BTjunkie, one of the largest BitTorrent sites out there, has called it a day. After seven years in the trenches its administrators have had enough and are shutting down the site. Their move is entirely voluntary, the feds were not knocking on their front door, at least as far as they know, but it is no doubt in the aftermath of the MegaUpload shut down.
"This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down," the
site now reads.
"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!," it says.
The homepage and presumably all other links redirect to a simple page with the message above and the "obituary-looking" 2005 - 2012.
While the site hasn't been involved in any legal action and hasn't been threatened with it, the recent developments in the file-sharing world have made the admins weary of continuing.
MegaUpload has been closed down by police, in a highly publicized action, and a court recently denied any appeals for the verdict in the case involving The Pirate Bay's founders.
That was enough to give BTjunkie admins second thoughts even though they still believe they were fighting the good fight. BTjunkie was the fifth most trafficked BitTorrent site on the web,
according to research by TorrentFreak.
Its demise will definitely reverberate throughout the BitTorrent and the file-sharing world. Other sites may feel the pressure as well and shut down to prevent legal action.
Still, there are plenty of sites out there and the millions of people that used BTjunkie will find other places, just like the millions of people that used MegaUpload have found other sites as well.
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