In the battle between copyright holders and pirates, it’s likely that pirates will always win. That doesn’t mean that it’s not becoming more and more difficult for people to download illicit material that they have no right to, though.
Adding one more hurdle to the pirates’ plight is the mysterious, seemingly voluntary shutdown of one of the largest Torrent sites on the high seas: ExtraTorrent. Last week, would-be pirates were greeted by a message on the popular file sharing gateway called it quits:
“ExtraTorrent has shut down permanently
ExtraTorrent with all mirrors goes offline.. We permanently erase all data. Stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones.
Thx to all ET supporters and torrent community.
ET was a place to be…”
In addition to that, the pilfering provider’s primary release group, ETRG, is done too – though some of its other release groups may stick around.
“Ettv and Ethd could remain operational if they get enough donations to sustain the expenses and if the people handling it [are] ready to keep going”, ExtraTorrent operator SaM told Torrentfreak.
ExtraTorrents is the latest large Bittorrent provider to fall, joining the likes of KickassTorrents, Torrentz.eu, TorrentHound and What.cd.
Earlier this year, local Usenet provider NewsHost and its torrent analogue Bitfarm were brought down by the South African Federation Against Copyright Theft. The anti-piracy company was given a mandate by the Motion Picture Association to target local sites that enabled copyright infringement.
“SAFACT was also granted power of attorney from MPA member studios directly,” said SAFACT Managing Director Jacques Allers. “This mandate allows for the civil and criminal prosecution of parties engaged in any activity that may constitute the infringement of copyright-protected films.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible (or even difficult) to pirate new games, TV shows and movies – but the more hurdles, the better.
Last Updated: May 22, 2017
HairyEwok
May 22, 2017 at 11:57
Actually never even heard of ExtraTorrent until now, heard of Kickass, torrentz.eu and piratebay but never ever extratorrent.
Either way, there will always be a way for pirates to share illicit data, especially with Denuvo taking hits left and right now.
HvR
May 22, 2017 at 13:22
ExtraTorrent became THE one after last major kickass shutdown.
Heard rumour that kickass is back
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 12:04
If someone’s still torrenting stuff in this day and age, serves them right.
RinceThis
May 22, 2017 at 12:23
Maybe series shows should make their content easily available and people wouldn’t need to find the excuse to do this. When you have to pay a sub for an entire network for one show people will inevitably find nefarious means to get at the one thing they want.
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 12:37
Agreed. A lot of that unfortunately often comes down to a country’s government and laws.
RinceThis
May 22, 2017 at 12:39
yeah, suppose so
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 12:43
So we blame Zuma? Works for me.
Admiral Chief
May 22, 2017 at 12:46
Blame Canada
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 14:00
Hell no. Rather blame the US for everything. Canada is the best. 😉
Admiral Chief
May 22, 2017 at 14:18
I take it you don’t remember the song?
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 15:20
*sigh* Of course I do
Phaezen
May 22, 2017 at 12:51
Comes down more to archaic licensing and region locked agreements between the major studios and distributors.
Captain JJ
May 22, 2017 at 14:00
That too.
Admiral Chief
May 22, 2017 at 12:43
^^^agreed
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 13:23
Yeah, but R100 odd bucks a month for my Netflix is not that much. BUT Amazon Prime on the other hand….. Is more expensive AND 80% of the shows we wanted to watch are behind a 2nd paywall. Bastards.
Gardos
May 22, 2017 at 16:19
A second paywall?! I remember having an Amazon Video trial when it first launched in SA and while I didn’t spend much time on it, I’d be generous if I said I saw more than 40 shows/movies on there… Is it still that bare?
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 16:22
Yeah, buy or rent movies and tv series.
there was quite a lot of selection but almost everything we wanted to watch was hire or buy option. Really, they cost more than Netflix and than do this? AND there is no easy way to see if you can watch it until you try to watch it.
HvR
May 22, 2017 at 13:24
That and ISPs getting retarded with limitations and preferential treatment for certain streaming services.
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 13:26
Really? Bastards.
I do know without our “premium” uncapped service, streaming becomes WAAAAAAY more difficulty in the early evening.
HvR
May 22, 2017 at 13:28
Jip gets limited during peak time unless you pay for secondary streaming addon package but that is only limited to certain services ….. like the one that had its monopoly on pay TV in south africa for decades
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 13:31
We find it works out pretty well, paying the extra for the premium package, all round. It is worth the money, for sure.
I still want Fibre. Is tantalisingly 3 blocks away, at least the infrastructure is, but Openserv still says no fibre on their website. As soon as they release it….
I do not want to pay for a phone line I NEVER use. and from same ISP I can get 20mb’s Fibre, on Premium, for same price as total ADSL + Phone Line + ISP cost now. They use wireless tech to the Fibre concentrator.
HvR
May 22, 2017 at 13:40
Our Openserve fibre line is around 3months away and Vumatel coming end of the year.
Finally will have internet freedom with 2 fibre infrastructure providers and couple of dozen ISP’s
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 13:51
They have spent weeks around here and built it. Now I wait for it become available. Seems they are complete, i.e. do not see their trucks every day.
HvR
May 22, 2017 at 13:47
LOL, they just phoned we to offer the wireless to fibre solution.
Will wait for actual line
miaau
May 22, 2017 at 13:52
Seems the wireless tech is pretty good, in a technical sense. Will see how it goes, month to month contract, as always.
Edit* but device cost may be an issue
BakedBagel
May 25, 2017 at 08:28
Not using kodi in 2017 LUL
Victor
May 26, 2017 at 15:26
Since ExtraTorrent has shut down, many fake torrent sites are appearing on the internet. Torrent users should stay away of them and never forget to use a Torrent VPN like Ivacy VPN and an anti virus like KasperSky.