do with pirates?
Fed the idea is that we all share, not only me or you.
Sharing is not stealing, but this guy just stole :) that other’s guy bandwidth.
Sharing is caring!
Arrrrr!!!
nice move btjunkie.
people should learn to behave and share first.
total respect.
Taffybox.com will be back soon :)
@9 You arent seriously asking that are you?, and if you are, would you like the short or the long list?
@10
Your statement contradicts itself, you have pretty much the facts correct but it’s your summery that is contradictory..
Taffy figured they could pirate some bandwidth from BTjunkie, where files, uhhh… OMG, perhaps even “pirated” files are listed..
Gimmie a break, it doesnt take a professor to make the connection here…
now that we know . it cost a lot to run a torrent search
@13
My point being that torrent indexers have nothing to do with pirates. As Google has nothing to do with pirates, while having “filetype:torrent” option.
See http://www.thepirategoogle.com/
And yes, totally biased opinion here. After all, I happen to run torrent indexer too. :)
@12
EPIC FAEL. Especially after getting PR boost. :-)
Stealing other sites’ resources is bad.
Double standards..!!
Ask what sony feel like when btjinkie link to their stolen ‘rescources’.
Maybe a call to Brein/RIAA would help em out.
> Ask what sony feel like when btjinkie link to their stolen ‘rescources’.
Yeah, they are really hurt by 0.000001% revenue loss.
Maybe Sony CEO even will have to eat one spoon of black caviar less. O, the horror!
@18
lmao…the point still stands though, they belong to sony.
@15 – I know you do Pavel, and I still owe you a reply on the boards, my apologies for the delay, I will get to it soon..
As for the “Indexing” defense…
According to the “Anti-pirates” anybody even remotely associated with P2P is infact a pirate, us “Pirates” of course do not agree but the least we can do is accept the label for what it represents, a movement towards change…
Dont deny what you are, simply deny that it is wrong to be…Yes You have labled me a Pirate, then that is what I am..
Now, LoL, Taffy might be a bit daffy of a Pirate, I really dont understand how they imagined they could get away with it?…Was it “No one will notice?” because tthat never works, someone always notices… LoL
@19
You’ve missed the point a bit methinks.
What was stolen from BTJ is a service – which is expressed for BTJ in bandwidth, CPU load, HDD load, RAM load. Time of admins trying to figure out increased servers load etc.
What is “stolen” from Sony is immaterial – a concept of “property” on bits and bytes.
If i could copy a car or a house and give it to you.. I would..
fact is i cant.. but until then we can trade information.
@20
Damn you, you’re breaking the rules of spin doctoring! :)
See, “pirate” is a label (attached by corporate spin doctors) – it is inherently associated with criminal activity. Sweaty drunk guy in bandana with one eye, wooden leg and assorted collection of blades and firearms. Bad image. Personally I’m against using it in relation to P2P.
Let’s be “believers in open information” (BOIs), shall we? Or “open-minded internet users” (OIUs). Or “progressive information sharers” (PISs). :-)
LMAO, I’ll pass on the PISs…
No, Im keeping Pirate, has a nice ring to it…LoL
Pirates are pirates and they even have a boat… where’s the damn parrot!! arghhhhhhh
Now on topic :
What was on his mind…?
Oh the cognitive dissonance of it all. Yeah the use of the word “pirate” is a bit of spin-doctoring, but so is the use of the word “sharing”.
Why not just admit what it is? It’s copying. If it was the only way anyone got their movies/tv shows/music, then the stuff wouldn’t get made because there’d be no money in it. You can spin it all you like, but it isn’t some noble act of enlightened internet philanthropy, you know it’s dodgy.
Im happy to be called a pirate, after all, arnt pirates the new nigg*rs?
http://ezee.se/articles-blog/2008/07/11/pirates-the-new-niggers/
Why even consider it piracy – it’s avoiding the taxes others pay who aren’t smart or motivated enough to use p2p etc
so – they were stealing from a site whose main purpose is to facilitate others to steal?
Laughable self-righteousness by BTJunkie.
it’s like your neighbor using your water for his lawn your gonna notice the hose in your backyard lol
I wish NZB sites would shut out freeloaders like AltBinz, a *payware* newsreader client that sucks from the backends of a half-dozen different NZB search engines.
@29 – Let’s use your logic.
So – P2P users “steal” from media corporations whose main purpose is facilitating tax evasion, offshore banking and money laundering.
Laughable self-righteousness by RIAA.
(Historical) Pirates were the first to have the closest thing to a democracy back then.
Except for the captain (elected or otherwise) everyone gets the same share AND no different treatment by race (black, white, indian) while the US had slaves and later limited rights for blacks until well in the 20th century. (If women were equal not sure, seen a program about it a long time ago).
So being called a pirate might not even be all that bad.
Retain the original elements including animations, music, flash for PowerPoint to video conversion PowerPoint Video Converter
so, he got mad because he didn’t receive “something in return”.
didn’t piratebay got caught for something like this
so, he got mad because he didn’t receive “something in return”.
didn’t piratebay got caught for something like this
Oh dear lord, look at all the bleeding hearts crying havoc on someone who tried to ruin the filesharing community by stealing from another person. See here’s the whole reason most of you are twits, most of you don’t understand the word SEED and just leech whatever comes out of your favorite website. The rest of us understand what it means to give back once we download, whether to the author, to the site or to each other. Stop defending these idiots! They got caught sticking their hand in the filesharing cookie jar and got caught not putting a brownie back inside. Now their hands are cut off. Boohoo, puhlease!
“The rest of us understand what it means to give back once we download”
Ah, so it’s okay to steal, I mean copy, I mean SHARE, other people’s work if you “share” it with others also. You really can’t take the moral high ground and complain about leechers when the entire filesharing concept is leeching from the content producers in the first place.
Yes in order to take, you have to give back.
Also see here:
kind of in reverse on this one, imitator suing creator here:
I need your help. My original art has been copied by a manufacturer who is now suing me in federal court to overturn my existing copyrights and continue making knockoffs. I have a strong case, a great lawyer and believe that if I can continue to defend myself, the case will be resolved in my favor. If I run out of funds before we reach trial, a default judgment would be issued against me and could put me out of business. I don’t believe my opponent can win this case in court and I don’t believe he really intends to try. I believe his goal is to use strong-arm litigation tactics to force me to keep spending money or risk losing my copyrights — not by true adjudication, but by default if he is able to outspend me.
Imitator Sues Me to Overturn Copyrights: Please Help Defend My Art: John T Unger Artist’s Portfolio http://retwt.me/1wn2B (via @copyblogger)
http://www.johntunger.com/legal-defense-fund.html
“If it was the only way anyone got their movies/tv shows/music, then the stuff wouldn’t get made because there’d be no money in it. You can spin it all you like, but it isn’t some noble act of enlightened internet philanthropy, you know it’s dodgy.”
Now do you really believe nobody would make any movies, TV shows, or music AT ALL?
Apparently, btjunkie cut off too much. I am no longer able to download torrents as of today.
No, but seriously, all I get is “Invalid Torrent File!”
Any ideas what could cause this?
BTW: I’ve tried many different torrents, all verified.
EH
Well, it’s working now, never mind.
Must have been a coincidence all the ones I tried were invalid.
Ha Ha Bad Taffybox. I think the old saying is ask and ye shall receive. I bet they won’t get any help now from BTJ. I would be P*ssed to if I went out to my backyard and see some giant power cable hooked to my powerbox running to the next door neighbors. I wouldn’t be helping them at all then….
When I use sites like TorrentSnoop, I see no link to Btjunkie or any other site either. The difference is?
I prefer searches that do take me to the page. Then I can read the comments and check the flags!
@20Xcel
“According to the “Anti-pirates” anybody even remotely associated with P2P is infact a pirate, us “Pirates” of course do not agree but the least we can do is accept the label for what it represents, a movement towards change…
Dont deny what you are, simply deny that it is wrong to be…Yes You have labled me a Pirate, then that is what I am..”
So if someone “labeled” you a child molester, you would just accept the label?
I’m a “file-sharer”, not a “pirate”. I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept being called something I’m not. Asshole.
Taffybox broke the “Pirates’ Honour”
Kudos to those who run a REAL tracker instead of just an ad-infested search engine.
@ 5 Oct 27, 2009 at 01:04 by Reasoned Mind
you are a disgusting piece of human(?) excrement, i have absolutely no idea why the Mods have not removed your post, bad enough you insult reasoned with your moronic piece of impersonation (he atleast is civil and educated) but to use rape as a means of jest is beneath contempt..
How flipping ironic. Seems like even the piracy-supporting kiddies who are into bit-torrent don’t like it when people steal their stuff.
Oh I bet the irony is lost on them. people stupid enough to think piracy doesn’t hurt businesses will rationalise any actions, regardless how stupid.
Lmao get owned.
I will not comment on this because I didn’t understand why all the fuzz.
Taffy used hot links? so what?
The other side loose some exposure? so what?
People are going directly to the download links? so what?
What was that they loose?
My gut feeling is that BTJunky is in the wrong but until I can understand what the matter is I can’t really tell.
@ 48 Oct 27, 2009 at 13:24 by meh
Reasoned Mind “is civil and educated”, lol.
He’s a paid troll that churns out factually incorrect crap and refuses to engage with anyone who challenges him on it.
I also suspect he is now posting using different names due to most people ignoring him as a result of his uneducated posts and uncivil refusal to engage in a constructive way.
As a last thought are you Reasoned Mind?
If BTJunky don’t wanna I’m sure there is tones off other sites that offer RSS feeds.
Use miro and create channels for your downloads.
Here is a tutorial on how to do it the use the old RSSTV but it works with any RSS feed, people just have to learn how to copy and paste RSS feeds. It could even be more simple than that because still is not a one click solution but one day folks one day it will be LoL
c’mon, Taffy and Junky babes, stop bitching, make a deal and have a beer afterwards…
Lame idea.
#49 Mike Kent,
It’s not the same thing. But I guess informing yourself is not part of your job description.
If you cripple Fox’s website by using much of their bandwidth, then you would be effecting FOX negatively in some way.
However, if you share a TV show with me, how does that effect FOX in any way shape or form?
It doesn’t. You can make up incredible stories and get behind some carefully constructed and misleading charts about how it somehow magically takes money from them, but then you’d be full of it.
This is my Tivo, and you are terrified, for some reason. I pay for HD cable service, so what do you think about that?
You are fighting to remove rights from yourself. Even if you’re getting paid for spreading misinformation, you’re still a tool.
I genuinely don’t understand the rationale behind this story. Recorded music and movies have been the backbone resource for artist revenue since recording and movie making began. Now pirates just take it without payment or conscience because they can.
But you have a problem when it’s pirating resources being taken? Are you serious?
We appreciate stories like this one, TF. It’s always gratifying when the institutionalized hypocritical bullshit of digital piracy reveals itself once again.
wOW thats pretty sad dude. Give them a break!
Jes
http://www.anonymous.ua.tc
@ 57 Oct 27, 2009 at 15:40 by Reasoned Mind
Thanks for proving my point, and you wonder why you get abuse from people and why you will never change a thing.
Also who’s the “we” in “We appreciate stories like this one” will you finally admit who you work for? I bet you won’t!
“It’s always gratifying when the institutionalized hypocritical bullshit of” the media companies “reveals itself once again.”
52 Oct 27, 2009 at 14:28 by nnsa
@ 48 Oct 27, 2009 at 13:24 by meh
Reasoned Mind “is civil and educated”, lol.
He’s a paid troll that churns out factually incorrect crap and refuses to engage with anyone who challenges him on it.
I also suspect he is now posting using different names due to most people ignoring him as a result of his uneducated posts and uncivil refusal to engage in a constructive way.
As a last thought are you Reasoned Mind?
no just a reasoned person – which seems to be beyond you
@
46 Oct 27, 2009 at 10:27 by Lothor The Evil..
“”So if someone “labeled” you a child molester, you would just accept the label?
I’m a “file-sharer”, not a “pirate”. I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept being called something I’m not. Asshole.”"
Get a grip “Lothor” obviously you’re a P*ssy, and very much in “denial” you hide behind a weak meaningless excuse to justify your actions because you believe it really is wrong on a subconscious level…
Me Personally, I do not for one minute believe “Filesharing” is wrong at all, I have accepted the title “Pirate” because thats what they (the man) have labeled me…
The only real way to create any sort of change is to face these people on their own terms, eg: through courts and government channels, so to this end I have joined my countries “Pirate Party” (in case you’re a little slow I will spell it out for you) That would make me indeed a “Pirate”…
They will not respond well at all to childish retaliation, eg “Im just going to stop paying for everything and download all i can”
That Bullshit does absolutley nothing at all but give them fuel to burn…No, to be heard, to make a difference towards getting these idiotic laws changed you have to meet these people on their own ground, because thats what they *understand*
Unfortunately I am doing this even for morons like you, who would immediately start throwing insults around without even a small hope of understanding the larger issues..
Just keep hiding behind your false security blanket, me and other Pirates(world wide) are working so that you will eventually be all safe and sound in your delerium….
Looks like they are live again!
@ 61 Oct 27, 2009 at 16:25 by Xcel
“so to this end I have joined my countries “Pirate Party” (in case you’re a little slow I will spell it out for you) That would make me indeed a “Pirate”…”
so…if you joined an Ann Summers party would that make you Ann Summers?
@39 – Franchesca Battista
Don’t you think that you are in the wrong forum to ask for copyright support?
If you want people here to love and support your art and your struggle against this organisation that’s trying to rip you off…. Then make it available on filesharing sites or give it away for free on your own site.
Then the company that’s causing you trouble has to compete on impossible conditions: Paid and legal vs Free and legal.
Then come back here and tell us about it and you will win peoples respect and support.
yep, it’s on.
eh, forget just reciprocity – take them to a page before they click torrent download because otherwise you could be linking directly to a bad torrent with a trojan.
that’s the problem with taffybox.
Honour amongst thieves? NOT.
@ 60 Oct 27, 2009 at 16:21 by meh
“no just a reasoned person – which seems to be beyond you”
I simply point out facts which is not unreasonable, would you like to explain what you think is wrong with that and why I’m unreasoned?
Anyway nice try Reasoned Mind, but please go spam elsewhere.
File sharers fight a lot. Face it guys, we’re just a bunch of immature thieves :(
Have you seen the comments on BTJunkie lately? It’s worse than YouTube and IMDB message boards combined.
The strange thing is that the people that are yelling and screaming are the same ones with the hippie “share, man” attitude. I like file-sharing but file sharers are a bunch of wankers. See? Now you got me doing it!
TaffyBox works fine for me..
@69; Nah, filesharers is a large group of people. You can’t say something about them all.
@ 68 Oct 27, 2009 at 19:09 by nnsa
“I simply point out facts which is not unreasonable” only in your tiny mind mate – you would’nt know a fact if it bit your arse
here’s a FACT i’m NOT reasoned mind
and as for spam ..have you read YOUR posts
It’s true. meh is NOT Reasoned Mind. I am.
And nnsa seems an underprivileged, drug addled teen.
edit – The Pirate Day
should be The Pirate Bay
No!!! I’m Reasoned Mind
No you are not, meh
I’m \\neo.styles|DX
Hah! bet you didn’t see that comming!
@57 Yeah it’s funny how it’s OK to Steal, er pirate, er share, until someone else, re shares, er steals er pirates YOUR stuff hilarious
Meh! Reasoned!
That’s enough out of you two cretins! This is your dad typing from downstairs. It’s WAY past your bedtime, so get to bed, before I pull out my paddle and rubber gloves!
@ 72 Oct 27, 2009 at 19:56 by meh
“I simply point out facts which is not unreasonable” only in your tiny mind mate – you would’nt know a fact if it bit your arse”
1st I’m not your mate.
2nd facts that are backed up by the Torrent Freak archives, try reading them sometime.
“here’s a FACT i’m NOT reasoned mind”
Yeh right!
Whilst I can back up what I’m saying, you fail to do so even when challenged (typical Reasoned Mind behaviour), you would rather resort to childish comments e.g.
“only in your tiny mind mate”
&
“and as for spam ..have you read YOUR posts”
yet you claim to be a “reasoned person” I think idiot if more fitting.
Oh daddy please dont hurt me inside again. My bottoms only just stopped bleeding…
i would’nt bother reasoned, this recreant, subdolous, benighted, feist just wont get it – ever -
he reminds me of a budgie that perpetually fights with its own mirror
Well, aren’t they just the hypocrite. That is exactly what btshitty does to other torrent sites, ravaging their resources.
So btjunkie is providing a public service and they are bitching when another public service is using btjunkie’s public service?
I dont seem to understand this,do you not want people to use your service btjunkie?
What about other sites that add btjunkies tracker to their torrents? Are you going to be pissed at that too?
Its the internet people use shit
80 Oct 27, 2009 at 21:31 by Meh
81 Oct 27, 2009 at 21:56 by meh
And again back up what you say or STFU and seriously grow up, comments like
“nnsa seems an underprivileged, drug addled teen”
“Oh daddy please dont hurt me inside again. My bottoms only just stopped bleeding…”
“i would’nt bother reasoned, this recreant, subdolous, benighted, feist just wont get it – ever -
he reminds me of a budgie that perpetually fights with its own mirror”
Only go to prove you’re a sad pathetic immature individual that’s unable to sting together a lucid, factually correct, civil argument, which was my original point.
This has nothing to do with “Sharing is caring”.
This has something to do with the fact that the fucking stupid guy at taffycrap used BTJunkie’s server/bandwidth.
@83
Get a grip.
Tuffy thing basically took BTJ search pages, ripped ads off and presented as their “own” search.
I wonder, whose search are they ripping now?
@ nnsa
you really are a 1st class halfwit, cant you see they’re baiting you?
“Only go to prove you’re a sad pathetic immature individual that’s unable to sting together a lucid, factually correct, civil argument, which was my original point.”
dear god the irony
stick to your xbox and leave the grown ups to talk
lol, stealing from stealers:D
Both TaffyBox (which is now working) and BTJunkie must be permanently shut down because they host torrents of shareware software and games, offered for free download.
@Torrentfreak:
I’VE WASTED 3 HOURS SEARCHING FOR “THE PIRATE DAY” YOU IDIOTS !!
http://www.taffybox.com/
is up and workin
“BitTorrent is all about reciprocity”
It is?, what are the Movie Studios, Record Companies and software companies getting out of this reciprocity?
F**k All . and I’m pretty sure that the billion-to-one chance that downloading a movie/album might encourage you to pay for the product after sampling it, is not considered a fair reciprocal return.
Come on people, lets gets delude ourselves, we download shit for free ‘cos we can. We know it’s stealing, we know it is depriving the content creators of revenue, but we are certainly not oing to pay for something when 2 clicks of mouse means we don’t have to.
Hey guys, do you like dating with a cougar? Or are you a cougar yourself? Okay, no matter you are looking for a NSA, FWB or serious relationship. You’ll want to check this out:
**== Matchcougar.C-o-m ==**
So I see the site is up again and serving links. I wonder if they found a back way to btjunkie again.
tardbox is crap , why dont people just use google or bitsnoop?
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