TorrentFreak

After banning several of the largest file-hosting sites and Usenet providers, PayPal is now taking aim at a VPN/proxy service. The payment processor has just cut off the BitTorrent proxy provider GT Guard and frozen the company’s funds. In an email PayPal’s Brand Risk Management department explains that GT Guard’s affiliation with BitTorrent is the reason for the drastic actions.

The traditional way for private BitTorrent trackers to keep their operations going is to accept donations from site users. Many sites, probably many hundreds, use PayPal to process these donations since it’s the most convenient option for site members. However, these days PayPal isn’t keen on doing business with file-sharing sites and is getting very demanding. Those demands now include receiving private tracker invitations so they can personally snoop behind the scenes.

PRQ, the infamous ISP created by Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm of The Pirate Bay, has been nuked by PayPal. After a fruitful partnership lasting three years, PayPal decided to ruin their relationship with the so-called “bullet-proof” hoster by freezing the company’s funds for up to 180 days. On PayPal’s advice PRQ opened a second account to get by while the dispute was being sorted out, but then without warning PayPal seized those funds too.

After banning several of the largest file-hosting sites, PayPal is now taking aim at Usenet services. The payment processor has just cut off several providers of Usenet services and frozen the funds in their accounts. These actions are due to growing copyright infringement concerns which have resulted in an extremely strict and in some cases privacy-violating set of requirements being laid down by the payment processing company.

In recent weeks, PayPal has cut off many of the world’s largest filehosting sites from its service including MediaFire, Putlocker and DepositFiles. Growing concern over copyright infringement has resulted in an extremely strict and in some cases privacy-violating set of requirements being laid down by the payment processing company. Cyberlocker owners are disappointed with the apparent witch-hunt which in some cases is paralyzing their business.

Three weeks ago Paypal decided to freeze the account of TorGuard, a company that offers VPN and proxy services. According to a Paypal representative the VPN service violated “some agreements” because of TorGuard’s affiliation with BitTorrent. Even after the owner explained that his company was just offering a VPN connection, Paypal didn’t change their decision. [...]

PayPal is widely known for their aggressive stance towards BitTorrent sites and file-sharing services, and this policy has now been extended to VPN providers. TorGuard, a company that offers VPN and proxy services, has been banned from using the payment processor because of its affiliation with “BitTorrent.” As a result, thousands of dollars belonging to the company have been frozen.