Torrent Search Engine BTJunkie Voluntarily Shuts Down

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Torrent search engine BTJunkie voluntarily shuts down

By Mark Brown

Torrent search engine BTjunkie is the latest file-sharing service to fall on its sword in the wake of the Megaupload sting. Junkie, one of the largest BitTorrent indexes, decided to shut down voluntarily.

A statement on the website reads, "This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down. We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"

The site was never directly targeted by copyright holders, an unnamed BTJunkie founder told TorrentFreak. However, the site was reported to the US Trade Representative (USTR) in 2011, the RIAA and MPAA listed the torrent index as a 'rogue' site, and Google censored the search term.

Despite avoiding legal attention so far, the site's founder told TorrentFreak that the legal action against file-sharing sites Megaupload and The Pirate Bay played an important role in its closure.

Online storage locker Megaupload was seized and shut down by the US Department of Justice in January 2012, for allegedly breaching copyright infringement law. The site's staff members were arrested and founder Kim Dotcom was recently been denied bail. [more...]

Full story: http://arstechnica.c...-shuts-down.ars

-- arstechnica.com 2012-02-07