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Ding dong the torrent's dead -- Pirate Bay's tracker closes down
In rather shocking news this morning, The Pirate Bay (TPB) has shut down its torrent tracker. The search engine remains, but instead of dishing up torrents it will instead serve as a magnet-link repository.
TPB cites that the concept of the BitTorrent tracker is dead. "There is no need to run a tracker any more" says their blog. Long-live DHT and PEX -- dynamic, decentralized torrenting technologies!
What this actually means for you and I -- the implications -- is that you need to make sure you have an updated torrent client, like uTorrent or Azureus. Something that supports DHT and PEX. Most of you will already have these technologies enabled by default -- you just don't know about them. In fact, even with this rather dramatic announcement, you probably won't realise any difference in your download speeds.
Piracy will continue as normal, don't worry.
It's simply the end of an era. Perhaps more interestingly, TPB have been talking to other tracker owners and torrent-download sites. They're pushing for everyone to move away from trackers and towards decentralization.
Whether this is simply a 'viva la piracy!' move, or a more sinister strategy by their new owners remains to be seen.
[via TorrentFreak]
Comments
17
Subscribe to commentsPakiprince86Nov 17th 2009 11:23AM
Haha! You search for Lee's wife on TPB? That's pretty hilarious. I am not sure if he'll appreciate that. Oh and...RIP Pirate Bay.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 17th 2009 11:34AM
Damn, I was hoping no one would notice...
RIP TPB!
der_tuxmanNov 17th 2009 11:37AM
eMule doesn't need trackers, it will survive that torrent bs..
Sebastian AnthonyNov 17th 2009 11:39AM
Most TPB torrents haven't been using the tracker in a while anyway... did anyone notice?
Stop holding on to ancient technology!
der_tuxmanNov 17th 2009 11:44AM
What's wrong with ancient technology as long as it works fine? See, the wheel is quite ancient, too.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 17th 2009 11:46AM
And we're still using segments of trees to act as wheels?
Or do we use metal composites surrounded in rubber nowadays...?
How about the suspension? Slip differential?
Do you have a really old car too -- a Volvo maybe? Because 'it works'?
der_tuxmanNov 17th 2009 11:50AM
I don't have a car.
Give me one good (!) reason to switch to BitTorrent, and I will willingly do so. So far I only see the disadvantages (no built-in global search function, having to register on ALTs, no unlimited download (!) on them, short file life time, rather small file diversity, ...)
Sax25Nov 17th 2009 2:56PM
All you do is complain about bittorrent - well guess what? nobody else does! Must be awfully lonely in your mums basement with your VHS tapes and 8 track.. der_tuxman, party of one.
der_tuxmanNov 17th 2009 2:58PM
Nobody else does, so I'll have to. Just to avoid that more ppl fall into that BT stuff.
Name:Nov 17th 2009 11:40AM
for you and me
Drew GreenNov 17th 2009 1:13PM
"Piracy will continue as normal, don't worry."
Ok, good.
kojo87Nov 17th 2009 4:15PM
whew! i was scared for a minute there...
Joshua PrzygockiNov 17th 2009 2:05PM
Just scrolling through Engadget and I see this on their sidebar, got scared for a second there...
SlickNov 17th 2009 11:12PM
Does uTorrent support those other technologies? I prefer to not have to change me client...
Sebastian AnthonyNov 18th 2009 9:54AM
Think so! uTorrent is usually the 'pinnacle' of BT clients.
or rTorrent, but that's command-line...
NeilNov 18th 2009 12:33PM
Couldn't geta link to Usenext this morning. Is there any connection between the 2?
Gilbert PalauDec 30th 2009 6:42PM
The PBay isn't dead... I hate it when people take it out of proportion. They just stopped using Trackers. They are only using Magnet links because, magnets dont need a tracker to function.
Besides... there is always usenet...