Torrentz was a Finland-based metasearch engine for BitTorrent, run by an individual known as Flippy[2] and founded on 24 July 2003.[3] It indexed torrents from various major torrent websites and offered compilations of various trackers per torrent that were not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker was down, other trackers could do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website in 2012.[4]
 Torrentz website and screenshot for a selected torrent. | |
Type of site | Torrent meta-search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Dissolved | 5 August 2016 |
| Headquarters | |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Created by | Flippy (alias) |
| URL | torrentz (.com until April 2011) |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 15 July 2003[1] |
| Current status | Offline |
Usage
editThis section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2016) |
Torrentz's user interface was simple; it had only a user menu and a search panel. Users were not required to register before searching files.
To perform a search, users would simply type in a string of keywords within the autocomplete-enabled search field and execute the search by either pressing the search button in the UI or the enter key on the keyboard. From there, a list of matching torrent files were displayed on the screen for the user to choose from. This list could be filtered by size, age (one day, three days, one week or one month) and by "safety & quality" ("any", "good" or "verified").[citation needed] The "good" filter was applied by default, and "verified" was reserved for torrents uploaded by well-known groups.[5]
Selecting a torrent from the search results list would take the user to another page listing the websites currently hosting the specified torrent (with which users would download files). As Torrentz used meta-search engines, users would be redirected to other torrent sites to download content (commonly KickassTorrents, which was considered safe to use).[citation needed]
History
editIn November 2008 scammers using fake papers attempted to take over the torrentz.com domain. As a backup, the site administrator set up the domain torrentz.eu.[6] After 18 December 2010, torrentz.eu became the site's default domain, due to the domain name seizures carried out by US authorities on various torrent websites.[7]
In 2013, Paramount Pictures sent a DMCA claim to Google to remove the Torrentz homepage and two other pages from its search engine. Torrentz counter-claimed on this request, claiming that the links did not infringe any copyright policies.[8]
On 26 May 2014, Torrentz had its domain name suspended without a court order[9][10] following a request from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. A day later, the suspension of torrentz.eu was lifted. The website had three alternative domains (.me, .ch and .in) and hoped to move the .eu domain to a new registrar. All of these domains have since been blocked within the UK by Sky.[11][12] The website had similarly been banned in India in 2012 for copyright violations, this led to incidents of hacking activism by Anonymous demanding the unblocking of Torrentz and other websites which had been blocked.[13][14]
On 5 August 2016, Torrentz was shut down by its operators with the message "Torrentz will always love you. Farewell." displayed; it operated for over 13 years.[15]
Clones
editIn August 2016, a few days after Torrentz shut down, an unofficial clone of Torrentz - Torrentz2.eu - was launched that initially indexed 60 million torrents.[16] Later that month, another unofficial clone - torrentzeu.to - was launched that initially indexed 30 million torrents.[17] At the end of June 2020, the torrentz2.eu domain was shut down but the backup domain torrentz2.is remained accessible.[18] Since November 2020, torrentz2.is and its mirror pages return a "503 error" to its visitors,[19] although its .onion domain remains functional.[20]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Torrentz WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". WHOIS. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- ^ "torrentz.eu – Torrent Search Engine". 2011-04-16. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
- ^ "Torrentz.eu". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
- ^ "Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012". Torrentfreak.com. 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
- ^ Ernesto (29 January 2008). "Torrentz Introduces Verified Torrents and More New Features". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
- ^ "Torrentz Faces Hostile Domain Takeover". Torrentfreak.com. 5 November 2008. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
- ^ "Torrentz dumps .com". Torrentfreak.com. 18 December 2010. Archived from the original on 20 April 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
- ^ "Paramount Censors Torrentz's Torrentless Homepage from Google". TorrentFreak. 15 March 2013. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Registrars Can't Hold 'Pirate' Domains Hostage Without Court Order". TorrentFreak. 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Whatever Happened to "Due Process" ?". easyDNS. 8 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
- ^ "Torrentz.eu Domain suspended after UK Police request". TorrentFreak. 26 May 2014. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Torrentz.eu Domain Unsuspended and Back in Action". TorrentFreak. 27 May 2014. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
- ^ "Anonymous hacks Indian sites to protest against Vimeo, others being blocked". NDTV.
- ^ "Anonymous hacks into Reliance servers; prevents users from accessing Facebook, Twitter". gadgets.ndtv.com.
- ^ "Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell" Archived 5 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. TorrentFreak 5 August 2016
- ^ Torrentz2.eu clone rises to take place of earlier website Archived 23 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine 10 August 2016
- ^ New Torrentz Clone Appears: Alternative Mirror Site Includes Pirate Bay And Extratorrent Searches Archived 1 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine Tech Times
- ^ "Torrentz2.eu Domain Suspended by Registry on Public Prosecutor's Order * TorrentFreak". Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
- ^ "Torrentz2 Suffers Prolonged 'Downtime' and Returns a 503 Error". Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
- ^ "Torrentz2 Mystery Downtime Continues but its .Onion Domain Works Fine". Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.