TorrentSpy Shuts Down
Written by Ernesto on March 27, 2008A 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.
TorrentSpy 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?
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Sad story.
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.
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.
http://www.youtorrent.com
[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…
Fergal hunter is a cunt
R.I.P.
L2Usenet RIP TS
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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?
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.
[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
Fucking assholes…that site was great…oh well one goes down 10 go online. Fuck MPAA
R.I.P.
6 years, i won´t forget u torrnetspy
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!!!
wow .. not even gonna miss them.
Oh well just use rapidshare its uber fast n not throttled
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.
I couldn’t log into that one anyway. Long live the bay.
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.
NOOO! Don’t give up the fight! Art is for the people!
One down! 198 to go!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
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