14 DAY TRIAL // We all know the authorities struggle to shut down the BitTorrent websites and reduce the amount of pirated content they suspect these services distribute every day. But closing them is not always a disaster for the BitTorrent services. The best example is represented by The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent technology that managed to double the number of users after similar websites got closed by the investigators. According to TorrentFreak, The Pirate Bay has over 8 million users, a huge increase from only 4 million recorded in the same period of the last year.
Moreover, the website almost doubled the number of torrents it is offering: 576.080 torrents in December 2006 and 914.717 torrents in the same month of this year, according to the same source mentioned above. Obviously, this growing number of users brings the need of more powerful hardware and more computer resources. But, The Pirate Bay struggles to offer a smooth performance and more stable features to all the users.
"To keep up with the growing demand from its users, The Pirate Bay has added more and more hardware to their server park. Another significant change this year is the migration from Anakata's Hypercube to the open source Opentracker software. The new software is more stable, uses less resources and supports UDP tracking", TorrenFreak wrote.
And this is not a surprise. Numerous similar BitTorrent services got closed after the authorities filed legal complaints against them, suspecting the products for distributing or for supporting the distribution of pirated content. The users of TorrentSpy, Demonoid and IsoHunt joined The Pirate Bay, as their favorite services were closed, while the Swedish site is still a top player in this side of the industry. According to the same source mentioned above, The Pirate Bay officials expect even more users and hope to reach the 10 million members milestone during this holiday.