UK Police Shut Down File-Sharing Site Torrentz.eu

[TRACKERFANCLUB]

The City of London police took down another search engine for downloads on file-sharing websites for linking to infringing material. The website was already blocked in the United Kingdom by some local ISPs after getting blacklisted alongside 20 other file-sharing services. Now, the website’s domain name was removed entirely, but it was back up the next day following legal complaints from the owners.


Torrentz’s domain name registrar was approached by the City of London police, who asked the company to suspend the website for linking to illegal content as part of Operation Creative. However, the service is still live at other domain names. Despite the fact that the force’s demand had no legal force, many registrars still followed such requests anyway.

The City of London police explained once again that after a website is confirmed as providing copyright infringing content, its owners or operators are approached by the police officers and offered the chance to engage with the police, change the online behavior and start to operate legitimately. In case a website fails to comply, the police can turn to other tactical options – for example, contacting the domain registrar to seek suspension of the website, or disrupting advertising revenue via an Infringing Website List (IWL) provided to companies involved in the sale and trading of digital advertising.

Torrentz.eu is known worldwide as one of the largest search engines for BitTorrent files. The portal lets users search for material to download via BitTorrent protocol. In most cases, people search for unlicensed copies of TV shows and films like Game of Thrones and the upcoming X Men: Days of Future Past. However, the service also contains legitimate material, including installers for free open source software, as well as books released under the so-called “copyleft†licenses.

The next day after the initial suspension, the website’s Polish host, registrar, was reported to change its mind about complying with the police request. Apparently, this happened after Torrentz’s lawyer contacted the company to complain.

Another illustrative example of site resurrection is the court in the Netherlands that lifted a ban on notorious file-sharing service The Pirate Bay. The court had to admit that the practice proved “ineffectiveâ€. According to the European legislation, the ISPs should not have to take measures like blocking if they are disproportionate or ineffective.