The site slowly started to rebuild its community and is now getting millions of visitors per month again. At the same time, however, the torrent site is also drawing attention from various copyright holders.

On behalf of Sony, Warner and Universal, Italian anti-piracy group FIMI submitted a complaint against Demonoid to the Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) last month. AGCOM is a regulatory body that has the power to order website blockades without court interference, if sites are deemed to be infringing.

The labels’ complaint listed several tracks by Italian artists including Laura Pausini, Max Pezzali and Vasco Rossi, which were made available on Demonoid. However, instead of ordering blockades for these infringing works, AGCOM has now instructed ISPs to block the entire website.

As a result, Italian Internet subscribers can no longer access Demonoid.

TorrentFreak contacted Fulvio Sarzana, a lawyer specialized in Internet and copyright disputes, who told us that the scope of the preliminary injunction is too broad and disproportional.

“The order, in my opinion, is not proportional. The Court of Rome repeatedly ruled that blocking orders must be directed only at illegal content, and not the whole site,” Sarzana says.

The lawyer refers to a ruling earlier this year, where the Court of Rome recalled a blocking order against the video streaming site Filmakerz.org. The Court argued that partial blocking of a specific URL is preferred over site-wide bans, something that clearly didn’t happen with Demonoid.

“Demonoid would do well to contest the measure which appears to be illegitimate,” Sarzana notes, adding that the AGCOM procedures may be unconstitutional.

This issue has also been raised by several consumer groups who asked the court to review AGCOM’s legitimacy. Earlier this week the Court of Rome referred these complaints to the Constitutional Court. Here it will be examined whether the current procedure violates right to freedom of expression and free speech, among other things.

If AGCOM is indeed deemed to be unconstitutional there’s a good chance that all existing blockades will be lifted. In addition, Sarzana believes that the wrongfully blocked websites may then be entitled to receive compensation for the damages they suffered.

However, until a decision from the Constitutional Court arrives AGCOM will continue to operate normally. FIMI is happy with this decision as well as the new blockades against Demonoid.

“We are extremely satisfied with this new blocking order and also about the outcome of the decision from the administrative Court of Rome on the regulation,” FIMI’s Enzo Mazza tells TorrentFreak.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Just recently the tactic branched out into describing most leading pirate sites as malware havens, a claim that some described as exaggerated. However, during the past few hours a pretty big and related drama hit semi-private torrent site Demonoid.

After being off-air for 20 months after hosting trouble in Ukraine, the site relaunched this March. Former members of the site were pleased to find that their old logins worked and ever since the site has been trying to get back to its former glory. Yesterday, however, problems with third party adds provoked a harsh response from Google, one that continues today.

Those searching for Demonoid are currently warned in search listings that “This site may harm your computer” and even those who choose to ignore the warnings aren’t allowed to access the site via Google. Instead they are diverted to the following page:

Google’s advisory reports that after checking 59 pages on the site during the past 90 days, 7 pages resulted in “malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent”, something likely to worry most users.

Google goes on to report that the malicious software in question was hosted on another domain – adv-inv-net.com – and further investigation reveals that the site is the source of a huge number of problems.

According to malware analysis the Romanian-hosted domain carries 177 exploits and 2 trojans, which together have led to the infection of not only Demonoid, but more than 2,000 other sites.

Aware that Demonoid along with thousands of other sites had been blacklisted by most search engines and web browsers, Demonoid’s operators announced that all advertisements would be removed from the site until the problem could be identified.

“We run content from a lot of ad networks in our ad banners, and a lot of banners from each,” the management team said in an announcement.

“One of those banners started serving malware, so we disabled all ads until we are 100% sure of the culprit and get it removed. We are also taking the proper steps to get us out of all the blacklists.”

This latest advertising controversy comes just a week after the publication of a report which claimed that 90% of the Internet’s top 30 “pirate” sites contain malware, “potentially unwanted programs”, or items designed to deceive.

While seemingly not Demonoid’s fault in this instance, one has to question if these kinds of malware events will become more prevalent in the months to come. With entertainment industry companies scaring away advertisers, options for torrent and streaming site operators to do business with ‘up-front’ ad networks are likely to narrow, forcing them further into the arms of those who carry the kind of junk experienced in the past 24 hours.

Photo: Michael Theis

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

This changed abruptly August last year when a series of troubling events took the site offline. When it was still down after a year, many gave up hope that it would ever return.

Today, however, the site appears to have made a glorious comeback on Demonoid.ph, which the .com and .me domains are also linked to. TorrentFreak contacted the team behind the resurrection who confirmed the relaunch.

“We are running a pre-launch today,” TF was told by the admin, who added that the site could go offline again for a while if something breaks.

A message posted on the site’s homepage explains that Demonoid made some changes to the backend, and that there may be some glitches. However, several Demonoid users confirm that they are able to login using their old credentials.

“The site is now cloud based and there have been many changes to the code. As a result, you might see some weird glitches here and there. We’ll do our best to have everything working smoothly as soon as possible so please bear with us,” the Demonoid team writes.

However, the current resurrection is linked to the old domains, which suggests that it’s indeed the real thing.

Previously there were concerns that the user database may have been “compromised.” For example, last year a mysterious replacement surfaced, using a copy of the Demonoid user and torrent database. The operator of the spin-off claimed not to be related to the Demonoid owners, but he did have a copy of the site’s database.

Perhaps in the future the Demonoid team will be willing to explain a bit more about what happened over the past two years. For now, however, it appears that the comeback kid has pulled it off again.

_{Photo credit}

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The site owners put up a notice suggesting that they were planning to restore Demonoid to its former glory. This uplifting news was later confirmed in a short statement that was sent to us by the people behind the site.

“I can’t give you any specifics at the moment, but yeah, we are planning to bring the site back,” TorrentFreak was told.

This glimmer of hope got many former Demonoid users excited, and today we can report further progress as the site’s tracker is now back online.

A few hours ago http://inferno.demonoid.com:3396/announce was revived, and at the time of writing the tracker is coordinating the communication of 1.3 million people scattered across 388,321 torrent files. This means that Demonoid has instantly settled itself among the five largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet.

What appears to be new is that all these torrents are tracked by a single announce URL. Previously, Demonoid used various tracker addresses and ports for its torrents. However, several older announce URLs still work as well.

The hosting location has also changed as Demonoid have traded in their Ukrainian provider for one in Sweden.

While the above is good news for those who hold Demonoid dear, there are still plenty of uncertainties regarding the comeback. For example, it is still unknown whether Demonoid users can still use their old accounts, as the database may have been compromised.

Last year a mysterious replacement surfaced, using a copy of the Demonoid user and torrent database. The operator of the spin-off claimed not to be related to the Demonoid owners, but he did have a copy of the site’s database.

The tracker that was revived today uses Demonoid’s original .com domain, so it’s presumably backed by part of the old crew.

Time will tell whether Demonoid can make a full comeback, and what the site will look like if it does.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

This changed abruptly August last year when a series of troubled events took the site offline. When it was still down after a year, many had given up hope that it would ever return.

Today there’s a glimmer of hope to report to estranged Demonoid members, as the site is preparing for a glorious comeback. TorrentFreak contacted the Demonoid team via its demonoid.com email address where the Demonoid team confirmed the plans.

“I can’t give you any specifics at the moment, but yeah, we are planning to bring the site back,” we were told.

A follow-up request, for more details and whether the same people are behind the site, remains unanswered for now. However, a landing page on Demonoid.com and Demonoid.me brings more hope.

“We will rebuild! Coming back soon, please check back later. Thanks for your visit!,” it reads, with a Bitcoin donation option below.

It is currently unknown whether the site’s legal troubles are still ongoing.

When Demonoid had its servers taken down by Ukrainian hosting company Colocall last year local authorities explained that Interpol had requested the action as part of a criminal investigation into the site’s alleged owners in Mexico.

Months earlier Mexican authorities had carried out raids in Monterrey, the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León. Their prime target was a Demonoid operator, and one person connected to the BitTorrent tracker was subsequently imprisoned but later released.

At this point TorrentFreak is unable to confirm whether the Demonoid domains are still in the hands of the old crew. Neither do we know if the planned resurrection will be with the old user and torrent database.

Earlier this year the mysterious D2.vu site launched using a copy of the Demonoid user and torrent database. The operator of the spin-off claimed not to be related to the Demonoid owners and thus far the site hasn’t gotten much traction.

The people behind the planned resurrection of Demonoid have access to the site’s original .com and .me domains so there’s a good chance that the site may return fully, backed by part of the old crew.

Time will tell whether that’s the case.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Local authorities explained that Interpol had requested the action as part of a criminal investigation into the site’s alleged owners in Mexico.

Months earlier Mexican authorities had carried out raids in Monterrey, the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León. Their prime target was a Demonoid operator, and one person connected to the BitTorrent tracker was subsequently imprisoned but later released.

While the legal troubles may have played a role in Demonoid’s continued downtime, the site was already suffering with technical problems at the end of July last year. Talking to TorrentFreak the site’s admin blamed a DDoS attack. At the time, however, the tech admin of the site was determined to get the site back online.

“You know how it goes with Demonoid. It might take a while but it will come back,” the admin told us.

But in the year that followed the Demonoid team kept their trademark silence. The last official update we received dates back to September last year when hopes for a quick resurrection were tempered. At the time, Demonoid’s tech admin told us that the site might not come back soon.

“We are down, and we’re not looking into putting the site back up at the moment,” the admin said.

And he was right.

Of course there are still many who believe the site may eventually return. The hopes of these Demonoid users was fueled in November when the tracker briefly returned, as well as by a follow-up switch to a new .HK domain. But this short-lived excitement wasn’t followed up by anything concrete.

Still, the Demonoid “spirit” is still very much alive and touching many people who miss it dearly. Over the past months we have seen the rise of imposters and a standalone tracker inspired by Demonoid. The closest to a true resurrection is the mysterious D2.vu site, which launched using a copy of the Demonoid user and torrent database.

However, none of these sites has come close to the millions of active users Demonoid had before it collapsed. These newer “alternatives” simply miss the truly unique community and collection of fresh and rare content.

Of course there is no shortage of “pirate” sites on the Internet, but many users saw Demonoid as something more than that.

While the music and movie industries would quickly label Demonoid as a piracy haven, for members it was often the go-to place for rare and unique content that was not available elsewhere on the Internet, even through legal channels. In addition, it was also a place where creators were happy to share their work.

However, we have now come to a point where we are tempted to draw a sad conclusion for the “comeback kid.”

After a year of Demonoid downtime, which is double the 2007/2008 downtime record of six months, it is very unlikely that the famous tracker will ever return to its former glory. Never say never, but even those who are optimistic by nature have to agree that Demonoid’s future is looking grimmer than ever before.

The end?

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

To try and discover more we spoke to a company called RamNode, the site’s host in the United States. Company owner Nick told us that D2.vu had been hosting malware, but by last evening his stance had softened a little.

“The malware may not have been intentionally hosted on this VPS,” Nick told TorrentFreak in an update. “It is possible that one of the ad banners running on the site triggered the malware alert. The server will still be removed from our network to prevent any further issues related to my company.”

Now, 24 hours later, D2.vu is back online with a new host outside the U.S. and fortunately some of our other inquiries have now paid off. So, with the owners of the site speaking with us directly, we put forward a few questions.

“As we all know these communities of free file-sharing are currently under scrutiny by government and media powers so all involved wish to remain anonymous to avoid unnecessary complications and any further risk,” the D2 domain owner told us.

Nothing particularly unusual there but what is somewhat strange is how D2.vu has somehow been able to launch with the database from Demonoid including user details, torrents and comments – how do they explain that?

“It was, as we stated in the email to the user base, an unlikely set of events that flowed from the last Ukraine install. We kept the code safe waiting for Demonoid to return. When it didn’t return we purposely rebranded, to separate from Demonoid’s past and related issues, with the main goal of maintaining the community,” we were told.

TorrentFreak tested an old Demonoid research account registered some years ago – it worked – as did one registered in more recent times. That goes someway to confirming the D2 owner’s claim that the database copy was taken from a July 2012 backup just after Demonoid’s shutdown.

So what other information culled from the old Demonoid is currently in D2′s possession?

“Everything except the domain names which led to the rebranding to d2.vu,” the admin explains.

“What you see is the tracker database of the old Demonoid. We aren’t launching the forum at this time but we do plan to start an IRC channel in the near future so the community can interact in real time,” the admin explains.

While on initial inspection there is a familiar look and feel (color changes aside), what D2 does not have is something that Demonoid was famous for – a tracker. All torrents are now tracked by outside sources/magnets which means that the site is now more like a sign-up version of The Pirate Bay than the semi-private offering users experienced before.

“This was done based on functional and legal necessity, efficiency and to take the site out of the negotiation of peer-to-peer file sharing. Also note that there is work in progress which will re-implement missing functionality and add new features,” TorrentFreak was told.

Technicalities aside, there is also another big issue – that of trust. How can former users of Demonoid be confident of the site’s intentions? For example, is the site endorsed or approved by any former senior staff?

“No former admins have been involved with this rebranding or launch. This effort is independent and undertaken entirely for the benefit of the community. We do welcome past community moderators to help with d2 if they wish,” we were told.

Thinking ahead, we posed another question to the admins of D2. Demonoid has a bit of a reputation as the comeback kid and in the past has reappeared online just when people think the show is over. If users migrate to D2 and that site gets momentum, what happens in the event that the real Demonoid comes back?

“If the previous admin group wanted the admin role back we’d have to figure out how to verify that it’s really them and then we’d work it out,” we were informed.

“The great effort we made here is for the Demonoid community. We completely understand the community’s need to be cautious and questioning. We aren’t phishing or pushing malware or attempting anything malicious. We intend to do our best to keep the site up and current. It’s in the hands of the community to participate as they did before to co-create and thrive,” the admins conclude.

More information as we get it…..

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

It soon became clear that the authorities were interested in the site as part of an investigation into the site’s alleged Mexico-based owners. Demonoid’s servers in Ukraine were seized shortly after.

With a site admin reportedly arrested then released as the case against the site stalled in Mexico, ex-users of the site have remained hopeful it would one day return. A fake site, Demonoid.mk, already caused serious confusion but now a new development has really stirred things up.

Overnight a new site – D2.vu – appeared claiming to be Demonoid resurrected. Former members of the site received the news via email, suggesting that someone with access to database of Demonoid users had indeed set up the site. Emails received by TorrentFreak are somewhat of a mixed bag – some believe their emails were registered at Demonoid, others aren’t so sure.

“The heart and soul of Demonoid lives on!” the email exclaimed. “Through an amazing sequence of unlikely events, the data on those Ukrainian servers has made its way into the safe hands of members of our community and has now been re-launched as d2.vu.

“Invitations to return are being sent out only to existing Demonoid members, which is the reason you have received this email. For the foreseeable future d2.vu will remain a semi-private site and no new invitations to join will be issued until we are certain that the system is stable. To login, click here and authenticate using your old Demonoid username and password.”

The D2.vu domain claimed to be registered in Hong Kong via a Hushmail address. We tracked down the owner by other means and connected him to other Chinese-registered sites. We contacted him on his personal email account but thus far he has remained silent.

Of course, for former users the email offers tempting news and we know for a fact that dozens of people tried to log in as the email suggested. According to information obtained by TorrentFreak, that was probably the wrong decision.

The D2.vu site was hosted on a server owned by a company called RamNode in the United States, which in itself set off alarm bells. Then we discovered it was on a VPS, another warning sign. We contacted RamNode and received the following.

“I’m not sure what was going on with that VPS, but it was at the very least hosting some malware. As such, we have already suspended it and will probably terminate it soon,” RamNode’s Nick informs TorrentFreak.

When pressed on what type of malware, RamNode couldn’t help us further.

“I don’t have any further information to offer at this time unfortunately. Once we had a sense of what might be going on, we took the VPS down immediately,” Nick concludes

TorrentFreak is aware that Demonoid was breached by hackers at least once, possibly twice or even three times in the past few years. We do not know what was taken, if anything, but the events of the past few hours suggest that a database, or part of one, from a date unknown, appears to be available.

Update: New information just in suggests that if you logged into the fake Demonoid and used the same user/password combo on any other site (torrent, email, Steam, PayPal) you should change them immediately.

Update 2: “The malware may not have been intentionally hosted on this VPS,” says Nick at RamNode in an update just received by TF. “It is possible that one of the ad banners running on the site triggered the malware alert. The server will still be removed from our network to prevent any further issues related to my company.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Local authorities explained that Interpol asked them to take action as part of an investigation into the site’s alleged owners in Mexico. An arrested Demonoid admin has since been released and the case was stalled, but the BitTorrent tracker remains offline.

With more than half a year of downtime Demonoid has already broken the previous record it set in 2007/2008. But with a reputation as a “comeback kid” many of the site’s former users haven’t lost hope that it may one day return. This also leads some to see things are aren’t there.

Over the past weeks TorrentFreak has received dozens of tips about a “new” Demonoid that is believed to have thousands of daily visitors. The site in question, Demonoid.mk, uses the Demonoid logo and favicon, which leads some to believe that this may indeed be a legit successor.

However, Demonoid.mk is nothing like the old Demonoid. The new site functions as a meta-search engine and unlike the real thing is not a semi-private tracker where users can upload content. There are absolutely no signs that there’s a connection between the two, other than the name and logo.

Those who look closely will see that the new site isn’t very original either, to say the least. It is built using the fairly popular Torrentify X script through which anybody can easily setup their own torrent search engine in just a few clicks.

There are hundreds of other sites that run on the same script, with several carrying names of popular sites. Thepiratebay.mk, h33t.im, btjunkie.mk, isohunt.me, isohunt.mk 1337x.us, i-torrent.net, torrentformac.com, axxotorrent.com, torrentcenter.us, exatorrent.org, sharingtorrent.com, to name just a few.

We don’t know who’s behind the Demonoid.mk, but the site appears to be operated by the same people who run thepiratebay.mk, isohunt.mk and btjunkie.mk. All these sites use the same Google analytics code.

The Pirate Bay version appears to be the most popular, with tens of thousands of visitors a day, which is not bad for a cheap script.

Bottom line is, however, that the sites are simply trading on the names of popular torrent sites to get more traffic. Those waiting for the real Demonoid to return will have to wait a little longer.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Local authorities explained that Interpol requested them to take action as part of a criminal investigation into the site’s alleged owners in Mexico.

Months earlier Mexican authorities conducted raids in Monterrey, the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León. Their prime target was a Demonoid operator and one person connected to the BitTorrent tracker was later imprisoned.

Aside from a small notice mentioning the raids, Mexican authorities haven’t released any updates on the proceedings. According to IIPA, the umbrella organization for copyright groups including the MPAA and RIAA, there’s very little progress as the case has been stalled.

In their annual submission to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 Review the groups give a brief update on the case, which aside from Mexico and Ukraine now also involves Panama.

“IIPA and its members are closely following the progress of the criminal case in Mexico, Ukraine and Panama, and hope that a proper criminal investigation will quickly commence and proceed accordingly,” IIPA writes.

The exact nature of the Panama connection is not mentioned, but the country is a popular destination for offshore banking.

Later on, IIPA notes that the alleged operator of Demonoid has already been released from jail. It’s unclear why, but the copyright holders mention that the case has stalled which could mean that there’s not enough evidence to continue.

“As noted, BitTorrent tracker demonoid.me was taken down with the cooperation of the Mexican authorities. Unfortunately, the criminal case against the operators of the service has stalled: the main operator of the service was initially imprisoned and materials used in the service were seized, but the operator of the service was subsequently released,” IIPA writes.

For how long the alleged Demonoid operator was imprisoned is not mentioned. However, the criminal case is ongoing according to the copyright holders, who further mention that it’s now proceeding in Ukraine.

Again, the details are scarce and it’s unclear what the authorities are looking into at this point.

Demonoid, meanwhile, has moved to Hong Kong where it found a new hosting company and a new .HK domain name. Whether the BitTorrent tracker will ever return to its full glory has yet to be seen.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.