TamilRockers domain blocked, but the piracy website can come back anytime

[Anna Kushina (櫛名アンナ)]

It may come as an answer to prayers from those in the Tamil film industry, and yet, at the same time, it might be too soon to celebrate. On Monday evening the buzz began that the notorious piracy website TamilRockers may have finally bid adieu since their site failed to load for several hours.

While many on Twitter began posting that their last active web address - tamilrockers.ws - failed to load, the news went viral when Tamil MV, another piracy website posted a farewell message to TamilRockers on their website. “Thanks to TR for his wonderful services for a decade! - from team TMV [The site was shut don by themself’s nothing more then that],” read their message.

TamilRockers continues to be offline as of October 20 afternoon and many say that this is because their domain has been suspended. Speculations are that Amazon must have intervened directly since all of its new releases have made it to the site within a few hours after release. This has posed a serious challenge for the OTT platform’s growth, especially at a time when the pandemic has opened up the cinema industry towards online streaming.

However, this isn’t their first-time TamilRockers has been suspended or their domain blocked but the piracy site has made comebacks in the past after brief lulls on different domains. Industry experts are therefore waiting to see if the piracy site might resurrect itself once again.

As per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a US copyright law, several takedown notices were sent to TamilRockers by on behalf of Amazon by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). When the notice is issued by the copyright holder, the website that infringes the copyright will be taken down (offline) by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Hosting company.

From Jyothika’s Ponmagal Vandhal to the most recent Tamil anthology series Putham Pudhu Kaalai, directed by five different directors, all of the new releases have made their way into the piracy website within just a few hours after their release.

Over the past decade, TamilRockers has remained a serious threat to those in the Tamil film industry, making all new films available on the site for free download, mostly within a few hours after release. Their strategy and modus operandi continues to baffle everyone in the industry with many trying unsuccessfully to thwart TamilRockers’ efforts.