14 DAY TRIAL // Topeka, Kansas changed its name to Google, Kansas, but it was just temporary move to get the company’s attention. But a remote Russian village, Gar, is permanently changing its name to TorrentReactor after the BitTorrent indexer apparently ‘bought’ the village altogether. After paying $148,000, in a move that the site’s owners say is humanitarian, TorrentReactor got the local authorities to rename the village.
“We realize it's just a drop in the ocean comparing to the amount of money needed to help thousands of other villages. But we at least do something to support complete strangers. We are proud that we are able to do so and hope we will be proud of this in the future. We would be even happier to become pioneers and other large Internet portals would follow our example to help many godforsaken places on Earth,” TorrentReactor said in an announcement on the site.
Gar was founded in 1958 and now houses just 214 people who make a living from the land. There are just three computers in the region and only one has internet access through a dial-up connection. The village was picked, the site says, mostly by chance. The admins wanted to help one of the poorest locations on Earth, but also wanted one close to a nuclear reactor, to make a connection to the site’s name. A few thousand locations that met the criteria were picked and Gar was randomly chosen from the list.
TorrentReactor says most of the money will be split among the villagers and the rest will be used for the local infrastructure, the school, buying equipment and so on. Some money will be donated to provide the region with a broadband connection. It must be said that TorrentReactor is known for its pranks and not everyone is convinced that the site really pulled this off. [via TorrentFreak]