BitTorrent: Demonoid domain name for sale

After the closure of the Demonoid torrents tracker, its domain name is now for sale.

Based in the Ukraine, the Demonoid file sharing and BitTorrent tracking site was put offline at the start of the month after local authorities took the ColoCall Internet Service Provider down. The ISP was told to switch off Demonoid’s servers, even though no warrant for such an order was signed by a judge.

Today, three domain names which belonged to Demonoid are for sale via Sedo: demonoid.me, demonoid.com and demonoid.ph.

Demonoid’s downfall followed a distributed denial of service attack, although the real reason that the site has been closed is due to a complaint being filed in Mexico against the service by the music industry.

Looking after music’s copyright holders, the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) confirmed that an international action coordinated by Interpol was conducted with the Ukrainian police and the Mexican legal system.

An investigation was launched in Mexico about Demonoid’s owners, with a number of arrests and asset seizures following.

The news about Demonoid’s downfall is rather blurred though, with a lot of contradictory information circulating. A group claiming to belong to the Anonymous movement has declared that Demonoid has done nothing wrong, and that the service should be restored. Some Ukrainian sites have even had DDoS attacks launched against them as a form of retribution.

Demonoid has certainly travelled a fair bit over its lifetime. Starting in the United States, they have also been hosted in Canada, the Netherlands and the Ukraine. Along with The Pirate Bay, Demonoid has been criticised in the United States as being one of the worst purveyors of counterfeiting and piracy on the net.