Before its sudden disappearance October of last year, YIFY or YTS perhaps rivaled top file-sharing sites The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents as among the most recognizable torrent brands. Yet even as millions benefitted from the free movies provided by the release group, which authorities labeled as illegal act, the letters representing them remained a mystery.
Now thanks to a recent disclosure by a court from New Zealand, where the group operated from, the man behind YIFY or YTS has been given a face. Court documents identified the torrent provider as 23-year-old resident of Auckland Yiftach Swery, according to Stuff.co.nz. The report confirmed too that not only Swery is a techie - a web and app developer - but also an accomplished young athlete, in fact an archery champion.
Picking up on the report, TorrentFreak said that YIFY was likely derived from the creator's name, specifically the first three letters of his first name. Then later on when YIFY was rebranded to YTS, the label became YIFY Torrents Solutions.
The name switch also marked YIFY's gradual exit from the release group. As TorrentFreak said on its report, "It's worth noting that Yiftach was not the only person behind YIFY. In fact, towards the end he was no longer actively involved in encoding and uploading movie."
It can be assumed that YIFY's young age and his inactive status during the crackdown initiated by the MPAA significantly contributed to the relatively light punishment he got. The torrent provider has reportedly settled with the MPAA, turned over the YTS to the Hollywood group then just disappeared largely unscathed.
Last April, YIFY broke his deemed legally-imposed silence and explained the reasons for the surprise YTS shutdown. "As soon as someone properly asks you to stop, you stop and walk away from it. This is essentially how it all played out," YIFY told TorrentFreak.
The YTS creator confirmed as well that he is no longer part of the torrent scene, indicating too that YTS.ag, which claimed to pick up after him, is operating without his permission. The new site is essentially a fake that true YTS fans should stop following, YIFY said.
However, as TorrentFreak said. YTS.ag is effectively filling in the void created by YIFY's abrupt exit and currently counts as among the top torrent sites barely a few months into existence.