Earlier in the week we reported on the plight of LeechersLair. Launched in 2006, the BitTorrent tracker has around 20,000 members who enjoy all the usual content.

Not at the moment though since the Content, Consumer and Network Security Division of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) ordered Shinjiru, LeechersLair’s webhosting provider, to close down the site citing a breach of Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987. Shinjiru complied immediately and took the site offline.

And now they’ve shut down SuperFundo too. As an open indexer, SuperFundo doesn’t have a tracker of its own, so perhaps this is a more unusual target for the anti-pirates. Nevertheless, the claims are that SuperFundo breaches the Copyright Act 1987. The site admins weren’t exactly given long to take action either;

You are required to resolve the illegal activities issues within 1 hour after this warning notification. TMNet has the right to block this IP if there is not any notification from your side within this one-hour timeframe.

Plenty of time to sort everything out, then. But never fear, admin at SuperFundo told TorrentFreak that the site will be back, asap. LeechersLair will be back too, as soon as they have secured another host in a different country.

In the meantime the message is pretty clear – Malaysia shouldn’t be on the top of anyone’s torrent hosting list.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

When BitTorrent sites get into legal trouble or other pressures force a move to a new location, the speculation begins on the safest place to go.

For instance, would a site bail out of the Netherlands and move to Canada? Is Canada too dangerous now, and would a move to Sweden be more appropriate? What about moving to Ukraine-based hosting like Demonoid or further afield – China or Russia maybe? Inevitably, discussions usually involve ideas of moving sites east, to countries like Malaysia. Fairly high-tech countries like this seem an attractive proposition, particularly given their government’s track-record in failing to do much about piracy.

Given this background, BitTorrent tracker admins with their sites hosted in Malaysia were confronted by a very unpleasant surprise today. An administrator from a well known tracker contacted TorrentFreak this morning with worrying news, he told us: “Malaysia’s government suddenly forced all torrent websites to shut down today until further notice, a complete surprise to torrent admins and the offshore hosting companies in Malaysia.”

The news was given to this and other site admins, via an email from their hosting provider, which indicates the action has been ordered down from a high level. The email informs the admins that their servers have been suspended by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, under the Copyright Act 1987. As the request came from the government, the host makes it clear they had no choice but to shut down the site. Among the affected sites are Extremebits, Rapthe, Superfundo and several others. According to sources, although torrent sites have been taken offline, other sites dealing in pirate material have also been suspended after the government decided to act on mounting copyright-related complaints.

Prominent Malaysian host Shinjiru confirmed the closures, telling TorrentFreak: “We can confirm that this is accurate. We had enforcement officers from MDTCA visiting the office to confirm the closure of BitTorrent sites hosted on our network. We will comply to all shut down instructions from the local authorities or agencies with warrants or documents.”

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.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.