Since its launch in early January, YouTorrent has become one of the most, if not the most, popular BitTorrent search engines. The site, which claims it is “the world’s first real-time torrent comparison search engine”,has announced however that it will be shifting policy and will now only “index sites that host torrent files linking to “licensed” content.”
The site, which currently attracts 10 million unique visitors per month, has seen enormous growth over the past month, mainly thanks to its ability to search most of the bigger BitTorrent sites. The policy change will eliminate that last fact and could end YouTorrent’s enormous popularity.
Patrick, one of founders of YouTorrent, explained: “Due to the uncertain nature of the source and accuracy of the results returned by some engines, we have decided to reduce our engine selection to ones that claim the provision of licensed, certified content.”
That isn’t all though. Along with the policy shift the owners are hoping to sell the site as well. “The YouTorrent project has grown very quickly and unfortunately is not in line with the owning companies core business,” Patrick added.
“We have had some interest [to buy] from some parties. On that basis, we have presented the site to other parties in the space to see if there is interest there also.”
In the end, it seems this is what was planned from the beginning and the site could net the founders millions of dollars. Not to bad for 4 months of work.
Result for: torrent search engine
Just days after being hit with one of the largest fines in copyright infringement history, a lawyer for the now dead torrent search engine TorrentSpy has said the business is bankrupt and they will not be able to pay the fine.
The fine, $110 million USD, was ordered two days ago by a judge, following a high profile case brought forth by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Because the site refused to turn over any internal documents the judge also ruled that the site can never go online again.
According to attorney Ira Rothken the owners of TorrentSpy have filed for bankruptcy protection in England “and have no appreciable assets.”
“This was a Hollywood publicity stunt,” Rothken added.
While the site is set to appeal the ruling, the MPAA says it is still going to go after the cash and hopes the ruling will serve as a reminder that they are still on the prowl.
