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Torrentz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Torrentz
Torrentz website and screenshot for a selected torrent.
Type of site
Torrent meta-search engine
Available inEnglish
Dissolved5 August 2016(2016-08-05)
Headquarters
Finland
Area servedWorldwide
Created byFlippy (alias)
URLtorrentz.eu
( until April 2011)
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Launched15 July 2003;21 years ago(2003-07-15)[1]
Current statusOffline
Part ofa serieson
File sharing
Technologies
Video on demand sites
BitTorrent sites
Academic/scholarly
File sharing networks
P2P clients
Streaming programs
Anonymous file sharing
Development and societal aspects
By country or region
Comparisons

Torrentzwas aFinland-basedmetasearch engineforBitTorrent,run by an individual known as Flippy[2]and founded on 24 July 2003.[3]It indexedtorrentsfrom various major torrent websites and offered compilations of various trackers per torrent that were not necessarily present in the default.torrentfile, so that when a tracker was down, other trackers could do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website in 2012.[4]

Usage

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Torrentz'suser interfacewas 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 theautocomplete-enabled search field and execute the search by either pressing the search button in the UI or theenter keyon thekeyboard.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 (commonlyKickassTorrents,which was considered safe to use).[citation needed]

History

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In November 2008scammersusing fake papers attempted to take over the torrentz 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 Picturessent aDMCAclaim toGoogleto 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 itsdomain namesuspended without a court order[9][10]following a request from thePolice Intellectual Property Crime Unit.A day later, the suspension of torrentz.eu was lifted. The website had three alternative domains (.me,.chand.in) and hoped to move the.eudomain to a new registrar. All of these domains have since been blocked within the UK bySky.[11][12]The website had similarly been banned in India in 2012 for copyright violations, this led to incidents of hacking activism byAnonymousdemanding 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

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In 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.oniondomain remains functional.[20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Torrentz WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools".WHOIS.Archivedfrom the original on 15 September 2019.Retrieved21 July2016.
  2. ^"torrentz.eu – Torrent Search Engine".2011-04-16.Archivedfrom the original on 25 May 2021.Retrieved6 July2015.
  3. ^"Torrentz.eu".TorrentFreak.Archivedfrom the original on 14 July 2019.Retrieved18 June2019.
  4. ^"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012".Torrentfreak. 7 January 2012.Archivedfrom the original on 18 October 2017.Retrieved2 November2012.
  5. ^Ernesto (29 January 2008)."Torrentz Introduces Verified Torrents and More New Features".TorrentFreak.Archivedfrom the original on 28 October 2014.Retrieved6 July2015.
  6. ^"Torrentz Faces Hostile Domain Takeover".Torrentfreak. 5 November 2008.Archivedfrom the original on 6 July 2015.Retrieved16 April2011.
  7. ^"Torrentz dumps".Torrentfreak. 18 December 2010.Archivedfrom the original on 20 April 2011.Retrieved16 April2011.
  8. ^"Paramount Censors Torrentz's Torrentless Homepage from Google".TorrentFreak. 15 March 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 23 March 2014.Retrieved26 May2014.
  9. ^"Registrars Can't Hold 'Pirate' Domains Hostage Without Court Order".TorrentFreak. 10 January 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 27 May 2014.Retrieved26 May2014.
  10. ^"Whatever Happened to" Due Process "?".easyDNS. 8 October 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 5 December 2014.Retrieved27 May2014.
  11. ^"Torrentz.eu Domain suspended after UK Police request".TorrentFreak. 26 May 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 26 May 2014.Retrieved26 May2014.
  12. ^"Torrentz.eu Domain Unsuspended and Back in Action".TorrentFreak. 27 May 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 27 May 2014.Retrieved27 May2014.
  13. ^"Anonymous hacks Indian sites to protest against Vimeo, others being blocked".NDTV.
  14. ^"Anonymous hacks into Reliance servers; prevents users from accessing Facebook, Twitter".gadgets.ndtv.
  15. ^"Torrentz Shuts Down, Largest Torrent Meta-Search Engine Says Farewell"Archived5 August 2016 at theWayback Machine.TorrentFreak 5 August 2016
  16. ^Torrentz2.eu clone rises to take place of earlier websiteArchived23 May 2017 at theWayback Machine10 August 2016
  17. ^New Torrentz Clone Appears: Alternative Mirror Site Includes Pirate Bay And Extratorrent SearchesArchived1 June 2017 at theWayback MachineTech Times
  18. ^"Torrentz2.eu Domain Suspended by Registry on Public Prosecutor's Order * TorrentFreak".Archivedfrom the original on 14 July 2020.Retrieved13 July2020.
  19. ^"Torrentz2 Suffers Prolonged 'Downtime' and Returns a 503 Error".Archivedfrom the original on 5 December 2020.Retrieved5 December2020.
  20. ^"Torrentz2 Mystery Downtime Continues but its.Onion Domain Works Fine".Archivedfrom the original on 30 December 2020.Retrieved11 January2021.
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