BitTorrent tracker site praises the benefits of increased security offered by a Canadian ISP, says the “site is even safer” than it was with Sweden’s PRQ.
It’s been oddly fascinating to watch the fallout of OiNK, once the world’s greatest illegal file-sharing music store, continue to make waves in the BitTorrent community.
Following it’s much publicized closure by Dutch and UK police, sites like What.cd and Waffles.fm were quick to spring up in the aftermath and try fill the void felt by OiNK’s file-sharing music fans. But, pressure by Dutch anti-piracy watchdog BREIN on its country’s ISPs to force the closure of other BitTorrent tracker sites made both sites realize that their days were numbered.
They both sought greener pastures and safer shores with Sweden’s PRQ, the same ISP behind the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker site – The Pirate Bay. It then seemed that all was well in the world, that pirates could go on being pirates and that all was well in the world.
Well, following recent attempts by Swedish authorities to bust the the operators of The Pirate Bay for copyright infringement, the people behind What.cd decided to pick up shop and move to Canada. Yes, Canada.
From What.cd’s HP:
Welcome to Canada
Site is scary fast now huh? I’m still seeing a lot of people worried about the move to Canada. Do your research and you will find the demonoid went down because their ISP couldn’t handle the heat from the CRIA. We highly doubt this will happen to us. Even if it did we have a phenomenal backup plan in place, lets just say its something similar to what our good ol’ boys at the TPB are currently up to.
Why, you ask? Security, is the main reason it would seem. For a post by one of the site’s admins in a response section reads that “…this ISP offers security features that are impossible to find anywhere else in the world, which makes the site even safer than it is at PRQ.”
Yet, as many in the BitTorrent community are aware, Canadian copyright laws are increasingly similar to those in the United States. Worse still, as many recall it’s where the once popular Demonoid BitTorrent tracker site was hosted until its ISP was pressured by the Canadian Recording Industry Association(CRIA) to shut it down.
In the site’s defense, the same What.cd admin continues by pointing out that “…demonoid caved in because their ISP wimped out. We’ve found an ISP that is pretty much guaranteed not to do that.”
To be fair, Canada, though certainly not Sweden, is still no United States as much as it would like to be from time to time(ha ha). I’m sure the people behind What.cd have done their homework and made what they believe to be the decision that best serves the interests of the site and its users. Whether or not Canada is any safer than Sweden remains to be seen, but at least they reportedly have an ISP with a bit more spine than the one who hosted Demonoid.
Buena suerte.
I do remember Demonoid getting taken down in Canada. There was another BitTorrent site that got shut down as well in Canada. As already stated it was ISP pressure from the CRIA that saw the end of Demonoid in Canada. The other site was hit hard because CRIA was successful at pretending that such sites were illegal in this country.
As far as copyright is concern it’s mainly because the last government and the current government being minority governments that any copyright laws that sprung up as a result of US pressure never occurred. The only thing that recently happened was the anti-camcording law – meanwhile the two people that got busted for camming a movie are being tried under the copyright act not the anti-camming laws. Go figure.
The only downside of the move to Canada is simply the fact that this will probably draw even more lobbying pressure to Canada which will put more stress onto the consumers and consumer advocates to fight for fair copyright laws.
The chances are good that the current government will fall before a copyright bill is introduced and passed (heck likely it’ll fall before it is even tabled for that matter) The laws aren’t going to change a whole heck of a lot for at least a year I figure. This isn’t even touching on the constant pressure Prentice is facing from ordinary people ever since he took the reigns on the copyright file. Every time he is asked about copyright laws that I’ve seen he looks like he’s trying to find a way to run away and hide. Poor Prentice though last time he was confronted over these issues he was already backed into a corner.
From what I understand TPB’s recent legal troubles had nothing to do with this move. It was a combination of a growing discontent with the level of service PRQ was giving them along with the offer of a great deal from the Canadian ISP. I also believe that PRQ’s consistently full capacity was giving them very little room to grow (and with PRQ’s high cost little money to fund that growth). Achieving full Oinkness was never going to happen with 40K members and without increasing their hardware that 40K number wasn’t going to change.
What and Bitme now share the same ISP. Although Canada is a bit more politically mercurial than Sweden I trust Bitme implicitly in matters of security.
correct me if i am wrong but wasnt demonoid in canada and it got busted?
if that is right then how can what.cd survive.