The Pirate Bay stops hosting torrents, but may prove even stronger as a result
The Pirate Bay have announced that they will no longer be hosting torrent files, and will instead now focus on providing file-sharers with magnet links.
Though one would assume torrent files are the bread-and-butter of the service, this new move will not cause any significant changes to the way visitors use the site. Magnet links will still let users share files through associated torrent platforms, but, as The Pirate Bay will no longer be storing any file information, and instead only the data in the links, it will be much harder for courts to accuse them of copyright infringement.
Pair this with the recent domain move from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se (taking them out of US web jurisdiction), and the site’s owners are now in a more powerful position than ever, despite having been refused an appeal to their charges for copyright infringement.
“Quite some time ago we decided to not host torrent files anymore,” said Pirate Bay in a statement discussing the changes.
“In following with that decision, we decided to make Magnet links the default option for the Download buttons!
“We’ve just changed places on the links. Magnet is now default, Download torrent is now where the magnet links used to be. The reason is the same as always: Magnets are now good enough to use, and it’s not as easy to block as .torrent files. Also it saves us a huge amount of bandwidth!”
As part of the changes, The Pirate Bay will be torrent free by 29th February, other than those torrents that only have 10 or less peers associated with them.
Via: Torrent Freak
