The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content of mostly entertainment media, founded in 2003, where visitors can search, download and contribute links and torrent files. (Photo : Facebook/Pirate Bay)
Rumors fired up anew that The Pirate Bay and other torrenting sites are shutting down soon as authorities and copyright holders continue on their intensified campaign to take down suspected piracy operations. The latest to fall is France-based music torrent What.cd, described "as the greatest music-sharing torrent site the world has ever known."
That's according to TorrentFreak, which reported that private tracker What.cd surprised its millions of followers this week in announcing that it is voluntary closing down. "Due to some recent events, What.CD is shutting down," the website was quoted by the report as saying.
In the same statement, What.cd also indicated that the chance of resuming operation soon is too little. "We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish," the statement said.
Reminiscent of what happened to meta-search engine operation Torrent.eu back in August, What.cd's voluntary exit appears the direct result of the ongoing piracy crackdowns being waged by various right holders groups in collaboration with government anti-piracy agencies, TorrentFreak reported.
What.cd destroyed its data was likely an act to keep operators off the hook following the series of raids made by French authorities in the past days. Reports indicated that servers have been seized but it was unclear if the data destruction mentioned by What.cd on its statement happened prior to the crackdown operations.
And according to the same report by TorrentFreak: "No arrests have been reported, and it's unclear if any of the seized data is readable."
What.cd, which as mentioned above was the go-to site for millions of music torrent fans, bowing out is the latest in the string of torrenting sites forced to halt their operations. In July, Kickass Torrents abruptly disappeared following the arrest of the site's alleged operator and owner Artem Vaulin. The month after, Torrentz.eu permanently went offline and the reason remains unknown.
Then in September, TorrentHound followed suit. Just days ago, FS.to in Ukraine was taken down as authorities acted on the complaint lodged by Hollywood group MPAA. While mirror sites of FS.to remain operating in Russia, TorrentFreak said in a separate report that the MPAA-led anti-piracy campaign will continue and seen likely to fall next is file-hosting site Ex.ua, also operating from Ukraine.
The latest happenings further stoked fears that rights holders and authorities are fast closing in on The Pirate Bay, which at the moment is simultaneously regarded as the King of Torrents and the best alternative to KAT, Torrentz and other torrenting destinations.
