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Anticipated Closure of BitTorrent Sites Spurs Panic Downloads In China

Posted by timothy on from the quickly-now dept.

hackingbear writes "Beijing Internet users are scrabbling for downloads from BitTorrent websites following speculation that authorities will shut them down as early as this week. Internet experts told China Daily the failure might be caused by an overload of users seeking last-minute free downloads. As the largest BT download website in China with 5 million downloads each year, VeryCD has been on the verge of closure after the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) shut hundreds of similar peer-to-peer file sharing sites, including the 50 million-user BTChina, during the last 10 days in its latest attempt to fight pornography and piracy online."

2 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So, Essentially by seshomaru+samma · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually according to Chinese media this crack focuses on eradicating pornography. Now, it's true you can get any DVD in China including 'subversive' movie (like '7 years' with Brad Pitt) , but they simply don't sell porn in those shops, it's a line they never crossed. Chinese people get their porn from the internet, mostly through torrents. As for the "china does nothing" part. I think you need to understand just how poor China is. Despite media hype - this is an extremely poor country with tons of problems and the undermanned underpaid police has much more important stuff to deal with than people copying DVds

  2. Re:Scrabbling? by unknownroad · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrabble
    See definition 3a of the intransitive verb. It actually made sense.