AfterDawn: News

Russian BitTorrent trackers taken offline

A group of BitTorrent trackers in the Tomsk region in Russia have been taken offline, with no official explanation yet for the action. Obviously it has been suggested that the cybercrime police (also known as Department K) could have shut down the sites but some others are pointing the finger of blame at the Tomsk's local ISP instead.

It could be possible that the ISP wanted to ease the heavy bandwidth usage with BitTorrent use. The Russian police has denied any involvement in the action. Vadim Andrianov, an admin from one of the BitTorrent trackers, believes that this could have been part of a new anti-piracy campaign and is still waiting on an official response from the ISP.



He is not, however, afraid of any legal problems since his site only offered open source software. If this was an attempt to cut excessive bandwidth usage, then it was effective, with a reported 80% drop in P2P traffic.

Source:
TorrentFreak

Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Feb 2007 8:15

• Previous article

• LG's hybrid player officially on sale

• Next article

• Wii continues to outsell PS3 in Japan

• 6 comments

• Ketola

  Department K sounds like a bureau from an Orwellian state. "Please fill form 184-B/5 and deliver it to Mr Y in Department K."

  6.2.2007 10:35 #1

• georgeluv

  so the dudes offering open source software get shut out and the dudes tracking smoken aces get to keep on truckin, dumb. (by the way smoken aces sucked it only had 2 quick action sequences the other 98% is all talking).

  6.2.2007 10:37 #2

• solarf

  Originally posted by georgeluv:so the dudes offering open source software get shut out and the dudes tracking smoken aces get to keep on truckin, dumb. (by the way smoken aces sucked it only had 2 quick action sequences the other 98% is all talking).
  
  I agree it did suck..

  6.2.2007 12:07 #3

• joe777

  Originally posted by Ketola:Department K sounds like a bureau from an Orwellian state. "Please fill form 184-B/5 and deliver it to Mr Y in Department K."And dont forget the jelly!! Cause it looks like your going to get Buggered! Maybe they were trying to help Gorbachofs mate with the microsoft law suit

  6.2.2007 13:37 #4

• borhan9

  Sounds weird how they were sharing open source stuff and still get closed down.

  10.2.2007 02:18 #5

• ChappyTTV

  Originally posted by borhan9:Sounds weird how they were sharing open source stuff and still get closed down.Strictly because it's a Torrent Tracker and not just a web site offering d'loads my friend. Sounds like they're specifically targeting Torrent Trackers as the bad guys causing all the eating up of their bandwidth, and even tho they could be offering only "Legal" torrents, they still get caught in the broader net.
  
  "Orwillian State" indeed Ketola, good analogy.
  
  ISP's charge "X" amount of dollars for certain size bandwidth pipelines for their customers and they should be allowed to use that bandwidth. If they use more than their alloted amount you charge them for it, and make the overuse charges fairly high so that most places will self-limit that usage. Don't just arbitrarily say that "This type of user" is using too much bandwidth, and shut down all such "Type" sites. A totally LEGAL site got caught up in this crackdown and who's going to make up any lost revenue they may have suffered??
  The ISP??...doubtful
  The KGB...oh sorry, Dept K??..Yah, right!!

  11.2.2007 09:07 #6