Torrent troubles around the world

Earlier this week isoHunt started blocking US users from using its trackers. "This is due to the US's hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US," SecretSquirrel posted on the front page of the site. This is the second torrent site to block US users in just as many months.

Late last month, TorrentSpy started blocking US users from not just the trackers but from the search feature as well. The decision was made after a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to keep logs of all users connecting to the server. In order to safeguard US users from that judicial decision and from lawsuits brought on by the MPAA, TorrentSpy simply blocked all US users, rendering the decision moot.

The moves made by both of these tracker sites not only effected US users but users across the globe. With US users blocked from some trackers, there are fewer seeders and peers - which results in slower torrents for others. It already was starting to look pretty bleak for torrenters before another blow hit the community - Demonoid has gone down.

According to the folks over at TorrentFreak, the CRIA (branch of the RIAA operating in Canada) is responsible for the site going down. As of right now, you can still ping the servers and get a response but you can't actually connect to the servers. Ernesto believes that the site's ISP may have firewalled the server, essentially blocking all connections.

Demonoid's admin has yet to be located and contacted to confirm or deny anything, but the information so far seems to be creditable. The last time TorrentFreak reported Demoinoid being shut down, the servers were moved from the Netherlands to Canada.

Are you blocked from your favorite torrent site? Noticed slower torrents since isoHunt blocked US users? Leave your thoughts over in the forums or in the comment section below.