TorrentSpy Shuts Down

Written by Ernesto on March 27, 2008 

A little over a year ago, TorrentSpy.com was still the most visited BitTorrent site, but times have changed. After an expensive two year battle with the MPAA, TorrentSpy decided to throw in the towel and the site has now shut down permanently.

torrentspyTorrentSpy is no more, Justin Bunnell, the founder of the site writes: “We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the TorrentSpy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.”

The main reason for the shutdown is the ongoing legal battle with the MPAA, which started February 2006. “We now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown,” Justin writes.

By the end of 2006 TorrentSpy was more popular than any other BitTorrent site, but this changed quickly in August 2007, when a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to log all user data. The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities, and hand these over to the MPAA.

In a response to this decision - and to ensure the privacy of their users - TorrentSpy decided that it was best to block access to all users from the US. This led to a huge decrease in traffic and revenue.

This was not enough for the MPAA, who argued that TorrentSpy had ignored the court decision. The legal battle continued, and this eventually led to a preventative closure of the site by Justin, to protect the privacy of its users.

Brokep from The Pirate Bay had this to say about the closure: “Today all big torrent sites are pressured somehow. TPB has its share of pressure, however we expected it and have a legal system that is more just in cases like this. The way that the copyright lobby is going at this is totally wrong and we can’t let them win. And we won’t let them win. Today we reached a loss of a site, but it was more a person having to give up for economical reasons than anything else. The copyright lobby has their big cards - money and influence. In the long run they will have to give up as well. And when they do, I’ll go to the US and buy Justin a well-deserved beer.”

At this point it is not clear what will happen to the TorrentSpy.com domain. Perhaps Justin should offer it to other BitTorrent site owners?

Previously: Mininova Helps CBC to Distribute TV-Show

Next: Comcast Teams Up With BitTorrent and Promises Net Neutrality

137 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

1 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:06 by Anon

RIP.

2 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:15 by Some Guy

what a sad story :(
torrentspy was the first torrent site i used, and i have a lot of good experiences with it.. but oh well, as long as TPB and mininova hangs on i guess i’ll survive

RIP

3 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:37 by Berg

damn

4 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:38 by Anon

TS was crap anyway

5 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:49 by Kittenpies

This makes me sad :(

TorrentSpy should give the domain to The Pirate Bay so it can redirect there… it would be a last “fuck you” to the MPAA and it would re-direct any users who didn’t know about other places to get torrents to a new index.

6 Mar 27, 2008 at 09:55 by barakuda

I always used TorrentSpy for my torrent needs because it had very good comment section. If something was fake or not good quality you would know from the comments. Then they decide to remove comments from site and i stop visiting. I didnt use it for quite a while. It was good while it lasted. Cya around.

7 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:16 by toanthrax

:(

8 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:20 by most_uniQue

Sucks to live in US…

9 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:29 by Shockerz

Damn! another good site got shut down.

10 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:30 by Adam

I’m so insanely happy about this. I absolutely can not stand the owners of that website. I hope they’re in debt up to their bald spots.

11 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:34 by kelly

still insist that http://torrent-finder.com/ is the easiest way to find torrents, you only need to tweak the site options ;)

12 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:42 by soundchaser

[quote comment="319778"]TS was crap anyway[/quote]
Crap or not, it was still a torrent site.

13 Mar 27, 2008 at 10:55 by HornyDevilz

In response to the MPAA action, how about starting a total world ban of all MPAA related products?

P2P could, for the span of 1 or 2 months, totally ban torrents, legal or otherwise, from USA. All P2P users will boycott all movies showing at theatres in their own countries, all music from the stores, etc. Advertise the fact of the ban, so the retailers who support the MPAA will know how angry the P2P community is getting.

For myself, I get torrents as a preview of things to buy. If I can establish for myself if a film is worth buying, why the hell would I waste my money buying a legal copy of the movie anyway?

14 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:03 by uk

the site was good till it had to take of user comments and then filled it with porn.

he should be shot for the mass porn on the site alone

15 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:03 by stuffies

It was a lame ass public tracker made for n00bs. Stop crying and get over it you fucking lamers.

16 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:04 by niggausa

It was a lame ass public tracker made for n00bs. Stop crying and get over it you fucking lamers.

17 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:07 by brent3000

[quote comment="319839"]For myself, I get torrents as a preview of things to buy. If I can establish for myself if a film is worth buying, why the hell would I waste my money buying a legal copy of the movie anyway?[/quote]
Most people do… I myself download movies due to the fact i refuse to pay $20 + for a DVD movie… (AUD) I will but them for under $15 how ever…

The companies just dont see it… They never will… If they lose $1 then its not good… Even tho they make billions more…

18 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:14 by lol

it was the first torrent site i used too. i’m sure it used to be brilliant back in the day. Then it got swamped with spyware infested ads’ which totally ruined everything as far as i’m concerned.

19 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:49 by lol

torrent spy was nothing but a bunch of cunts anyways, fuck them.

20 Mar 27, 2008 at 11:52 by SPYCOPY

Today is a very sad day. We have a ship lost at sea. Let us hope that captain Brokep can find her a way back to safe ports. Captain Bunnell is a well seasoned pirate and i am sure that we will all have food and drink at a sturdy table once again ARRRR.

21 Mar 27, 2008 at 12:03 by Anonymous

The ones with most cash wins in courts, the ones with most cash gets to be president, the ones with most cash gets to decide the laws, the ones with most cash etc..

I dont know why America is stuck but most countries have moved past that 1700 lifestyle and tries to equalize everything so cash doesnt decide the outcome in courts or who gets to lead a country or decide the laws etc..

22 Mar 27, 2008 at 12:06 by Sadboy

Very sad, but i did like brokep’s comment….
Until tpb is there…i wont worry…

http://www.hack5.blogspot.com

23 Mar 27, 2008 at 12:21 by abc

its sad but we all should not lose hope and start new way
TorrentSpy saved our privacy by shutting down itself
now we better know what to do to
MPAA do i knocked your mind

24 Mar 27, 2008 at 12:37 by John

Really sad story.2 sites until now Demonoid and torrent Spy are closed….I am wondering what is going to happen next.

25 Mar 27, 2008 at 12:53 by TheExtremist

Hmm……..rarely visited the site…………..good that its gone…………BAZZOKAAA

26 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:03 by Danny

You where my first torrent site I ever used ): .

How about releasing the sourcecode?
It was one hell of a good site, and I know a lot of people would like to run there own indexer but can’t find a stable good one.

Maybe, torrentspy didn’t die at all, just stepuped up its game.

torrentspy - opensource torrent indexer scrpit?

I hope so ): .

- Danny.

27 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:16 by PunkMF

“The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities, and hand these over to the MPAA.” - Holy wowskis, do the folks in charge really just not give a fuck about privacy laws and the law in general over there?

Sounds like TorrentSpy did the right thing.

28 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:31 by Baloo2

God Bless the United States of America and their greedy corporations. Not!

Anyhow, it will possibly soon be over. Read a well written article explaining the background to how it could go so totally wrong at:

http://www.falkvinge.com/2008/03/why-us-is-collapsing.html

29 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:35 by a/s/l

don’t think i ever used it. another crap public site

30 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:45 by Al Koholic

A sad day when a torrent site gets shut down. But a reminder to everyone; this is in no way the end. Torrentspy will return in the future under a different name with slight alterations that will keep the site ging strong. R.I.P. Torrentspy. Cheers to what the future will bring!

31 Mar 27, 2008 at 13:46 by Myfirsttorrentsite

That was one of the first sites i visited! I used to download KVCD’s and aXXo rips from that site, rest in peace!!!!!!

32 Mar 27, 2008 at 14:16 by Anonymous

[quote comment="319791"]This makes me sad :(

TorrentSpy should give the domain to The Pirate Bay so it can redirect there… it would be a last “fuck you” to the MPAA and it would re-direct any users who didn’t know about other places to get torrents to a new index.[/quote]
I absolutely agree with you

33 Mar 27, 2008 at 14:20 by Ice

it was first torrent site i used but afterwards i moved on to Demonoid and mininova.It’s sad that it has shutdown and also demonoid is gone with the wind but TPB is there and so too is Mininova but hard days are ahead for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!.

34 Mar 27, 2008 at 15:08 by ARS-ART

Who cares, TorrentSpy was crap anyways…

35 Mar 27, 2008 at 15:37 by CaRLoS

tpb is unreachable also here in Turkey, we will soon have to find another way to share, keep on…

36 Mar 27, 2008 at 16:01 by Hennesy Wayans

[quote comment="319887"]The ones with most cash wins in courts, the ones with most cash gets to be president, the ones with most cash gets to decide the laws, the ones with most cash etc..

I dont know why America is stuck but most countries have moved past that 1700 lifestyle and tries to equalize everything so cash doesnt decide the outcome in courts or who gets to lead a country or decide the laws etc..[/quote]
Justin Bunnell, you are one of the better Americans. Thank you for going to such heartfelt lengths to protect the rest of us.

GO RON PAUL !!!
GO RON PAUL !!!
GO RON PAUL !!!

37 Mar 27, 2008 at 16:37 by Anonymous

Too bad. It was one of the first sites I used, but changed over to another tracker quickly enough. Nevertheless, good luck to the admins, and kudos for possessing a strong spine.

FUCK RIAA AND MPAA.

38 Mar 27, 2008 at 16:48 by TD123

[quote comment="319764"]what a sad story :(
torrentspy was the first torrent site i used, and i have a lot of good experiences with it.. but oh well, as long as TPB and mininova hangs on i guess i’ll survive

RIP[/quote]

true that… it was also one of the first torrent sites i ever used…

RIP

39 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:07 by alexx

This is in fact, very sad.

40 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:13 by benderxr

torrent spy we will miss you

41 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:20 by Anonymous

[quote comment="319778"]TS was crap anyway[/quote]

agreed, i stopped going after the porn banner ads took over…

42 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:24 by Pranjal

bad day for free speech. free movement.

43 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:50 by Putin 08

If you feel bad that TorrentSpy is gone, just remember two things.

First of all, the domain will inevitably be revived by another BitTorrent group…

…And second, TorrentSpy’s self-destruction is a miserable defeat for the RIAA and MPAA. Their prized court ruling - that TS had to monitor its own users and send detailed surveillance logs to the MAFIAA - has been scuttled along with the ship.

Rather than mourning, THAT’S something worth cheering for.

44 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:53 by -the Queef-

R.I.P. Torrentspy,
It’s a sad day indeed,We lost another nice torrentsite. Like most,I popped my cherry too on torrentspy. Back then it was a easy to use and smart looking site with a proper community. I even liked that shout-wire thing for a while.

After they took the comments down I stopped using TS, just popping in to see it’s bleeding to death.

To bad to see this one gone,but there are more fish in the sea.

Cheers,

-the Queef-

45 Mar 27, 2008 at 17:55 by Billco

It is better to die with dignity, than to give up and sell out.

RIP TS

46 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:20 by HighSpeedTorrent.com

A sad day for all file sharing fans.

Fortunately, TorrentSpy was just one of the many torrent site pioneers, and today there are many such sites.

A casualty of war for freedom, peace be with you TorrentSpy and your webmasters as well.

http://www.highspeedtorrent.com

47 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:24 by Anonymous

I am from Canada and TS insisted on Blocking me anyway because my “IP was from the states” (Ya sure…because Saskatchewan is totally in the states)…such crap. I am not really sad that it is gone as it was only good for mainstream stuff. All of the stuff that I really wanted was on TPB and Mininova so I never bothered with TS.

48 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:35 by nonameform

TS was my first torrent site. I haven’t been using it much for the last year or so, because they have removed comments and some other things weren’t working for me. Didn’t know they were in trouble.

Thanks for everything.

49 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:42 by prodigydancer

R.I.P.

50 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:53 by Almo

Sad story.

51 Mar 27, 2008 at 18:58 by Rekrul

The people saying that TorrentSpy sucked, or that it’s a good thing it’s gone, are either MPAA/RIAA shills, or total idiots. (of course, being a shill makes you an idiot, but that’s besidet he point)

The point isn’t that this particular site closed down, it’s that MPAA/RIAA pressure forced this site to close down. It’s a lost battle in the war against the corporations.

52 Mar 27, 2008 at 19:11 by prodigydancer

However sad it is, we must admit it was the expected outcome of wrong decisions.

Noone in his right mind would host a BT site in US, where there’s no actual legislation (apart from purely situational decisions made by incompetent people) and where positions of the mafiAA are the strongest.

They could choose to fight. Justin could use the court’s ‘decision’ in front of the courthous as a toilet paper it was. But they chose to close access to their own site w/o even being asked to do so. They handed the victory to the mafiAA on a silver platter.

If you fight for P2P freedom and fall, you become a martyr of a just cause. If you don’t fight, you still fall and it’s just sad.

53 Mar 27, 2008 at 19:15 by Ohnoes!

http://www.youtorrent.com

54 Mar 27, 2008 at 19:16 by ace hall

[quote comment="320232"]However sad it is, we must admit it was the expected outcome of wrong decisions.

Noone in his right mind would host a BT site in US, where there’s no actual legislation (apart from purely situational decisions made by incompetent people) and where positions of the mafiAA are the strongest.

They could choose to fight. Justin could use the court’s ‘decision’ in front of the courthous as a toilet paper it was. But they chose to close access to their own site w/o even being asked to do so. They handed the victory to the mafiAA on a silver platter.

If you fight for P2P freedom and fall, you become a martyr of a just cause. If you don’t fight, you still fall and it’s just sad.[/quote]

i assume u had plans to donate a large sum of $$$ for thier legal cost should they continue…

55 Mar 27, 2008 at 19:18 by Anonymous

Fergal hunter is a cunt

56 Mar 27, 2008 at 20:32 by soullexx

R.I.P.

57 Mar 27, 2008 at 20:44 by dasamigo

L2Usenet RIP TS

58 Mar 27, 2008 at 21:21 by ShaDow

PingBack from :
http://tech–info.blogspot.com/2008/03/torrentspy-shuts-down.html

59 Mar 27, 2008 at 21:32 by Paul

TorrentSpy really was the best torrent site to use (IMO)

But once they had to block US traffic, it got a pain to have to use Tor to view the site.

Demonoid, now torrentspy? And we have ISP’s prioritizing data

When will this stop?

60 Mar 27, 2008 at 21:58 by Someone

100% agree, I used it a few times, and it worked fairly well except for the ads…

R.I.P, torrentspy, and dont fear, mininova and TPB will avenge you.

61 Mar 27, 2008 at 22:39 by MoohTheMilkCow

[quote comment="319848"]It was a lame ass public tracker made for n00bs. Stop crying and get over it you fucking lamers.[/quote]

TS tracked nothing, it was just a meta indexing site.

Any clown can set up his own indexing site and host torrent files (or just external links to torrents )tracked by others.

I agree that TS was crap anyway

62 Mar 27, 2008 at 23:39 by NEo

Fucking assholes…that site was great…oh well one goes down 10 go online. Fuck MPAA

63 Mar 27, 2008 at 23:58 by david, germany

R.I.P.
6 years, i won´t forget u torrnetspy

64 Mar 28, 2008 at 00:36 by TorrentPreacher

Fear not, brothers and sisters!!!

Behold…the second coming of Demonoid is at hand!!

The day of torrent salvation is near, then we may rejoice in all it’s mighty glory!!!

@24 - Have faith, brother John! Soon you will be in paradise!!!

65 Mar 28, 2008 at 00:43 by Anonymous

wow .. not even gonna miss them.

66 Mar 28, 2008 at 01:23 by Lois

Oh well just use rapidshare its uber fast n not throttled

67 Mar 28, 2008 at 02:03 by LtJackboot

All I can say is thanks for letting us know Justin, that guy Kirin who used to run digitaldistractions.com just killed the site one day and never said a word of warning or explanation. Claimed he didn’t OWE anyone an explanation, so they weren’t getting one-asshole. Thanks for not being one.

68 Mar 28, 2008 at 02:15 by sumguy

I couldn’t log into that one anyway. Long live the bay.

69 Mar 28, 2008 at 02:47 by BokK

It was one of the 1st Torrent Sites I used.
Thou I hadn’t been there lately, it’s still VERY SAD to see yet one more good site fall for the mpaa.

70 Mar 28, 2008 at 03:11 by Thrip

NOOO! Don’t give up the fight! Art is for the people!

71 Mar 28, 2008 at 05:43 by steveballmer

One down! 198 to go!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

72 Mar 28, 2008 at 07:01 by telleuria

torrent scene is just like the rap/hip hop and underground metal scene, people fall and they rise, or they fall and new ones rise

73 Mar 28, 2008 at 07:06 by Zoness

They will be missed by some, I guess, they have been on shaky ground for awhile this is probably best.

74 Mar 28, 2008 at 08:59 by jesus superhero

[quote comment="319795"]I always used TorrentSpy for my torrent needs because it had very good comment section. If something was fake or not good quality you would know from the comments. Then they decide to remove comments from site and i stop visiting. I didnt use it for quite a while. It was good while it lasted. Cya around.[/quote]

agreed, i used the site as well when it had a good comments system, now i hope mininova stays around

75 Mar 28, 2008 at 09:03 by TommyP

RIP - it used to be good but it was full of crappy porn ads by the end - no doubt this was for extra revenue.

76 Mar 28, 2008 at 09:08 by Bill Blogs

This sort of thing is garbage. The torrent tracker does not host files and can’t be expected to monitor torrent content. What a stupid and worthless judgment also. Torrent sites are only in effect guilty of making a statement about file sharing at best. No-one can be prosecuted for an opinion, or can they?

They need to find a way to be anonymous it seems, and I hope others will spring up to fill any need. Maybe though it would be best at present to shut down immediately upon (official) legal threat to avoid litigation. Then others or new trackers could take up the slack, and if there was a good system, like a chain reaction, this could continue on indefinitely.

77 Mar 28, 2008 at 09:16 by Bill Blogs

[quote comment="320711"]One down! 198 to go!
[/quote]

hahaha. When it gets to 10 down, there will be 260 to go :)

78 Mar 28, 2008 at 12:45 by jahn

My fav site :(

http://pluking.blogspot.com

79 Mar 28, 2008 at 15:09 by Anti Torrent Freak.

Good news IMO. These guys were in it for the money and did not give a fuck about a free Internet or free content. Ask them to give you free advertising and you will soon see what they were about.

Were they that bothered about protecting their uploaders or were they scared the opening of the logs would reveal they were doing the uploading?

There’s a new organisation out trying to find uploaders so they can sue them. Monetizing the pirates just like Torrent spy were doing it. Everyone said the record companies should work with the uploaders and downloaders, so it makes sense. Legal and legit biz as far as I can see.

Why am I bitter? I worked for a record company that laid me off because of piracy cutting int the profits. So tell me what a prick I am for getting pissed off.

80 Mar 28, 2008 at 15:14 by Anti Torrent Freak.

“In response to the MPAA action, how about starting a total world ban of all MPAA related products?”

Does this mean for one month you won’t steal any MPAA products or will not buy any?

If you were buying it might make a difference.

Stupid idiot.

81 Mar 28, 2008 at 15:19 by pandaking

RIP

82 Mar 28, 2008 at 15:37 by Solaris Starscream

I am sad Oink, Demonoid, and then torentspy. MPAA and CRIA, You dont know you have turned massive amounts of heads against you. At the end, we will will and all those three sites will be Alive.

83 Mar 28, 2008 at 16:57 by Norm

Hahaha torrentspy would be forced by the courts to actually spy on its users!

I’m glad they shut down. They did the right thing. You know that 3 or more similar sites will just take its place anyhow.

84 Mar 28, 2008 at 18:17 by mosqito

Suppi Duppi

85 Mar 28, 2008 at 19:54 by Anonymous

[quote comment="321067"]Why am I bitter? I worked for a record company that laid me off because of piracy cutting int the profits. So tell me what a prick I am for getting pissed off.[/quote]

Think how differently things would have turned out if the music industry had said “Gee, this MP3 format seems to be getting popular. Maybe we should setup some kind of online store and sell music in MP3 format. It’ll cost us next to nothing to sell downloads and we can make a profit even at $.25 a song!”

Would Napster even have been invented? Why create a network to find and download music when you can go to one web site and legally download any song you want? Without Napster, would the other file sharing networks even exist? Maybe they would, but maybe their developement would have come much later.

Of course the music industry did what what every content industry does when a new form of technology appears; Try to have it declared illegal. The same thing happened with the VCR, DAT, CD Burners, etc.

When the music industry DID finally get around to noticing (a decade late) that people wanted to be able to obtain music in a digital format, they opened subscription services with limited selections, restrictive DRM, custom software required and prices that were completely out of touch with the actual costs of supplying digital downloads.

You want a real-world example?

I have a collection of about 50 games for Windows that I’ve bought either at a local closeout store (back when they used to get software that wasn’t crap) or on eBay. Now that I have a 3Mbs DSL connection, I could easily download any game I want. If given a choice between downloading a game for free, or paying $40+ for it at a retail store, I’ll probably download it. If the choice was between downloading it for free, or buying it for $10 at the closeout store, I’d happily buy it, just to have the manual and a factory copy of the disc.

By the same token, I’d also happily pay $5-10 to download a legal copy, IF it was supplied as a file that could easily be backed up to CD/DVD and didn’t require a net connection for online “activation”. (I still don’t own Half-Life 2 for this very reason)

People will pay if you give them a product that they want. The record companies want people to pay for the product that THEY want to supply.

86 Mar 28, 2008 at 20:22 by TPB

hope TPB buys torrentspy :D

87 Mar 29, 2008 at 02:55 by GFY

THIS IS GREAT NEWS!! I CANT WAIT TILL ALL THESE THIEVING TORRENT SITES GET SHUT DOWN! FUCK ALL YOU THIEVES!

VIVA LA GFY.COM

88 Mar 29, 2008 at 03:18 by Marc

2 years ago it was awesome of course but since then … downhill. the comments section was closed long ago and you couldnt trust it anymore in any case. 2-3 years ago it was a good site, especially if you were a newbie of course. geesh, it’d be so awesome if demonoid came back.

89 Mar 29, 2008 at 03:37 by Lloyd

What people forget is that torrent sites aren’t the source for the material, everyone gets the same recycled movies and TV shows from newsgroups! I don’t know who those people are who are the original rippers of TV shows and movies but it’s these people who post their product on newsgroups. The first users who download these products are users of super fast Usenet providers, which allow extremely fast direct downloads of TV shows and movies. Then some users who are the first ones to download TV shows & movies from ultra fast newsgroup servers seed these products to the private torrents. And then eventually these same products get seeded into the public torrents, such as TorrentSpy. So it’s a joke for the music and movie industries to try to gang-up on public torrents because in fact you could shut down all private & public torrents, that wouldn’t address the issue. All that would do would transfer all these users to various forms of direct download service from newsgroups servers! And in fact, direct download is the way to go because there’s no seeding while you’re downloading so there’s no huge police net to catch a bunch of users file sharing of the same torrent! I say screw the entertainment industry (especially after what happen in regard to the writers strike) and bring on reasonably price direct download via newsgroups for the masses!!

90 Mar 29, 2008 at 19:08 by Fugazi

[quote comment="321672"]… So it’s a joke for the music and movie industries to try to gang-up on public torrents because in fact you could shut down all private & public torrents, that wouldn’t address the issue. All that would do would transfer all these users to various forms of direct download service from newsgroups servers! And in fact, direct download is the way to go because there’s no seeding while you’re downloading so there’s no huge police net to catch a bunch of users file sharing of the same torrent! I say screw the entertainment industry (especially after what happen in regard to the writers strike) and bring on reasonably price direct download via newsgroups for the masses!![/quote]

It’s not a joke to go after public torrents. It makes a lot of sense for the industry to transform torrent users into direct download users. Downloaders are much easier to control because they are in a server-client relationship. First you give them a reasonably priced, super fast, direct download to ease them into using direct download. Then you open some servers yourself or buy those that are around already and fix the price to whatever amount you want. Third, there is no seeding of copyrighted material, which is a major headache for the industry. And last but not least, there is no need for a large policing force that goes after file sharers, probably asks a lot of money and produces untolerable amounts of bad PR for the industry. That’s what I would propose if I was an industry adviser.

P2P is a much better way to distribute data because the peers decide what’s going on, not the server.

91 Mar 29, 2008 at 20:52 by Lloyd

Fugazi:

You missed the point I was making, the entertainment industry is trying to crack down on people getting their hands on songs, TV programs & movies being shared among users on the Internet via public torrents. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t matter because everyone is getting these products from the same few rippers! If you could shutdown the entire torrent system (both public & private), all that would do would be to force users to a more direct, private and secure system by downloading via Usenet servers! That’s all I was saying, shutting down the torrent system doesn’t halt the original rippers of music, TV & movies who post to newsgroups–that’s the point! Thus if the masses can’t get their product via the torrent system, they’ll all mass migrate to the more efficient and ultra fast direct downloading of material via Usenet servers! Also with public torrents the entertainment industry was forcing web-based companies such as TorrentSpy to supply a list of IP addresses of every user downloading & seeding of a particular torrent(s)! With Usenet servers, it’s direct download, no seeding back, thus there’s no mass file sharing! What you say at the end of your comment makes no sense! P2P (peer to peer) is file sharing, it’s only a better way to distribute if you want to go to jail! P2P is: you have a list of songs, TV programs, movies, etc. on your hard drive which you make available to the P2P network. Every time you log on to a P2P network to download something, you’re getting that file from many users all at once while at the same time your own list of files on your hard drive is made available to be shared for uploading to all users! Thus a huge police net can grab all you guys at anytime–yah, real smart! Finally P2P is incredible slow and inefficient in comparison to direct download via an ultra fast Usenet provider!

92 Mar 29, 2008 at 23:39 by Manta

If not related with court : Pussies

93 Mar 30, 2008 at 00:57 by Filepromptdotcom

Although it’s a sad loss, Torrentspy since the beginnings of their lawsuits, messed up their site, with bad ads (too much like porn), and torrent sections all messed up, so you couldnt find anything unless you searched. What is really needed is a return of Demonoid, where many people were proud to upload quality, and I had saved many uploaders personal pages, so I could get more of the good stuff

http://www.fileprompt.com

94 Mar 30, 2008 at 14:09 by h33t

good luck to you Justin and thanks for leading from the front for the past 3 years. it was a difficult decision to close but you are doing the right thing. you have gained some kudos

RIP

95 Mar 30, 2008 at 20:39 by Ivan_PSP

I used to be a member of TorrentSpy long time ago. But i move to Mininova the king of real torrents is way better. But losing one file sharing website is not good for the other websites. I just hope no more go down this risky road… RIP TorrentSpy

96 Mar 30, 2008 at 20:42 by Fugazi

@Lloyd

> … That’s all I was saying, shutting down the torrent system doesn’t halt the original rippers of music, TV & movies who post to newsgroups–that’s the point!

True. But as you argue yourself later on, at least I read it that way, the main concern of the industry is the mass file sharing. A couple of rippers don’t eat into their revenue. They want the _masses_ to buy the stuff.

> … Thus if the masses can’t get their product via the torrent system, they’ll all mass migrate to the more efficient and ultra fast direct downloading of material via Usenet servers!

Hmm. I’m not so sure about that. Easy-to-use ways to download from industry servers, probably taken over from the torrent community, might be appealing for many torrent users. Even the visible individuals of the torrent community argue that the industry should embrace bittorrent.

> Also with public torrents the entertainment industry was forcing web-based companies such as TorrentSpy to supply a list of IP addresses of every user downloading & seeding of a particular torrent(s)! With Usenet servers, it’s direct download, no seeding back, thus there’s no mass file sharing!

I would argue as you do. But I draw a different conclusion. It makes sense for the industry to spread fear that file sharers can be catched and punished. Give them a little peace of mind by providing something else, that does not involve mass file sharing. I agree, that’s the main point. There is no money to be made from mass file sharing. Usenet servers might an alternative. Maybe for both sides. I believe however, that Usenet servers are more vulnerable to stupid legislation and easier to emulate than a peer to peer network. The industry would probably be happy to provide a legal way to download at a fast speed from their servers. They can of course name their servers whatever they like. Call them “Usenet servers”, “direct download”, “ultra fast”. We have seen this kind of strategy against torrent sites lately and going back all the way to Napster.

> What you say at the end of your comment makes no sense! P2P (peer to peer) is file sharing, it’s only a better way to distribute if you want to go to jail! P2P is: you have a list of songs, TV programs, movies, etc. on your hard drive which you make available to the P2P network. Every time you log on to a P2P network to download something, you’re getting that file from many users all at once while at the same time your own list of files on your hard drive is made available to be shared for uploading to all users!

Again, I agree. And I also see the danger that one could be thrown into jail. However, I like to emphasize the positive aspect of a P2P network. I can share something with others whether some authority (server) allows (provides) it or not. Okay, I have to ask a tracker who’s got the pieces that I want. And I have to ask an indexer what’s the hash for the file that I want. But everyone with a decent network card would be able run a tracker, when times are getting harder. And a torrent indexer doesn’t work totally different than any old search engine. What I like about P2P is that it is distributed, not centralized. Distributed systems are more robust against disturbances. At least, that’s what I like to believe. But you are right that the risk for the individual file sharer is higher than for the individual Usenet client.

> Thus a huge police net can grab all you guys at anytime–yah, real smart!

Maybe. However, zebras in large numbers are doing a lot better than rhinos with strong defenses.

> Finally P2P is incredible slow and inefficient in comparison to direct download via an ultra fast Usenet provider!

Okay, P2P exchange is slower than downloading from a Usenet server. The efficiency is probably higher, because the maximum bandwith in the net doesn’t need to be as large as the download bandwith from one fast server. I can provide my upload bandwith for someone else to use as download bandwith. With a lot of peers a downloader can get decent, still slower than direct download, speed. Well, “decent speed” is aguable, of course. If I wanted to watch _this_ movie after dinner I would probably have to go for a fast and direct download. But if I wanted to watch _a_ movie after dinner, I can watch the one I file shared yesterday.

97 Mar 31, 2008 at 00:12 by Anonymous

fuck u buddy

98 Mar 31, 2008 at 00:16 by Anonymous

Fuck u buddy torrentspy was the best site i ever used and piracy will live on forever

99 Apr 01, 2008 at 10:00 by Azureus 4 lifer

Wow, Props for you guys not selling everyone out. That shows something we rarely see in these times, much less online; Honor.

My sympathy for any legal action taken against you. Good luck with everything, fuck the MPAA.

100 Apr 01, 2008 at 10:03 by Azureus 4 lifer

If you really want to stick it to the MPAA you could simply Link ten or twenty other torrent sites to the main page. That would probably get em riled huh? ;)

101 Apr 01, 2008 at 10:55 by busabasher

The wars not over yet. This is a battle thats taken out a signifcant player on our side, But its not the end, Nowhere near it, TS has been a victim of the ever incresing big brother state, Fuck em, Dont let the bastards get you down, keep supporting these sites and keep talking to each other. See you again soon TS.

102 Apr 05, 2008 at 00:24 by DDSCentral

TS was just a search engine. Why then they don’t sue Google as you can find lots of illegal stuff there ?
How many good sites will become victims of MPAA ? We already have 2
major torrent sites offline, how many more ?
fuck mpaa!

103 Apr 06, 2008 at 16:49 by vice

rip

104 Apr 07, 2008 at 21:06 by Ireland-James

Wow, that sucks major money balls.
The TorrentSpy.com was the first torrent site I ever used.
:{
AND it was great for games.
First Demonoid…then TorrentSpy.
WOW.
R.I.P.

105 Apr 25, 2008 at 18:30 by The King Of Hearts

Millions of Torrent Sites Will Be Soon Available we Lose One and Thousands Will Be Available
MPAA And RIAA Good JOb For Closing TS Today Survive The Moment Enjoy The Day Cause Tomorrow U will Face 1000 New Born Sites :) Close One and 1000 Will Open u will Never Winnnnnn
ViVa Torrents ViVa FreeDom

106 May 08, 2008 at 21:54 by guy

complete and total B.S. The movie industry needs no more money than what they’re raking in already, they make plenty from theaters and stuff. The only industry that is hit really hard by torrent sites is the Music industry, whose primary source of income, selling Cd’s, is at major risk, but its complete bull that the movie industry needs more money.

107 May 09, 2008 at 01:42 by User

I have been using Bit Torrent since its first public releases and I have seen the rise and fall of many good sites.

Who here has even heard of Torrents.se?

108 May 11, 2008 at 12:30 by TORRENTER

DAMN IT !
FIRST DEMONOID , AND THIS !!!
FUCK !
I HOPE THEY SPARE MININOVA .

109 May 14, 2008 at 08:12 by Xander Dowler

damn! this things that happened.I actually visited this sight only once caused what i always used was “mininova” but there was this one particular game: “Kana:Little Sister” that could only be downloaded perfectly in torrentspy I almost barely downloaded it a day before it shutdown but i decided to download it two days afterwards.

110 May 14, 2008 at 08:17 by Xander Dowler

torrents sites are all getting fucked! time will come when all torrent sites we depend on will be no longer existing thus we have to suffer buying things or not being able to get the stuff we do like videos,movies,music,pictures,program and stuff etc…

“the end is near…for torrents that is” -Xander Dowler-

111 May 23, 2008 at 16:00 by SaMm

Torrentspy wasn’t bad, the design and the commenting sections were designed very well indeed.

112 May 25, 2008 at 22:16 by KsbjA

Let’s hope they will return like SuprNova did… maybe it’s not closed that ‘permanently’ as they said ;-)

113 Jun 10, 2008 at 07:03 by Rob

You guys , dont think Justin settled for some type of undisclosed amount .. I mean holding onto the site this long , blocking off all US and allowing all of Europe to leech “wasnt getting enough revenue,” haha thats funny , i’m sure Justin looks at this way , ok , i rode this out while everyone shares content, WHICH SHOULD BE LEGAL! Now courts are hounding him even tho there is no law against what other countries do! Soo the big guys have a seat with Justine and tell him ” we could spend months and years in court and waste money OR we could settle here for Blah Blah amount as long as you don’t tell anyone we settled with you so it looks as we have won the copywrite law suit.

Justin i know the money is worth it and a man gets greedy but you could of faught for us little guys the guys who believe in P2P Shareing. People don’t understant once you let the government control one thing then it will control another and another and another until people go, WAIT A MIN. THE GOV IS TAKING OUR RIGHTS AWAY.

p2p is a right , if we abuse file sharing illegally such as people who sneak into movie theaters to film a movie that isn’t released.
HELLO UNETHICAL, Hire people within the company to monitor the site, if its illegal erase it. Ban the person from the site ( IP ADDRESS , MAC ADDRESS) all this law suit shit back and fourth stupid you can’t prove anything becuase the consitution and Internet law (government) are combined together people would just go back and fourth. If you Agree post

(P2P Forever) at the bottom!

114 Jun 10, 2008 at 14:01 by =(

IM REALLY SAD TORRENT SPY ARE CLOSE. THIS IS GOOD WSBSITE FOR ME +(

115 Jun 11, 2008 at 17:18 by MRSPOCK3000

Yeah, TorrentSpy was my first torrent site. It was perfect for everything, and I’ll miss it dearly. Sure, TorrentReactor is a fine site, as are The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, and countless others, but TorrentSpy felt, well, comfortable. It almost ALWAYS had what I was looking for, and it was easy to browse and/or search for downloads. Before all the ads at least, it was clean, mostly uncluttered, and overall very professional looking for a torrent site. It had lots of information for P2P “n00bs”, like a comparison of BitTorrent clients, help with download and upload issues, information on etiquette and legal policies, etc.

I say let’s make the torrentspy.com domain a tribute to the old TorrentSpy. Maybe even an information page, with everything needed for anyone to enter and continue torrent downloads and uploads, such as downloads for BitTorrent clients (with detailed reviews), tutorials on using and creating torrents, an FAQ about torrents and P2P in general, plenty of information about self-defense in legal situations, more information on how to avoid those situations, and links to popular torrent sites and/or a torrent download section. This will help those P2P newbies when they’re starting out so they can escape the same legal issues that TorrentSpy faced before it’s too late.

RIP TorrentSpy

116 Jun 18, 2008 at 03:24 by suxondeez

i will miss Death42352 or something like that if thats his name he uploaded good shit

117 Jun 19, 2008 at 22:20 by VTKlutZ

R.I.P.
You fought one hell of a fight. Thank you.

118 Jul 05, 2008 at 23:35 by Greyshell

They have stopped one, but they will never stop all.

Add your response

It takes approximately 1 minute for your comment to appear on TorrentFreak after it's posted.