Most torrent users rarely change their downloading habits or the places where they get their daily torrent dose.

This is also reflected in our annual top 10 where most sites have had a consistent listing for more than half a decade.

Like every year there are a few movers and shakers though, and the biggest impact was made by the Pirate Bay raid early last month.

The notorious torrent site has been crowned the most popular torrent site since 2008, but isn’t serving any torrents at the beginning of this year. As a result, the top spot is now taken by KickassTorrents.

The Pirate Bay hasn’t gone away completely though. There are currently several popular clones and copies of the site that together can easily match the traffic of most other sites that are listed.

Thanks to one of its top copies TPB managed to secure a spot in 4th place. Considering the situation we decided to mention both the original Pirate Bay domain and the most-used copy.

The rest of the top 10 consists of other familiar names. Bitsnoop.com is the only site to drop from the list, with Limetorrents.cc taking its place.

Demonoid, which returned online earlier this year, just fell out of the top 10 but appears to be making a slow but steady comeback that’s worth mentioning. There is a good chance that it will return again next year.

Below is the full list of the top 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year. Only public and English language content sites are included. The list is based on various traffic reports and we display the Alexa and U.S. Compete rank for each. In addition, we include last year’s ranking for each of the 10 sites.

1. KickassTorrents

KickassTorrents was founded in 2009 and surpassed The Pirate Bay in traffic this year, even before it went down. Battling various censorship efforts the site has burned through a few different domain names over the years. Most recently it switched to the Somalian Kickass.so address.

2. Torrentz

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for many years. Unlike the other sites featured in the list Torrentz does not host any torrent files, it merely redirects visitors to other places on the web. The site uses several domain names with .eu being the most popular.

3. ExtraTorrent

ExtraTorrent continues to gain more traffic and has become one of the most active torrent communities. The site is also the home of the popular ETTV and ETRG release groups.

4. The Pirate Bay (copies and clones)

At the time of writing The Pirate Bay isn’t serving any torrents. However, there are several copies and clones of the site which, at least temporarily, take its place. OldPiratebay.org is currently the most popular and based on its recent traffic the site is already ranked at least 4th in this list.

5. YTS

YTS, also known as the release group “YIFY,” has become the most recognizable movie piracy brands on the Internet. Despite a court court-ordered ISP blockade in the UK the group’s torrent site continues expand.

6. EZTV

TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Because of its narrow focus, EZTV’s traffic varies in line with the TV seasons. Despite posting only a few dozen torrents per week it attracts millions of visitors.

7. RARBG

RARBG, which started out as a Bulgarian tracker, was last year’s newcomer and continues to rake in more visitors. The site was blocked by UK ISPs last month, which put it on par with most other sites in the top 10.

8. isoHunt.to

Isohunt.to was launched in 2013, less than two weeks after isoHunt.com shut down. The site is not affiliated with the old isoHunt but hopes to keep its spirit alive. The same people are also behind Oldpiratebay.org, which is is listed in 4th place.

9. 1337x

1337x is a community driven torrent site. The site’s owners say they launched 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” This year the site dropped its .org domain and is now operating from 1337x.to.

10. Limetorrents

Limetorrents.cc has been around for several years already, and regained a spot in the top 10 this year. The site appeared in the news this summer after it was sued by LionsGate for posting a link to a leaked copy of The Expendables 3. The case is still ongoing.

Disclaimer: Yes, we know that Alexa isn’t perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but combined both do a pretty good job at comparing sites that operate in a similar niche.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

Due to complicated licensing agreements Netflix is only available in a few dozen countries, all of which have a different content library.

Some people bypass these content and access restrictions by using VPNs or other circumvention tools that change their geographical location. This makes it easy for people all around the world to pay for access to the U.S. version of Netflix, for example.

The movie studios are not happy with these deviant subscribers as it hurts their licensing agreements. Previously entertainment industry sources in Australia complained bitterly that tens of thousands of Netflix “VPN-pirates” were hurting their business.

Over the past weeks Netflix has started to take action against people who use certain circumvention tools. The Android application started to force Google DNS which now makes it harder to use DNS based location unblockers, and several VPN IP-ranges were targeted as well.

Thus far the actions are limited in scope, so not all VPN users may experience problems just yet. However, TorGuard is one of the VPN providers which noticed a surge in access problems by its users, starting mid-December.

“This is a brand new development. A few weeks ago we received the first report from a handful of clients that Netflix blocked access due to VPN or proxy usage. This is the very first time I’ve ever heard Netflix displaying this type of error message to a VPN user,” TorGuard’s Ben Van der Pelt tells us.

In TorGuard’s case the users were able to quickly gain access again by logging into another U.S. location. It further appears that some of the blocking efforts were temporary, probably as a test for a full-scale rollout at a later date.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that Netflix may be testing these new IP blocking methods temporarily in certain markets. At this time the blocks do not seem aggressive and may only be targeted at IP ranges that exceed too many simultaneous logins.”

Netflix is reportedly testing a variety of blocking methods. From querying the user’s time zone through the web browser or mobile device GPS and comparing it to the timezone of their IP-address, to forcing Google’s DNS services in the Android app.

TorGuard told us that if Netflix continues with a strict ban policy, they will provide an easy solution to bypass the blocks. Other services, such as Unblock-us are also suggesting workarounds to their customers.

Netflix’ efforts to block geoblocking circumvention tools doesn’t come as a surprise. TF has seen a draft of the content protection agreement Sony Pictures prepared for Netflix earlier this year. This agreement specifically requires Netflix to verify that registered users are indeed residing in the proper locations.

Among other things Netflix must “use such geolocation bypass detection technology to detect known web proxies, DNS based proxies, anonymizing services and VPNs which have been created for the primary intent of bypassing geo-restrictions.”

Blocking VPN and proxy “pirates” has become a priority for the movie studios as streaming services have failed to introduce proper countermeasures. Early 2014 the movie studio looked into the accessibility of various services through popular circumvention tools, including TorGuard, to find out that most are not blocked.

In a follow-up during the summer of 2014 Sony Pictures conducted research to identify the IP-ranges of various VPNs and proxies. These results were shared with Netflix and other streaming services so they could take action and expand their blocklists where needed.

Based on the above it’s safe to conclude that Netflix will continue to roll out more aggressive blocking tools during the months to come. As with all blocks, this may also affect some people who use VPNs for privacy and security reasons. Whether Netflix will factor this in has yet to be seen.

TF contacted Netflix for a comment on the findings and its future plans, but a few days have passed and we have yet to receive a response from the company.

Netflix is not the only streaming service that’s targeting VPN and proxy users. A few months ago Hulu implemented similar restrictions. This made the site unusable for location “pirates,” but also U.S. based paying customers who used a VPN for privacy reasons.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

Until our report yesterday it’s likely that Wiziwig, a streaming portal covering just about every spectator sport around, had flown under the radars of many readers. And that’s surprising.

The site is ranked #1,546 worlwide by Alexa and is the 239th most-popular site in the UK. On Thursday the term ‘wiziwig’ was the 8th most popular search on Google.co.uk, ahead of official sports broadcaster BT Sport. But the popularity wasn’t based on good news. Citing changes in Spanish law, Wiziwig had been forced to close just hours earlier.

In the wake of the closure TorrentFreak caught up with the operators of this hugely popular site to find out about events leading up to its shutdown. Interestingly it’s what didn’t happen on the site’s first day offline that topped the discussion.

Among dozens of other sports, Wiziwig carried links to live soccer games and as a result became somewhat of a magnet for companies such as the UK’s Premier League. New Year’s Day is a traditionally big date for UK soccer so coinciding with the first day of Wiziwig downtime, the site’s operators stood back and watched what happened.

“What we noticed Thursday, and that’s what we’ve always been thinking, is that the Premier League has only been focusing on Wiziwig lately to take down streams, like those from [P2P streaming service] Sopcast for example,” Wiziwig told us.

“If we added a Sopcast link for a game in the Premier League, then quickly that link was made inaccessible. On Thursday all Sopcast channels kept working all day, without any been taking down during the early kickoff, 3pm game and late game. Coincidence?”

The idea that the soccer league had been using Wiziwig to find streams and have them taken down at source was confirmed when matches streamed from other sources also remained up.

“Same applied with Veetle links, as when those previously appeared on Wiziwig they were quickly taken down. If we didn’t add them they were working all game long, while people could find them easily in Veetle. That also applied to several other links.”

Aside from changes in Spanish law where the site was based, Wiziwig also reminded us of two serious events in the UK earlier in the year. In April the operator of sports streaming site Nutjob.eu was arrested by officers from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. That was followed by a September raid on the operator of the Coolsport streaming service.

When all things were considered (Wiziwig’s Twitter account was shutdown by a complaint in December) the team felt that the timing was right to call it a day. But even though Wiziwig is no more, other sites are bound to try and fill the gap the portal has left in the market. These, Wiziwig’s operators say, wouldn’t even exist if more effort was put into getting official services to consumers.

“We’ve seen in the past several years that people don’t get the right options to watch the sports and games they want to watch. Many sports events, and many games, aren’t available worldwide. The Leagues or competitions often don’t provide the right options for people to watch games in a legal way, which is also what we’ve seen from many replies on Twitter and Facebook,” Wiziwig explain.

“People want to subscribe to some games, some PPV events, and don’t want long contracts. In many countries there are no options to watch specific sports events and competitions. So not just the big sports/leagues, but also for smaller events.

“Then people decide to watch the online streams. A good example is the 3pm soccer games in England which aren’t shown on UK TV due to an old law designed to keep stadiums full. If the leagues fail to provide such options then websites like Wiziwig and [illicit] streams will always exist,” Wiziwig adds.

With the site closed the team are now turning their attention to GetYourFixtures, a TV guide for sports with links to only official streams.

“GetYourFixtures’ aim is to provide people with the correct TV info for all sports events, and if there isn’t a TV channel showing it then they want to give people the options to watch it officially online.

“Maybe leagues and competitions will wake up and start working on providing decent PPV options, letting people pay for just a single game, a flexible way of watching sports. On TV, mobile or tablet: wherever they are, either free and supported with advertisements when there isn’t any TV coverage/legal pay option, or just for small fees. They should work together,” Wiziwig concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

After years of public and private discussions, Canada started implementing a new copyright law in recent years.

The law introduced great improvements in terms of fair use and non-commercial file-sharing, and also adopts a “notice-and-notice” policy for ISPs that goes into effect today, January 2nd.

Under the new law Internet providers are required to forward copyright notices they receive from rightsholders to their customers. Providers who do not comply, including VPN services, face damages up to $10,000.

The notice scheme creates a safe harbor for Internet providers, protecting them from copyright holder lawsuits. For Internet subscribers the effects are limited to warnings, which is less draconian than the “strikes” systems other countries have implemented.

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who has been a critical follower of the copyright law changes, notes that despite its modesty people should be wary of the negative consequences these notices may have.

“I think they’re generally a good solution – proven effective when used informally and far less draconian than takedown systems. That said, there is the danger of potential abuse that will be need to be monitored,” Geist tells TF.

Among the most prominent concerns are the so-called settlement schemes where copyright holders ask pirating subscribers to pay a fee. These have become relatively common in the U.S. and are now expected to expand into Canada.

One of the companies that helps rightsholders to collect settlements is CEG TEK, and they are already gearing up to enter the Canadian market.

“We have been conducting tests in the Canada market and see positive results with ISPs. We look forward to a full-scale launch in the new year,” CEG TEK’s COO Kyle Reed informs TF.

These settlement notices are a “significant concern” according to Professor Geist. He says that the law currently doesn’t prohibit copyright holders from sending them in, but that subscribers’ identities are shielded.

“The law does not preclude the inclusion of a settlement demand, though Canada has a cap on liability for non-commercial infringement and the sender of the notice obviously does not know the identity of the subscriber,” Geist tells TF

“ISPs would seemingly be required to send these notifications, but there is nothing in the law that would stop them from advising subscribers on the context of these notices,” he adds.

The new notice-and-notice system also has a great impact on VPN providers. The new law requires them to identify pirating customers so they can forward the infringement notices.

To be able to do so the companies have to retain access logs for a minimum of six months. This mandatory data retention is expected to lead to a customer exodus as it makes it impossible for providers to guarantee people’s anonymity, a key feature of any VPN service.

As we pointed out before, the new law requires VPN providers to implement an extensive logging and notice policy to deal with takedown notices. This will prove to be quite costly or simply impossible, especially for smaller companies that are sometimes run by individuals.

Many VPN providers assign shared IP-addresses to their customers, so even if they wanted to there is no option to accurately identify a copyright infringer. For these companies the only option will be to shut down, or move the company outside of Canada.

During the months to come it will become apparent what impact the notice-and-notice system will have on businesses and customers.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

During 2014, several key strategies emerged to lead the mainstream entertainment industries’ anti-piracy efforts. At the consumer end, so-called “strikes” programs saw errant Internet subscribers receive warning notices in an effort to correct their behaviors.

Then, on top of sending millions of DMCA-style takedown notices to sites and search engines, entertainment companies went to court in several regions to have domains blocked at the ISP level. The UK was hit particularly hard and now dozens of sites are inaccessible via regular means.

But the big question remains – is this an effective way to reduce piracy? Earlier this year the movie studios decided to find out by hiring a company called Incopro to conduct a study. The report has never been made public but TorrentFreak has now obtained a copy.

The report, titled ‘Site Blocking Efficacy Study United Kingdom’ is dated September 30, 2014 and focuses on the top 250 “open access” websites involved in the unauthorized distribution of film and television content. Dedicated music sites were not included.

Overall the 26 page report, which relies heavily on Alexa data, found that blocking had resulted in targeted sites losing an average 73.2% of their direct traffic. And, when compared to the global control, usage of pirate sites had declined over time.

The report breaks sites down into three categories – linking only sites (the majority of sites in the top 250), public P2P portals and hosting.

Three sites were identified as the most popular among UK users in August 2014 – watchseries.lt (link), putlocker.is (link) and nowvideo.sx (host), with the former maintaining the number one position for the previous six months. And despite being blocked in March 2013 and taking a large hit in direct traffic, KickassTorrents maintained its place in the top 10.

In all cases, direct traffic to ‘pirate’ sites plummeted when ISPs implemented court-ordered blockades. The chart below shows the effect of a 2013 blocking order against BitSnoop, TorrentReactor, TorrentHound, Torrent Downloads, Monova, Filestube, Filecrop, 1337x, Torrentz, TorrentCrazy and ExtraTorrent.

However, while direct traffic to ‘pirate’ sites diminishes following blocking actions, Incopro found that a particular kind of site in the top 250 actually does better over time.

So-called “linking only” sites (i.e not a P2P portal or hosting site) enjoy significant boosts, as shown in the chart below.

“Linking Only sites have shown a growth in usage over time, indicating that these sites increase in usage and can take the place of those that are blocked if they are allowed to grow over time,” the company warns.

“In summary, where there are sustained periods of blocking, usage levels are driven downwards across all site categories. Linking Only sites are the fastest growing category and should be considered as blocking targets over a sustained period to curtail their growth.”

Circumvention techniques

While the Alexa data relied on by Incopro relates to direct traffic to sites, the big unknown is how many people continue to visit blocked sites using circumvention tools such as VPNs and proxy services. In its report, Incopro highlights three different types

1. Dedicated sites offering access or a mirror of a blocked site
2. Sites offering access to more than one blocked site (i.e come.in)
3. VPNs or proxy services offering access to any site

Immediately there is a problem for anyone looking to measure traffic to sites when the above methods are used. While option 1 is relatively easy to measure, options 2 and 3 present significant technical issues. For these reasons, Incopro measured only option 1. Nevertheless, as the chart below shows, use of dedicated proxies accounts for more than half of blocked “pirate” site traffic.

Conclusion

In summing up, Incopro found that when a website and all of its domains and dedicated proxies are blocked by court order (and updated quickly), “there is a significant impact in reducing infringement by the sites themselves and a reduction in the overall infringement undertaken by the most popular websites in the UK.”

But to really get to the heart of the problem requires a much deeper analysis and the answer to a question that sits way outside the scope of the report.

Does site blocking really put more money into the pockets of the entertainment industries?

———————————————————————————

Top 250 leading “pirate” movie/TV sites (dedicated music sites excluded)

watchseries.lt
putlocker.is
nowvideo.sx
uploaded.net
kickass.to
videoweed.es
sockshare.com
firedrive.com
movshare.net
alluc.to
vodlocker.com
isohunt.to
thepiratebay.se
4shared.com
novamov.com
rapidgator.net
torrentz.eu
gorillavid.in
free-tv-video-online.me
cucirca.eu
rarbg.com
torlock.com
warez-bb.org
mega.co.nz
yify-torrent.org
g2g.fm
watchtvseries.to
rlslog.net
zzstream.li
allmyvideos.net
thevideo.me
dfiles.eu
played.to
sendspace.com
letitbit.net
icefilms.info
vidbull.com
daclips.in
couchtuner.eu
billionuploads.com
thefile.me
watchseries-online.ch
thedarewall.com
filenuke.com
promptfile.com
primewire.ag
extratorrent.cc
stream-tv.me
cokeandpopcorn.ch
letmewatchthis.ae
tv-series.me
eztv.it
turbobit.net
videomega.tv
vidto.me
zalukaj.tv
torrentbutler.eu
watchserieshd.eu
filmai.in
watchtvseries.ch
watch32.com
iwatchonline.to
uploadboy.com
movreel.com
ch131.so
movie4k.to
movpod.in
tubeplus.me
p30download.com
rapidshare.com
viooz.co
avaxsearch.net
bitshare.com
sceper.ws
torrents.to
nosvideo.com
sharesix.com
torrentfunk.com
expressleech.com
rapidmoviez.com
heroturko.me
vidspot.net
seedpeer.me
www2.zmovie.tw
downloadha.com
uploadc.com
torrentbit.net
180upload.com
vidbux.com
tehparadox.com
bestreams.net
clicktoview.org
divxstage.to
2shared.com
sharebeast.com
ffilms.org
watchmovies.to
terafile.co
rlsbb.com
torrentus.si
mightyupload.com
filefactory.com
vidxden.com
freakshare.com
losmovies.com
flashx.tv
youtubeonfire.com
uppit.com
desitorrents.com
movie25.cm
Filmix.net
torrents.net
uploadable.ch
watchseries7.eu
fsplay.net
sharerepo.com
watch-tvseries.net
watchonlineseries.eu
videobull.to
tusfiles.net
seriespepito.com
seventorrents.re
zalaa.com
wareztuga.tv
uploadbaz.com
filepost.com
afdah.com
990.ro
tv-release.net
vidshark.ws
kinogo.net
torrenthound.com
moovyshoovy.com
vodu.ch
rutor.org
peliculaspepito.com
boerse.bz
lostfilm.tv
allyoulike.com
kinox.to
bigcinema.tv
kino-v-online.tv
kinozal.tv
rodfile.com
putlockertvshows.me
watchfreemovies.ch
filehoot.com
nowdownload.ch
solarmovie.ag
2baksa.net
filecore.co.nz
shaanig.com
luckyshare.net
d-addicts.com
sumotorrent.sx
1337x.to
exsite.pl
yourbittorrent.com
awesomedl.ru
thetorrent.org
filecloud.io
kinoman.tv
cloudyvideos.com
vidics.ch
300mbfilms.co
zone-telechargement.com
cuevana2.tv
video.tt
uptobox.com
linksfu.com
depfile.com
h33t.to
megafilmeshd.net
onfillm.ru
vitorrent.org
movzap.com
dpstream.net
videobam.com
greek-movies.com
softarchive.net
filmifullizle.com
torrentroom.com
v1vn.com
1fichier.com
youwatch.org
tnttorrent.info
apnadesiforums.com
divxplanet.com
movie8k.to
1channelmovie.com
watchonlinefree.tv
online.stepashka.com
fileom.com
tormovies.org
movierulz.com
oneclickwatch.org
stream.cz
torrent.cd
mobi-live.ru
myvideolinks.eu
rajtamil.com
netload.in
dubbedepisodes.org
monova.org
torrentreactor.net
channelcut.tv
rslinks.org
torrenty.org
fileserve.com
keep2s.cc
divxstream.net
zi-m.com
torrentz.to
kingfiles.net
uloz.to
tvshow7.eu
megashares.com
darkwarez.pl
vodly.to
scrapetorrent.com
ryushare.com
cinemaxx.ro
watchmoviespro.pw
hdvnbits.org
torrents.fm
datafile.com
secureupload.eu
phim3s.net
vidhog.com
peb.pl
solarmovie.me
share-online.biz
watchopolis.net
mega-search.me
fileswap.com
chameleons-download.com
zmovie.in
vertor.eu
kinoprosmotr.net
rusfolder.com
divxcentral.com
popcorntime.io
ourrelease.org
keep2share.cc
uploadrocket.net
motionempire.me
crocko.com
filenuke.net
fulldls.com
filestube.to

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.