Demonoid

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For the metal band, see Demonoid (band).
Demonoid
File:Demonoid.jpeg
Type of site
Semi-private torrent tracker with sporadic registration periods for new members
OwnerDeimos
Created byDeimos
URLdemonoid.com
RegistrationYes

Demonoid was a website and BitTorrent tracker set up by an anonymous Serb known only as Deimos. The website indexed torrents uploaded by its members. It was the second most used public tracker for over a year, the 403rd most popularly ranked website in July 2007 according to Alexa,[1] and had an estimated 3 million peers in September 2007.[2] It went offline on November 9 2007 due to legal threats from the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

Membership

The website featured a publicly accessible search tool. Previously, membership was required to download more than 4 torrents per week or to download torrent files older than a few days, but the requirement was later removed. Registration was opened periodically when resources permitted. Users had the ability to create a limited number of invitation codes to send to others during closed registration periods.[3]

Demonoid tracked and displayed users' upload/download ratios but took no action against users with low ratios.[4] Demonoid previously banned users with low ratios, but stopped doing so due to the ratio system being inaccurate for some users.[5]

Features

Demonoid categorized torrents under either Anime, Applications, Audio Books, Books, Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Music, Music Videos, Pictures, or TV. Many categories had various subcategories or divisions that allowed a search to be more specific.

Demonoid featured RSS with different feeds for each category and sub category to keep users aware of the latest torrent posted on the site. These RSS feeds linked to the Demonoid page and not directly to the torrent file. RSS plugins for the various BitTorrent clients were not able to directly download the torrent file and begin the file sharing.

Although Demonoid removed torrents over a year old on August 4, 2006 to free tracker resources, the site had over 199,628 user submitted torrents indexed as of October 21, 2007[citation needed].

Legal issues

In the Netherlands

On June 26 2007, Demonoid went down for hardware failures, supposedly unrelated to concurrent legal issues.[6][7] Demonoid's ISP Leaseweb had been ordered by the Dutch police to take down the website.[citation needed] Later, the Dutch anti-piracy organization Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland would file a subpoena against Leaseweb, demanding that Demonoid be taken down[6][8] with a penalty of €50,000 per day otherwise.[9] Leaseweb, after delaying as long as possible, divulged to BREIN the name, address, and banking information of the registered owner of Demonoid.com, and signed the cease and desist demand.[9] Leaseweb did not appeal this demand like they did for another client, Everlating.nu.[9]

Planning for this, Demonoid moved to Quebec, Canada to avoid BREIN's jurisdiction.[7] The time needed to relocate was speculated to be the real reason behind the downtime.[6]

In Canada

On September 25 2007, the Demonoid website, forums and trackers went offline.[10] They came back four days later with the exception of the website, which came back the day after. Over the next few days, the website continued experiencing intermittent downtime[11] until October 2. The explanation was that they had received a letter from a lawyer for the Canadian Recording Industry Association threatening legal action.[11] Demonoid began blocking Canadian traffic,[12] a strategy similar to that taken by isoHunt and TorrentSpy in blocking American traffic to avoid RIAA complaints.[11] Visitors from Canadian-based IPs would be redirected to the downtime version of the website, which contained an explanation of the legal threats.

The threats are in spite of the open question of the legality of music file sharing in Canada.[13][12] The CRIA has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement despite Demonoid's claims.

On November 9 2007, the website was shut down with a placeholder page, stating, "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding." According to the IRC channel, the trackers themselves were not affected.[12] Six days later, the placeholder page was updated with a link to a new forum, unrelated to file sharing, for the community. On November 29 2007, Deimos posted on that forum a problem preventing the site from coming back up:

"Money is an issue, but the real problem at the moment is finding a suitable place to host the website. There has been no luck there. And there's some personal stuff I need to take care of that takes most of my time at the moment, and that does not help."

Future

In January 2008, The Pirate Bay, where some Demonoid users have moved,[14][15] offered two Swedish servers to the Demonoid team. Sweden is a place where other torrent sites relocated in 2007.[16]

External links

References

  1. ^ Thomas Mennecke (2007-07-11). "Leaseweb Reveals Owner of Demonoid.com". Slyck.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Ernesto (2007-09-24). "The 5 Most Popular BitTorrent Trackers". TorrentFreak.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Demonoid FAQ: Why is the registration closed periodically?
  4. ^ "Demonoid FAQ: Stats". Demonoid. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  5. ^ "The Ratio & Demonoid ~ Hot News". Demonoid Forum. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  6. ^ a b c Ernesto (2007-06-27). "Anti-Piracy Organization Tries to Shut Down Demonoid". TorrentFreak.com. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b Thomas Mennecke (2007-07-04). "Demonoid Returns". Slyck.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Janneke Scheepers (2007-07-12). "Leaseweb buigt opnieuw voor Brein" (in Dutch). ZDNet. Retrieved 2008-01-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  9. ^ a b c Thomas Mennecke (2007-07-11). "Leaseweb Reveals Owner of Demonoid.com". Slyck.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Torrentsite Demonoid opnieuw offline lees voor" (in Dutch). NU.nl. 2007-09-25. Retrieved 2008-01-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  11. ^ a b c Nick Farrell (2007-10-01). "Demonoid p2p site returns from dead". The Inquirer. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ a b c Chris Williams (2007-11-09). "BitTorrent site Demonoid.com downed by Canadian record industry". The Register. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Pyrrhic Victory for Downloaders in Music Industry Appeal". Ross & McBride. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  14. ^ Chris Williams (2007-12-27). "BitTorrenters seek sanctuary in Pirate Bay". The Register. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Ernesto (2007-12-25). "The Pirate Bay: Torrents and Peers Double in 2007". TorrentFreak.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Ernesto (2008-01-16). "The Pirate Bay: Demonoid is Welcome in Sweden". TorrentFreak.com. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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