Demonoid

For the metal band, see Demonoid (band).

Demonoid

URL	demonoid.me
Type of site	Public torrent tracker (main site requires a registration invitation to obtain most features)
Registration	Sporadic
Created by	Deimos (retired)
Launched	April 21, 2003; 8 years ago (2003-04-21)
Alexa rank	548 (November 2011[update])[1]
Revenue	Advertisements (banners), donations
Current status	Online

Demonoid is a website and BitTorrent tracker created by an anonymous Serb known only by the pseudonyms "Deimos" and "Zajson". The website indexes torrents uploaded by its members. Demonoid.com was ranked the 538th most popular website overall in December 2010, according to Alexa.^[2] Demonoid's torrent tracker had an estimated three million peers in September 2007.^[3] The site had over 252,427 torrents indexed as of May 3, 2009 (torrents uploaded prior to August 4, 2005 were removed to free server resources).

Location

Its ISP is currently located in Montenegro, although Demonoid has frequently changed its location in the past. ^[4]

Registration

Registration opens from time to time for a very limited period. However, one may register at any time if he/she receives an invitation from a current user.^[5]

Features and policies

Demonoid features RSS with different feeds for each of its torrent categories and their sub-categories. It tracks and displays users' upload/download ratios, but currently takes no action against users with low ratios (members who take more than they share).^[6] Demonoid previously banned users with low ratios, but stopped doing so due to the ratio system being inaccurate for some users, such as those with dynamic IP addresses.^[7] Demonoid's IRC channel, #demonoid at P2P-Network, is a good place for communication with peer users, but it blocks users who want to connect through Tor for anonymity.

Demonoid prohibits the uploading of pornographic material and viruses.

History

Legal issues

In a 2007 study, Slyck.com found twelve cease and desist letters to users of Demonoid.^[8]

On September 25, 2007, the Demonoid website, forums and trackers went offline.^[9][10] They came back four days later with the exception of the website, which came back the day after. Over the next few days, the website continued experiencing intermittent downtime^[11] until October 2, 2007. The explanation as widely speculated^[12] was that they had received a letter from a lawyer for the Canadian Recording Industry Association threatening legal action.^[11] Demonoid began blocking Canadian traffic,^[13] a strategy similar to that taken by isoHunt and TorrentSpy in blocking American traffic to avoid RIAA complaints.^[11][14] Visitors from Canadian-based IPs would be redirected to the downtime version of the website, which contained an explanation of the legal threats. However, it was still possible for Canadians to visit the website at that time using proxy servers. Additionally, while the website may have been blocked in Canada at the time, the tracker was still readily accepting Canadian IP addresses.

The threats are in spite of the open question of the legality of music file sharing in Canada.^[13][15] The CRIA has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement despite Demonoid's claims.^[16]

On November 9, 2007, the site again went offline, reportedly due to legal threats to their service provider from the Canadian Recording Industry Association. A placeholder page stated, "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding." According to the IRC channel, the trackers themselves were not affected.^[13] Six days later, the placeholder page was updated with a link to a new forum, unrelated to file sharing, for the community. On November 29, 2007, Deimos posted on that forum a problem preventing the site from coming back up:

"Money is an issue, but the real problem at the moment is finding a suitable place to host the website. There has been no luck there. And there's some personal stuff I need to take care of that takes most of my time at the moment, and that does not help."

The site then came back online on April 11, 2008. The homepage announced that the site had a new administrator, and that the old one (Deimos) had left for personal reasons.

Administration adjustment

On April 10, 2008, Deimos stepped down as the administrator of Demonoid, citing a number of reasons and "distraction with real-world issues"^[17] as the cause. He also stated that he has "handed the reins over to a new administrator" — "a close friend of [his]", whom they trust completely and has the knowledge and time to take care of the site. Over the course of the next few days, RSS feeds for the site came back online and by April 16, 2008 a mass email was sent out to all Demonoid users informing that the site was "finally back online."

The official explanation stated:

A few months ago, the site administrator (known as Deimos), lacked the time necessary to maintain this website. For personal reasons, Deimos decided to resign his position as a member of the site staff. Before leaving, Deimos picked a new site administrator from among his friends. The old moderator team remained unchanged and will continue helping with the site. The Demonoid team will try to keep everything running just as it always has been. The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. If we work on any problems over the next few days, the site might be going on and offline. We apologize in advance if this should happen. Welcome back and enjoy! -Umlauf, Demonoid site admin

Website downtime

Demonoid experienced a prolonged downtime in late 2009 due to hardware failure. On September 14, 2009, Demonoid's torrent tracker went down after it was reported that they had experienced a number of hardware problems stemming from power outages.^[18] The tracker returned to service on November 5,^[19] and the main site returned on December 13. A message was posted on the homepage stating that "We might have to shut down everything to fix and prevent further damage," and that it could be "days maybe, until we can change the power circuit."^[20] During the downtime that followed, several new messages appeared, mostly providing updates on the repair status and promising that the site would return soon. On November 4, 2009, the tracker, which communicates with a BitTorrent client, began responding to some torrents, and returned to full operation on November 17. The main site, however, did not become operational until December 13, 2009.

On April 26, 2010, Demonoid.com, started experiencing downtime or extreme slowness. A message was posted on the site that it was due to a denial-of-service attack, which has subsided as of July 2010.^[21] The site is currently banning Taiwanese and Chinese IP ranges.^[22]

Domain name change

In early 2011, Demonoid changed its domain to a .me address, to avoid MPAA or RIAA seizure.^[23]

In July 2011, demonoid.me became the most popular .me web site.^[24]

References

1. ^ "Demonoid.me Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/demonoid.me. Retrieved 2011-11-02. 
2. ^ Thomas Mennecke (2007-07-11). "Leaseweb Reveals Owner of Demonoid.com". Slyck.com. http://www.slyck.com/story1533_Leaseweb_Reveals_Demonoidcoms_Owner. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
3. ^ Ernesto (2007-09-24). "The 5 Most Popular BitTorrent Trackers". TorrentFreak.com. http://torrentfreak.com/5-most-popular-bittorrent-trackers-070924/. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
4. ^ http://geo.flagfox.net/?ip=62.149.24.66&host=www.demonoid.com
5. ^ "Demonoid FAQ: Why is the registration closed periodically?". demonoid.com. http://www.demonoid.com/faq.php#ui_1. 
6. ^ "Demonoid FAQ: Stats". Demonoid. http://www.demonoid.com/faq.php#st_1. Retrieved 2007-10-26. 
7. ^ "The Ratio & Demonoid ~ Hot News". Demonoid Forum. http://fora.demonoid.com/index.php?topic=933162.0. Retrieved 2007-10-26. 
8. ^ Drew Wilson (2007-07-23). "Busted! A Look at BitTorrent Copyright Complaints". Slyck.com. http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1547. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
9. ^ "Musikverband schießt BitTorrent-Seite ab". Der Spiegel. 2007-09-26. http://www.spiegel.de/dertag/pda/avantgo/artikel/0,1958,508009,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
10. ^ "Torrentsite Demonoid opnieuw offline lees voor" (in Dutch). NU.nl. 2007-09-25. http://www.nu.nl/news/1249300/50/rss/Torrentsite_Demonoid_opnieuw_offline.html. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} Nick Farrell (2007-10-01). "Demonoid p2p site returns from dead". The Inquirer. http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/01/demoniod-p2p-site-returns-dead. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
12. ^ Aldo Ascenti (2007-09-28). "Oscurato il torrent Demonoid" (in Italian). VNUnet.it. Nielsen Company. Archived from the original on 2008-02-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080218014540/http://www.vnunet.it/articles/printView/it/vnunet/news/2007/09/28/oscurato-torrent-demonoid. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
13. ^ ^{a b c} Chris Williams (2007-11-09). "BitTorrent site Demonoid.com downed by Canadian record industry". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/demonoid_cria/. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
14. ^ Christophe Dutheil (2007-10-01). "BitTorrent : Demonoid est de retour" (in French). VNUnet.fr. Nielsen Company. http://www.vnunet.fr/articles/printView/fr/vnunet/news/2007/10/01/bittorrents-demonoid-de-retour. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
15. ^ Michael Geist (2007-10-05). "Downloading and Demonoid". Michael Geist. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2277/125/. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
16. ^ Christophe Dutheil (2007-09-27). "BitTorrent : Demonoid baisse le rideau". VNUnet.fr. Nielsen Company. http://www.vnunet.fr/fr/vnunet/news/2007/09/27/demonoid-baisse-temporairement. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
17. ^ Deimos (2008-04-10). "Goodbye, people". subdemon.com. http://www.subdemon.com/forum/index.php?topic=17566.0. Retrieved 2008-04-10. 
18. ^ enigmax (2009-09-01). "Demonoid BitTorrent Tracker Could Go Dark For Days". torrentfreak.com. http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-bittorrent-tracker-could-go-dark-for-days-090901/. Retrieved 2009-09-15. 
19. ^ Ernesto (2009-11-05). "Demonoid Tracker is Online Again". torrentfreak.com. http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-is-alive-the-tracker-has-returned-091105/. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
20. ^ "Demonoid Hardware Troubles, Downtime Expected". softpedia.com. 2009-09-04. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Demonoid-Is-Facing-Hardware-Troubles-Downtime-Expected-120896.shtml. Retrieved 2009-12-11. 
21. ^ Thomas Mennecke (2010-04-29). "Demonoid Suffering Massive Denial of Service Attack". Slyck.com. http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1947. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
22. ^ "Demonoid Blocks Taiwan and China After DoS Attack" TorrentFreak. 15 Jul 2010. Last accessed 12 Feb 2011.
23. ^ Enigmax (2010-02-12). "Sensing Danger, Demonoid BitTorrent Tracker Ditches .COM Domain". Torrentfreak.com. http://torrentfreak.com/sensing-danger-demonoid-bittorrent-tracker-ditches-com-domain-101202/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
24. ^ .ME of Course! (2011-07-29). "Demonoid.me became the most popular .ME web site". Name.ly. http://dot-me.of-cour.se/2011/07/29/demonoid-me-became-the-most-popular-me-web-site/. Retrieved 2011-07-29. 

External links

• Demonoid.me