RARBG, one of the largest torrent sites in the world, greeted millions of users on Wednesday. This was explained by the website, which used to be a source for downloading movies, series and TV shows it is no longer possible to sustain it financially.
Founded in 2008, RARBG has evolved into a key player in the torrenting ecosystem. The site has not only attracted millions of monthly visitors from around the world, but has also been a major center for copyright litigation and releases, accused of piracy
In a message posted on the site’s home page, the team announced farewell.
RARBG cites multiple reasons behind the surprise decision, including COVID-related health concerns that led to the tragic death of one of those involved. The war between Russia and Ukraine it affected the team as well, with RARBG suggesting it had members fighting on both sides.
“The last 2 years have been very difficult for us: some people in our team have died due to complications from covid, others are still suffering from side effects, unable to work. some are too fighting the war in Europe, BOTH SIDES”, writes the team, in all caps.
The cost of servers
Another key reason for the closure, they explained, has to do with operating costs from data centers in Europe. And as revenue was having trouble keeping up rising costsClosing the site permanently seemed like the best option.
“Inflation makes our daily expenses impossible to cover. Therefore, we can no longer operate this site without massive expenses that we can no longer cover out of pocket. After a unanimous vote, we have decided that we can no longer do this.”
“Sorry, bye”, closes the message.
The shutdown also marks the end of popular RARBG releases, many of which have also been shared via other pirate sites. These high-quality releases, which aside from the early days never included CAM, are some of the most downloaded ever.
The news is, therefore, a major shutdown since 2015, when KickassTorrents, Torrentz and ExtraTorrent were shut down.
Downloading content, questioned
A popular book download site that runs through Telegram was also taken down in the same week. This adds to the list of options for downloading content that is blocked. At the end of last year, another popular download site was taken down: z-library.
In most cases these sites are removed because the files uploaded there for downloading do not have the permission of the publishers, which constitutes a crime of intellectual property infringement (piracy).
Z library It is what is known as a “shadow library”: they upload books so that users can download them for free. They are a headache for publishers and are in constant conflict which often leads to the removal of websites hosting these files.
On the side of those who defend these systems there are the costs: in many cases, due to the high price of books, access to culture or even to study is blocked.
The same goes with movie download sites, never without controversy.
Source: Clarin
Linda Price is a tech expert at News Rebeat. With a deep understanding of the latest developments in the world of technology and a passion for innovation, Linda provides insightful and informative coverage of the cutting-edge advancements shaping our world.