Gold Silver Reports — Popular torrent index ExtraTorrent – second only to The Pirate Bay in terms of visitors – has shut down for good, after an extended period of downtime earlier in the week. In an announcement made on the site’s homepage, it said:
ExtraTorrent chief, known only by his codename SaM, confirmed to TorrentFreak that it had decided to end operations. “It’s time we say goodbye,” he added. In addition, SaM also said that ExtraTorrent’s release group ETRG – which marked their torrents with either ‘ettv’ or ‘ethd’ – would also remain inactive, unless they were to “get enough donations to sustain the expenses”.
This is the third big demise of a torrent index after the fall of KickassTorrents and Torrentz.eu in the past year, and shows a continued push from the entertainment industry to take down what they perceive to be a loss of revenue. It’s unclear whether legal tangles were involved in ExtraTorrent’s decision, though it’s highly likely.
In some cases, clones or mirrors have cropped up. Torrentz2.eu is the biggest example of this, which maintains that it harbours no relation to the original team, but the naming has helped it stand all amidst the remaining popular options.
But judging by ExtraTorrent’s statement, it seems unlikely that it will receive a similar off-shoot anytime soon. It won’t probably matter to the piracy scene at large, given there’s always another to take their place. — Neal Bhai Reports
