BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie Shuts Down For Good!​

UPDATE​

See below​

TorrentFreak
Ernesto

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Check their site: http://btjunkie.org/goodbye.html

British based BTjunkie, one of the largest BitTorrent indexes on the Internet, has decided to shut down voluntarily today. A combination of legal actions against fellow file-sharing sites and time-consuming projects have led to the drastic decision that takes out one the main players in the BitTorrent landscape.

BTJunkie, a popular file-sharing indexing site, said Monday it was voluntarily shutting down, less than three weeks after the U.S. closure of Megaupload in a crackdown on piracy of music, films and other materials. Founded in June 2005, BTjunkie has been among the top BitTorrent sites for more than half a decade.

The site was never involved in any legal action, and to keep it this way the site’s operators decided to shut the site down for good today. The following message was posted on the BTjunkie homepage a few minutes ago:

“This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!”

Talking to TorrentFreak, BTjunkie’s founder said that the legal actions against other file-sharing sites such as MegaUpload and The Pirate Bay played an important role in making the difficult decision. Witnessing all the trouble colleagues got into was cause for a lot of worry and stress, and those will now belong to the past.

That said, BTjunkie’s owner still thinks there might be a future for other BitTorrent sites.

“I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure,” he told TorrentFreak.

While BTjunkie was never targeted directly by copyright holders, the site was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) November last year. Both the RIAA and MPAA listed the torrent index as a ‘rogue’ site that facilitated mass copyright infringement.

BTjunkie is also one of the search terms censored by Google because it’s piracy related, alongside The Pirate Bay, RapidShare, uTorrent and others.

As a result of the decision to shut down BTjunkie, one of the top 5 torrent sites with dozens of millions of users a month is no more. Judging from previous shutdowns like that of TorrentSpy and Mininova, users will quickly find a new home at one of the many alternatives.

Nonetheless, it’s the end of an era.
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Addon:
The news of BTJunkie’s demise comes days after the Swedish Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the founders of popular BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay. Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström were sentenced to a year of jail time in 2009. Their sentence has since been reduced, but their fines were increased to $7 million.

In February 1, 2012, Sweden’s Supreme Court announced its decision not to grant leave to appeal in the long-running Pirate Bay criminal trial. This means that the previously determined jail sentences and fines handed out to Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström will stand.

Although Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström all had their prison sentences decreased from the levels ordered at their original 2009 trial, they were ordered to pay increased damages amounting to millions of dollars to the entertainment company plaintiffs.

Hoping to overturn the ruling, the three filed for a hearing of their case at the Supreme Court. Today this request was denied, meaning that the sentences as determined by the Court of Appeal are now final.

Peter Sunde, also known as Brokep, now awaits 8 months in prison. Fredrik Neij, also known as TiAMO, faces 10 months. Businessman Carl Lundström has the lightest sentence of 4 months. All will have to pay their share of a combined 46 million kronor ($6.8 million) in damages.

Despite the fact that sentences are now final, The Pirate Bay website remains online as it was not part of the legal proceedings. However, a few hours after the Supreme Court decision was made public, The Pirate Bay website started redirecting to a .se domain, fearing a possible seizure from the US authorities.

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If file-sharing is totally stopped then the Internet will come to a stand-still. Can you imagine how many jobs will be lost? Just think about it!

 

Another one has fallen...R.I.P.!

 

The very idea of having to go back to my bookstore to buy porn magazines gives me acne...

 

cheer up my bro the entire webs is still good :-D

 

What you are witnessing here, Gentlemen, is F.U.D. in action. (Or better said the results.)

Kind of an 'Operation Shock and Awe' for the internet, following the motto 'If they dont play ball, scare them into submission'.

Its exactly what they wanted/want to happen, and although i would have loved to be wrong its exactly what i expected to happen.

Sound vaguely familiar?

 

History will show these Fiends for what they are.

In years to come the A-Holes behind these attacks on Freedom of Information will be named and their off-spring will have to bare the shame for the Greedy, Short Sighted Scum that spawned them.

Our ONLY true hope, is a total awakening of the People.

 

They won't be missed by me, most of their good torrents were locked and I always had password problems.

 

I hate to read this. I used BT-junkie for years, till I learned how torrents work and got paranoid.
Time-consuming projects? What projects? they started up under a new name? I hate that word, projects, it could mean their doing anything.

 

its a sad day . but a few of my friends who have been using the www for 20 years plus keep saying there was downloading before torrents and file host sites. They keep saying play your Neo card and dig deeper.

 

btjunkie was my first and favorite Torrent site.. this is how I feel right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOyt-EhHN8A

 

That remains to be seen.

Now that they have witnessed how well Shock and Awe actually works, (and im not just talking about BTj here, but the current situation in general), im pretty sure we will see more strikes a-la megaupload.

Motto: Go hard on some of the big players, make sure it becomes a worldwide media-spectacle and fear will do the rest.

Sure, there will be protests and all, but what good do you think this will ultimately do?

As you could see, the ones who think they are in jeopardy (i only say filesonic/fileshare etc.) will pull out to save their hides quicker than you can say 403, and once theyre all gone people can protest and demand freedom of information all they want, they will still be gone.


From their POV its a perfect plan. Comparatively little work, but a huge effect. So huge in fact that theyd be stupid NOT to exploit this option. Think about it...

 

We used to swap files over IRC and FTP

 

Hello, indeed this has been a catastrophic month in the file sharing world. What really worries me is they (govt/copyright holders) are seeing the HUGE impact that this is having and I'm afraid all they'll need to do is one maybe two more hits like the one on MegaUpload and it could be over (or at least severely maimed). Remember, all the government did was close MegaUpload, but look at the chain reaction that has caused. Several of the major players have basically raised the white flag or sounded the retreat I suppose is a more accurate description. Say they put some serious heat on RapidShare? I bet that alone could do it if they were to go down. Believe me, they are aware of this and I am almost certain they are putting together some kind of plan as we speak. They are probably surprised themselves of the amount of damage they just inflicted. Anyways, this is just one more reason for me to chalk up for being ashamed of my US Government. It's getting to be quite a large list too.

 

and as per usual a new form of sharing shall take over

 

I'm getting queasy about all this....