The last couple of days have been anything but good for us pirates. There are two events which might represent the biggest turning point in the history of public torrent trackers.

Mininova Failed

First of all Mininova has turned off its public tracker and is from now on “only” a delivery system for legal content. According to their blog Mininova failed to implement filtering systems for their tracker an had to take these drastic measures to comply with a verdict from the Court of Utrecht. As a result more than 1,5 million torrents were taken offline and most of Mininovas community is looking for an alternative.

Pirate Bay Tracker Shuts Down

The second important news is that thepiratebay.org´s tracker has been taken offline and was replaced by an indexing service for magnet URLs. For the normal user this doesn´t change anything. Instead of downloading .torrent files the user now clicks on magnet links. The link contains a hash value which lets the torrent client identify the content.
The folks at piratebay claim that progress in technology made centralized trackers obsolete. That may be the case but it might also have something to do with the ongoing struggle the piratebay crew has in Swedish courts. It sure helps them to dodge a few bullets is the future.

In the upcoming posts I will try to guide you through the rough seas of the interweb. I will help you find your stuff and maybe even a new torrent home for those of you which have lost theirs in the recent events.

ARRRARRRR
ThePirateGuy