Tech
BTjunkie BitTorrent site 'voluntarily' shut down
Published Monday, Feb 6 2012, 15:04 GMT | By Andrew Laughlin | 8 comments
BTjunkie, one of the most popular BitTorrent sites, has "voluntarily" closed in the wake of the shutdown of MegaUpload by US authorities last month.
In a message posted on the site, the operators of BTjunkie said: "This is the end of the line my friends. The decision has not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down.
"We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate but it's time to move on. It's been the experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"
BTjunkie, which had dozens of millions of users a month, was never targeted directly by copyright holders, but it was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) in November last year.
The service was also listed as a "rogue" website by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America over alleged mass copyright infringement, and was among the search terms censored by Google due to its online piracy connections.
Speaking to TorrentFreak, the BTjunkie founder said that legal action against MegaUpload and other filesharing sites, such as The Pirate Bay, had been key in the shutdown decision.
The founders of MegaUpload are charged with costing copyright holders more than $500 million (£320m) in lost revenue from pirated films and other media.
After the site's closure, various other online services have moved to shut down or limit their file-sharing functions to avoid the attention of US authorities.
Filesonic recently disabled its sharing functions to only allow users to access their own files, while Uploaded.to blocked US access to its site entirely.
The FileServe site has now done the same, posting the following message to users: "FileServe can only be used to download and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally. If this file belongs to you, please log in to download it directly from your file manager."
QuickSilverScreen has also shut down, and other similar sites are expected to follow suit.
Despite the closure, BTjunkie's owner said that there could still be a future for other BitTorrent sites.
"I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure," the unnamed man told TorrentFreak.
> Megaupload replacement Anonyupload is a scam, warns Anonymous
In a message posted on the site, the operators of BTjunkie said: "This is the end of the line my friends. The decision has not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down.
"We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate but it's time to move on. It's been the experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"
© BT Junkie
BTjunkie, which had dozens of millions of users a month, was never targeted directly by copyright holders, but it was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) in November last year.
The service was also listed as a "rogue" website by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America over alleged mass copyright infringement, and was among the search terms censored by Google due to its online piracy connections.
Speaking to TorrentFreak, the BTjunkie founder said that legal action against MegaUpload and other filesharing sites, such as The Pirate Bay, had been key in the shutdown decision.
The founders of MegaUpload are charged with costing copyright holders more than $500 million (£320m) in lost revenue from pirated films and other media.
After the site's closure, various other online services have moved to shut down or limit their file-sharing functions to avoid the attention of US authorities.
Filesonic recently disabled its sharing functions to only allow users to access their own files, while Uploaded.to blocked US access to its site entirely.
The FileServe site has now done the same, posting the following message to users: "FileServe can only be used to download and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally. If this file belongs to you, please log in to download it directly from your file manager."
QuickSilverScreen has also shut down, and other similar sites are expected to follow suit.
Despite the closure, BTjunkie's owner said that there could still be a future for other BitTorrent sites.
"I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure," the unnamed man told TorrentFreak.
> Megaupload replacement Anonyupload is a scam, warns Anonymous
More: Megaupload, Tech
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