25 Great Pirate Bay Alternatives

The end of the Pirate Bay is nearing. Even if the deal with GGF doesn’t go through the current owners are likely to sell to one of the other interested parties. For many BitTorrent fans this means that they have to find an alternative. Luckily there are plenty of good ones out there.

Replacing The Pirate Bay is easier said then done. The tracker is currently responsible for approximately half of all public torrent transfers, which represents a significant percentage of global Internet traffic.

However, history has shown that BitTorrent users are an adaptive species that simply migrates to the next site when their home bases become uninhabitable.

While private trackers certainly have their place and will accommodate those lucky enough to get an invite, for this article we are interested in sites that are open to everyone, ranging from full Pirate Bay replacements to a do-it-yourself setup. If you’re looking for high speed downloads you could also consider to try Usenet instead (my  Usenet guide).

Full Pirate Bay Alternatives

The only full Pirate Bay alternatives are sites that index torrent files, are open to everyone and also have a working tracker. Unfortunately, there are only a few sites out there that offer this full package -there are four of them below. We decided to include Demonoid here because it tracks many public torrents.

1. Torrentbox

2. 1337x

3. H33t

4. Demonoid (semi-private)

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Torrent Indexers

Torrent indexers are sites that have a searchable directory of torrent files, but don’t host a (public) tracker of their own. Mininova has a tracker, but they only allow ‘featured’ torrents uploaded through their content distribution service. The most used torrent indexers are:

5. Mininova

6. isoHunt

7. Torrentreactor

8. BTjunkie

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Torrent Meta-Seach Engines

BitTorrent meta-search engines are yet another brand of torrent sites. They don’t have a tracker and don’t host any torrent files on their servers. Instead they search for and link to torrents hosted on third party sites.

9. Torrentz

10. Nowtorrents

11. Qtorrents

12. Torrent-Finder

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Private Trackers (open signup)

Most of the larger private trackers require an invite to join, but there are always a few that allow new members. Below are four of these (open) private trackers and more can be found on Btracs.

13. RTN

14. BiteMyTorrent

15. BitShock

16. TorrentIt

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Standalone BitTorrent Trackers

Torrent indexers and meta-search engines can be used to find torrents, but none of them will be of much use without a stable BitTorrent tracker. Standalone BitTorrent trackers are much needed, they handle the communication between downloaders but don’t index any torrents themselves.

17. OpenBitTorrent

18. PublicBitTorrent

19. The Hidden Tracker

20. Denis.Stalker

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DIY Pirate Bay Alternatives

The last category of Pirate Bay alternatives are the do-it-yourself projects. By using the three ingredients below The Pirate Bay can be easily rebuilt. It might take a few hours, but then the path to world domination is clear.

21. Pirate Bay Torrents Clone

22. Pirate Bay HTML Clone

23. Torrage: Torrent API

24. Tracker Software

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Last but not Least

Google, the mother of all search engines has a filetype:torrent search command that allows you to find torrent files scattered across the Internet. Also, Google’s custom search allows everyone to create their own torrent search engine. Don’t tell the MPAA and RIAA.

25. Google

If you think we missed any good alternatives, please feel free to add your own in the comment section below, while clearly noting which category they fit into.

The 10 Most Pirated eBooks of 2009

At our sister site TorrentFreak we do a weekly roundup of the most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, but there is of course more content on BitTorrent that is shared by many.

Here’s an overview of the 10 most downloaded books on BitTorrent this year. The list shows us that illicit book downloads are not yet threatening the best selling authors you’ll find in the New York Times list.           

In fact, most books that are downloaded on BitTorrent fall into the nerdy niche, are porn related – or both. All (e)books in this list were downloaded between 100.000 and 250.000 times.

For your consideration…

1. Kamasutra

2. Adobe Photoshop Secrets

3. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex

4. The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

5. Solar House – A Guide for the Solar Designer

6. Before Pornography – Erotic Writing In Early Modern England

7. Twilight – Complete Series

8. How To Get Anyone To Say YES – The Science Of Influence

9. Nude Photography – The Art And The Craft

10. Fix It – How To Do All Those Little Repair Jobs Around The Home

Crack/Keygen Sites That Are Safe To Use

Blindly searching the web for cracks & keygens is about as smart as using Limewire to search for antivirus software – something not well-advised. Undoubtedly and unfortunately, the number of crack sites with overtones of a malicious agenda heavily outweigh sites that just want to serve up the honest goods. Having said that, there actually are quite a few creditable ‘crack’ sites that won’t try to bombard you with full-screen popup ads, or commandeer your computer into a spam-loving Kraken or Srizbi Botnet army. We’ve done the hard work for you, and present a list of “clean” crack sites for all the latest warez.

Be aware that the site reviews herein only include information about each site, not the contents of the ‘cracks’ themselves. Always use a reputable antivirus and antispyware program on cracks & keygens before using them.

My Recommendation: Due to security flaws and exploits, avoid using Internet Explorer when browsing potentially harmful websites (such as any of these on the list) – use Firefox instead. Better still, for added safety use these two Firefox add-ons: NoScript and AdBlock Plus. Sorry, but you’ll have to copy/paste the links into your Browser window – I don’t wish to be a “known associate” of most of these sites.

Recommended (Clean) Crack Sites

While these websites are deemed adware/malware free, always be skeptical of their “affiliate links” to other crack sites. Stay within each sites’ listings and avoid external links which can be dangerous. Otherwise, these sites listed below are a good resource for cracks, serials and keygens.

Malware / Spyware ? NO Popup Advertising ? NO

www.smartserials.com

www.keygenguru.com

www.serialkey.net

www.zcrack.com

www.subserials.net

www.serialportal.com

supercracks.net

www.serialcrackz.com

www.serials.be

www.cracktop.com

www.cracksfm.com

www.cracklib.net

Malicious Crack Sites To Avoid

Avoid these websites at all costs – many contain some form of unwanted drive-by download. Some are classified as ‘database websites’ (i.e. aggregators) that link the cracks (sometimes through site searching) to more menacing sites.

newcracks.net — Newcracks offers a variety of annoyances such as third-party cookies, adware/spyware, browser exploits – not to mention a plethora of trojans in the downloads.

cracklooker.com — Cracklooker in itself isn’t a direct threat; however, they don’t host any cracks themselves, and search queries will direct users to sites that should be avoided.

astalavista.ms (or any ‘astalavista’ domain or variant thereof) — Same as above. Searching on Astalavista will display results from sites that should not be visited. Best to avoid. Other Astalavista domains are even more dangerous.

crack.ms — Browser exploits and hijacks, popups, trojans, backdoors – you name it, it’s here.

thebugs.ws — Contains some very harmful affiliate links.

needcrack.us — McAfee says, “When we browsed this site, we found direct links to an address that made unauthorized changes to our test PC.” Marvelous.

cracksearchengine.net — Not a direct threat (it’s a crack meta-search site) that aggregates search queries from less reputable sites. Clicking on search results can be harmful.

anycracks.com — Makes unauthorized changes to the PC. Marked as an ‘exploit server’.

mscracks.com — The works! Ad popups, browser hijacking, trojans in the files and bad affiliate links.

keygen.in — Same as above.

Dailykeys.com — Bad affiliate links and files are purposely infected with trojans/virii.

bestserials.com — Even Google confirms that “this site may harm your computer”.

crackfound.com — Ad popups and bad external links.

cracks4u.com — Affiliate links are on the bad list. Trojans and other malware are purposely added to the crack files. Avoid!

getcracks.com — Same as above.

keygen.ms — This site itself is harmless (aside from some popups); however, the actual crack files are linked on unscrupulous sites whereby an entire gamut of problems can arise.

crackhell.com — Their in-site search links to warezdownloads.com (not a good sign), and most of the affiliate links (which take up the better part of the homepage) should be avoided.

crackspider.net — Does not host any files – search results include those “Oem software” scams, or crack download links to abominable sites such as mscracks.com. Avoid.

crackzplanet (net/com) — Malicious executables are commonplace among the available cracks.

andr.net — Browser homepage hijacking and adware/popups.

asta-killer.com — Categorized as an ‘exploit server’ with active threats.

This is not an exhaustive list. There’s likely to be hundreds more that are similar.

Every week we take a look at the most downloaded TV-Shows on BitTorrent. Lost is leading the chart again this week, followed by Prison Break and 24.

The data for the most recent TV episodes listed below are collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only. The data for the second list is based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week is provided by ShowInsider.

Most Downloads (recent episodes)

May 4 – May 10

ranking	(prev)	show	est. downloads
torrentfreak.com
1	(1)	Lost	1,660,000
2	(3)	Prison Break	890,000
3	(4)	24	740,000
4	(5)	House M.D.	690,000
5	(6)	Desperate Housewives	630,000
6	(10)	Fringe	490,000
7	(…)	Grey’s Anatomy.	450,000
8	(9)	Smallville	475,000
9	(…)	Supernatural	460,000
10	(7)	Family Guy	450,000

Most Downloads (all episodes)

May 4 – May 10

Ranking	(last week)	TV-show
showinsider.com
1	(1)	Heroes
2	(2)	Lost
3	(5)	24
4	(4)	House M.D.
5	(8)	Prison Break
6	(9)	Desperate Housewives
7	(3)	How I Met Your Mother
8	(6)	Grey’s Anatomy
9	(10)	Gossip Girl
10	(12)	Fringe

uTorrent Adds Google Powered Torrent Search

uTorrent – the client of choice for most BitTorrent users – has added a Google powered torrent search engine to its website. This added search capability uses Google’s custom search program and prioritizes BitTorrent sites in the results. With millions of visitors a month, this is likely to bring in some additional revenue for BitTorrent Inc.

Many visitors to the uTorrent website are relatively new to BitTorrent, and a proportion of these are clueless as to where they should start looking for .torrent files. For this group the new torrent search box on the uTorrent homepage might come in handy. On the other hand, for BitTorrent Inc. it will generate some welcome additional revenue in troubling times.

While the added search is not a particular good way to find torrents, its addition to the site is an interesting move by BitTorrent Inc. Not so long ago, uTorrent removed the search boxes to sites like Mininova and isoHunt from their client, as per requests from copyright holders. However, since BitTorrent Inc.closed its video store, there is now no need to please Hollywood and they are free to link to torrent sites again.

Last December we reported that BitTorrent.com added a torrent search engine that works with Ask.com, and uTorrent.com now follows with a Google powered search engine. Neither site hosts any files, they simply act as a meta-search engine. Below is an example of a search for aXXo on uTorrent. Ironically, the Google ad that appears here links to a uTorrent scam site.

US Pirate Party Docks in California

In Europe, Pirate Parties have quite a following, especially in Sweden where a political scientist recently described them as a “classic civil right movement”. The U.S. Pirate Party hopes to replicate some of this success, and officially launched in California today, the home of the movie industry.

California, the place where Hollywood stars becomeGovernors. The place where movie pirates, led by William Fox, once fled to in order to escape the licensing fees Thomas Edison demanded for inventing the motion picture camera. More than a century later the tables have turned

Fox is no longer a pirate in the 20th century, but one of the big players in the motion picture industry. Similarly, Hollywood is no longer a hiding place for pirates, but the home of the MPAA. The people who once successfully moved from New York to the wild west in order to escape licensing fees, are now the ones who go after a new branch of pirates – for stealing their work.

Luckily, the U.S. is still a democracy, and the U.S. Pirate Party has now set course to the golden state. In California, the party aims to be recognized by the State Secretary in the months to come. In order to do so, the party has to collect 88,991 signatures within 15 months. A tough challenge, but not impossible according to Glenn Kerbein, chairman of the party.

Indeed, hundreds and thousands of Americans – especially the more tech savvy ones – realize that stricter copyright laws are not the silver bullet that will stop piracy. They believe we have to stand up for Net Neutrality and protect our privacy. However, mobilizing all these people to register as a Pirate is easier said then done.

The goals of the party are clear though. “Frankly, we feel that the RIAA and MPAA’s ruthless campaign of suing their own customers out of their livelihoods must cease immediately. The terrible litigation facing international bodies (ACTA) must see the light of day, and the DMCA must be repealed,” they write.

Previously, the Pirate Party has tried to get recognized in Utah, but they got stuck on 1400 of the 2000 needed signatures. Nothing is impossible though, in Sweden half of all Swedish men under 30 said they would consider voting for the Pirate Party, while the youth chapter received $160,000 in funding from the government. There’s still hope, even though change has already come.

Best Torrent Site for Music

One thing that’s always been missingfrom the torrent world is a public tracker that focuses strictly on music, and nothing else. Welcome to Coda.fm, the world’s first public music-only torrent indexer! While there’s plenty of music to be found on Mininova & The Pirate Bay, Coda.fm offers a refreshing approach to how music torrents should be displayed; there’s music genre categories, album art, metadata, track listings, album reviews and even artist information. While Coda.fm won’t replace your What.cd or Waffles account, we can assure this will become a hit among public torrenters.

Finally, Music Browsing Made Easy

Coda.fm already serves up 1,000’s of full album torrent downloads, all neatly arranged in “Toplists” such as new releases, just added, top artists and top album lists. There’s no advertising, the interface is very user-friendly, and torrents are verified before they appear on the site.

Benefits of Registering at Coda.fm

While you won’t need to register an account at Coda to upload or download torrents, members are entitled to these perks:

• • You can comment on albums.
• • You have your own customizable profile page.
• • When you upload an album torrent, your user name shows as uploader.
• • You and another people can see the albums you uploaded.
• • You can track the status of your torrents pending for approval.

Uploading Your Torrents

Coda.fm makes it dead-simple to upload your own torrents. Simply create your own torrent (say, in uTorrent, and point it to an unarchived album folder in your music collection), and use a public tracker for the tracker URL (see examples below).

• http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
• http://tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
• http://tpb.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

Be sure to uncheck the “Private torrent” setting, and save (and start seeding) your torrent. Also, do a quick search at Coda.fm to make sure the torrent (album) doesn’t already exist. Visit the upload link, and enter some album info, and upload it.

After uploading, you’ll receive a confirmation. The torrent won’t appear right away, as staff at Coda.fm will first check and index it; and add album art, descriptions, etc. Be sure to leave it seeding in your BT client.

TIP: Users don’t need to upload brand-new torrents, you can do this from ones that already exist on popular torrent indexers. Simply download (and seed) a music torrent from Mininova or TPB, and upload it to Coda.fm.

Digg 1998

WTF?

Spore is released! DRM + SecureRom??

Click Me

EA is releasing a huge game today, but packing it with more security than I am cofortable having.  I’m not a big fan of SecureRom or DRM, and EA is relly pissing me off lately with their security features.  If you are looking for a free copy of Spore, just click the picture, and grab the torrent.  It works great, I just put a few hours in.  Enjoy.