bit-tech.net

Torrent troubles around the world

Published on 26th September 2007 by Phil Cogar

ThePirateBay is one of the few safe havens for torrenters left open to US users.

Earlier this week isoHunt started blocking US users from using its trackers. "This is due to the US's hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US," SecretSquirrel posted on the front page of the site. This is the second torrent site to block US users in just as many months.

Late last month, TorrentSpy started blocking US users from not just the trackers but from the search feature as well. The decision was made after a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to keep logs of all users connecting to the server. In order to safeguard US users from that judicial decision and from lawsuits brought on by the MPAA, TorrentSpy simply blocked all US users, rendering the decision moot.

The moves made by both of these tracker sites not only effected US users but users across the globe. With US users blocked from some trackers, there are fewer seeders and peers - which results in slower torrents for others. It already was starting to look pretty bleak for torrenters before another blow hit the community - Demonoid has gone down.

According to the folks over at TorrentFreak, the CRIA (branch of the RIAA operating in Canada) is responsible for the site going down. As of right now, you can still ping the servers and get a response but you can't actually connect to the servers. Ernesto believes that the site's ISP may have firewalled the server, essentially blocking all connections.

Demonoid's admin has yet to be located and contacted to confirm or deny anything, but the information so far seems to be creditable. The last time TorrentFreak reported Demoinoid being shut down, the servers were moved from the Netherlands to Canada.

Are you blocked from your favorite torrent site? Noticed slower torrents since isoHunt blocked US users? Leave your thoughts over in the forums or in the comment section below.

36 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

oasked 26th September 2007, 15:04

I did notice Demenoid go down this morning (I was searching for "Linux ISOs").

At the end of the day, there are always replacement sites and all the best Torrent sites are private anyway. ;)

DarkLord7854 26th September 2007, 15:15

I'm rather worried bout demonoid.. I rather hope they don't seize the servers.. If they do.. I gotta change my IP real fast :p

Jodiuh 26th September 2007, 15:26

This frickin' continent...

Duste 26th September 2007, 15:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkLord7854
I'm rather worried bout demonoid.. I rather hope they don't seize the servers.. If they do.. I gotta change my IP real fast :p

+1

And also +1 to Demonoid moving its servers to good 'ole Sweden. :D

Corvyne 26th September 2007, 15:57

Shame about demonoid, they had a nice book section, so I'm kinda hoping there's no BPAA or I could be in trouble ;)

yakyb 26th September 2007, 16:01

looks like a major shake up to me. will be interesting run up to new year at this rate i just hope no semi innocent people get hurt in the cross fire

quack 26th September 2007, 16:02

News on Demonoid: http://diggdl.googlepages.com/demonoid

E.E.L. Ambiense 26th September 2007, 16:06

Demon goes down regularly like that. Nothing to worry about, I'd think. Maintenance and all.

Mother-Goose 26th September 2007, 16:14

This is a very clever way of destroying the torrent network, but as this is the case, the tv shows we all download that are sometimes only showed in the states (eureka for instance) should be available for us to buy ALL over the world, not just the states.

LoneArchon 26th September 2007, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
This is a very clever way of destroying the torrent network, but as this is the case, the tv shows we all download that are sometimes only showed in the states (eureka for instance) should be available for us to buy ALL over the world, not just the states.

ISOhunt has only closed it trackers to US users not the site nor access to search 3rd party trackers. So US only show will still be upload just not to their trackers. But this is more or less just a bump in the road for torrents not a nail in a coffin.

chrisb2e9 26th September 2007, 16:31

good timing since all the new shows start up soon. I have tv but when I am at work I miss episodes and have to download them to watch them. maybe its time to buy a vcr...

Mother-Goose 26th September 2007, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneArchon
ISOhunt has only closed it trackers to US users not the site nor access to search 3rd party trackers. So US only show will still be upload just not to their trackers. But this is more or less just a bump in the road for torrents not a nail in a coffin.

I understand ISOhunt is not closing, but closing access to the trackers, doesn't this stop the US guys from seeding on to it?

I know they can and will seed to other sites which can be accessed and then us europeans will seed and we can get it all anyway but it will slow it all down.

Have I misunderstood how torrents work!?:(

chrisb2e9 26th September 2007, 17:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mother-Goose
I understand ISOhunt is not closing, but closing access to the trackers, doesn't this stop the US guys from seeding on to it?

I know they can and will seed to other sites which can be accessed and then us europeans will seed and we can get it all anyway but it will slow it all down.

Have I misunderstood how torrents work!?:(

If the site blocks us ip's then I dont think that they will be able to load the tracker. and without that they cant seed to it.

Delphium 26th September 2007, 17:22

web proxy? ;)

Not hard to learn to setup.

LoneArchon 26th September 2007, 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mother-Goose
I understand ISOhunt is not closing, but closing access to the trackers, doesn't this stop the US guys from seeding on to it?

I know they can and will seed to other sites which can be accessed and then us europeans will seed and we can get it all anyway but it will slow it all down.

Have I misunderstood how torrents work!?:(

Only their trackers many of the trackers listed in search are not ISOhunts trackers but 3rd party trackers that are not in control of ISOhunt. From my use i find that I rarely ever used a ISOhunt tracker. Also the content can still be access by all users with used of the 3rd party trackers. so as long as you use the 3rd party trackers the speed should be constant as the US user are still able to seed on those. Example the show Eureka the latest episode is hosted using a 3rd party tracker with over 3000 seeds and is accessible from the us

IanW 26th September 2007, 18:13

Latest I've read elsewhere is that Demonoid have NOT been raided, their server fall down, go boom!

ElZog 26th September 2007, 18:30

Yeah the techs were playing jenga with all the servers again and brian lost.

Breach 26th September 2007, 18:45

I find their futile attempts to stop p2p amusing, when has that ever, EVER, worked. I mean really...there is always another torrent site.

capnPedro 26th September 2007, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanW
Latest I've read elsewhere is that Demonoid have NOT been raided, their server fall down, go boom!

Yeah, it's a hardware problem.
Demonoid have NOT been raided. Ask the IRC Ops.

Quite annoyed as I wanted to get a torrent last night, and the only tracker that has it is Demonoid.

proxess 26th September 2007, 20:00

I was wondering why a torrent I'm downloading is stuck at 99.9% and just doesn't budge... talk about tough luck!

Kurayamino 26th September 2007, 21:41

Be prepared to go deeper underground is what I say!

zhangmaster12 27th September 2007, 01:04

so, demonoid will probably still be safe?

what about mininova.org?

i have shitloads of torrents, mostly linux distros and pr0n

Stormtrooper 27th September 2007, 01:15

when oink goes down, I'll cry.

evox 27th September 2007, 01:39

TorrentFreak has ZERO Credibility, I don't trust a word from them. I suggest others follow the same route and wait for an official announcement from Demonoid's Owner (Who resides in Moscow for any one wondering) also:

http://thecircuitbox.com/demonoid

an IRC Transcript of one of TF's staff members. it's clear that TF only posts BS to get more hits without any actual sources whatsoever.

also, even though the site is down, The torrents are still running fine (with Connection Refused and Timed Out errors ofcourse)

mininova.org is safe :) atleast for now....

Morphine-Kitty 27th September 2007, 05:18

Good thing I'm in Canada! :D

Not that I illegally download anything.

Firehed 27th September 2007, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormtrooper
when oink goes down, I'll cry.

Grr. When I get an oink invite, I'll cry with happiness.

But TPB keeps me pretty well covered for my open source distribution needs.

flabber 27th September 2007, 12:18

I've never been able to find the private torrentsites other then Demonoid, but I doubt they will ever be able to get rid of the torrentsites at all. After all, after Suprnova went down, there were a bunch of other sites that took up the job of becoming the biggest and/or best (Isohunt, Thepiratebay, Demonoid and such).

For every site they take down (wether it's MPAA, RIAA, BREIN, whoever), I think we'll just make 3 other torrentsites instead :P

Atomic 27th September 2007, 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormtrooper
when oink goes down, I'll cry.

I'm yet to get an invite for it tho... not got any spare have you?

wolff000 27th September 2007, 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by oasked
I did notice Demenoid go down this morning (I was searching for "Linux ISOs").

At the end of the day, there are always replacement sites and all the best Torrent sites are private anyway. ;)

I can not stand the MAFIAAS taking down these sites. I am equally irritated by private torrent sites. I have tons of data, music, and a few movies i would love to share. The good sites however have blocked themselves off to the point you can't get into them at all. I like the idea of a selective community but one that keeps everyone out but a handful is the polar opposite of what torrent technology was created for. It helps only a select few which is the very problem we are complaining about with the RIAA and MPAA tactics.

DXR_13KE 27th September 2007, 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolff000
I can not stand the MAFIAAS taking down these sites. I am equally irritated by private torrent sites. I have tons of data, music, and a few movies i would love to share. The good sites however have blocked themselves off to the point you can't get into them at all. I like the idea of a selective community but one that keeps everyone out but a handful is the polar opposite of what torrent technology was created for. It helps only a select few which is the very problem we are complaining about with the RIAA and MPAA tactics.

divided we fall....

anyway..... it is basically impossible to shut down internet piracy without it having a serious impact on some part of the economy.....

HourBeforeDawn 28th September 2007, 05:10

well one of my personal favs was TorrentSpy but there like a dime a dozen so many out there I just use a general search that just look at all those types of sites and send me back the results so ehh, as far as being slower well things seemed to have speed up for me lol.

capnPedro 29th September 2007, 14:04

Good news everyone!
Although (at the time of writing) Demonoid's website is still down, their tracker (inferno.demonoid.com:3413/announce) is back online.

quack 30th September 2007, 22:14

Demonoid is back online, but blocking Canadian users.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evox
TorrentFreak has ZERO Credibility, I don't trust a word from them. I suggest others follow the same route and wait for an official announcement from Demonoid's Owner (Who resides in Moscow for any one wondering)

For a site that you say has no credibility, TorrentFreak were entirely (95%) correct. The staffers lied. :p

capnPedro 1st October 2007, 00:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonoid.com
The latest changes to the site are giving us some problems - We'll be back soon

At least they're back...

Sparrowhawk 1st October 2007, 00:25

Yeah, IIRC there were a lot of sites saying Demonoid was hosted out of Canada. This seems to stem from a Torrentfreak article, but with Demonoid's founder in the ~~Soviet Union~~* Russian Federation, I doubt the CRIA has jurisdiction.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/26/132204

*You better believe Bush has this kind of viewpoint...

quack 1st October 2007, 09:39

Of course the CRIA has (or at least thinks it does) jurisdiction, if the servers are in Canada they fall under Canadian law. It doesn't matter where the admin is.