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Demonoid Torrent site removed, another one bites the dust

by Alistair Lowe on 8 August 2012, 10:45

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These days it appears that the number of safe havens for file indexing sites is fast dwindling as Demonoid is shut down manually by Ukrainian authorities, following a request from Interpol.

Much like the recently blocked Pirate Bay, Demonoid provides a file indexing service, not hosting any content itself, providing tracking links to computers that are currently sharing the desired content. The site was ranked amongst the top 600 globally and the top 300 in the US and had been placed on the US's Notorious Markets list.

Demonoid

So what does this mean for the filesharing community? Yes, it's another message that indexing sites are becoming fair-play for authorities, where previously laws left them untouched, as they did not directly infringe any content themselves. On the other hand, likely this closure will have little impact on the overall picture.

There's a chance that the site may launch in a new location, stronger than ever thanks to a popularity boost from its closure, again, much like The Pirate Bay back in the day, which subsequently grew to become the largest BitTorrent site in the world. Should the site not reopen, as TorrentFreak editor, Ernesto Van Der Sar, quite rightly pointed out, the closure is "not going to stop the majority of people from sharing files as the most popular items are available though hundreds of other BitTorrent sites."

On the other side of the coin, Demonoid was known as a good source for rare content that couldn't be obtained through legitimate retail means and content that was never under copyright in the first place, thanks to a fairly vibrant forum community. With this and Ernesto's comment in mind, it places into doubt if the measurable consequences of the site's closure uphold that ever important EU balance of IP enforcement vs the rights of the public.



HEXUS Forums :: 51 Comments

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Will be back.
Well fair play to the Ukrainians at least when they shut down a website, you cant access it any more. 1up on Britain.
chuckskull
Well fair play to the Ukrainians at least when they shut down a website, you cant access it any more. 1up on Britain.

I admit I dont read the news often, but what ones have Britain shut down and failed?

Last one I recall was that numptie thats trying to avoid extradition for hosting links to content, and I think his site went down and never returned.
As an author myself I feel rather uncomfortable supporting “sharing communities”, but I must say I feel even less inclined in supporting their adversaries and extremely uncomfortable when even in a friendly discussion with acquaintances of mine that finished law schools. Arrogance and ignorance are in abundance at both, though - in my experience, have more weight with the latter group, and that's plain scary. Here's an anecdote for you: I was asked by an acquaintance (I dare not say “friend” any more) of mine what post-graduate law studies I'd recommend him, just finishing his law degree, and I speculated - having an IT background - studies regarding copyrights and intellectual property laws will be the next big thing in “the industry”. We shared a few opinions and experiences and then he commented “Public awareness? Hell, even us law students were photocopying state laws like there's no tomorrow and no one was complaining!”. You see, these kind of morons later become judges, or worse. And he was best in class! This, and other experiences proved to me “sharing communities”, for better or worse, rather be left alone than dealt by such “exemplary” people. On the other hand, I have no doubt which of the two groups is smarter and will prevail. Decentralized BitTorrent sharing such as Triber, combined with forced protocol encryption (obfuscation) should suffice for the next decade or so in rendering any legal actions completely pointless and data stored by ISPs in compliance with the DMCA act utterly useless. Will we see laws undermining our civil rights even more frequently because of that? You can bet your behind we will! You see, these two distinct and clashing groups will stop at nothing to spread their gospels and will pay no attention to how it affects our unsuspecting Joe/Joanne. A nanny paying hundreds of thousands for sharing 0day pop kitsch? Granny fined a fortune for illegally sharing things she wouldn't know how to make use of and doesn't know what button to push to turn PC on or off? Needless to say, all of this seems fine with both these groups. Demonoid admin is drinking his Del Boy umbrella cocktail on some beach in Mexico and planning a new comeback, and Roy Slaters the world over are sharing spoils of war between them, quite possibly illegally so, cross-referencing seized data in a rather uneducated way and later presenting them as proofs against mentioned peeps in courts of law. What can we do? Shrug?
The sad thing with copyright is that we have a workable and preferable alternative to use in the Creative Commons; I am hoping that with the increase in popularity and success of crowd sourced funding and the ease of self production that more artists start becoming independent so that we can side step this ridiculous war.