Demonoid is a BitTorrent tracker and website founded in 2003 to facilitate file-sharing related discussion and provide a searchable index of torrent files. The site underwent intermittent periods of extended downtime in its history due to the occasional need to move the server, generally caused by cancellation of ISP service due to local political pressure.
Reports announced the accidental death of its founder Deimos in August 2018. Following the event, the website was closed on September 17, 2018. In July 2019, Demonoid staffers launched a new version of the website to revive the project.
Features and policies
Demonoid features RSS with different feeds for each of its torrent categories and their sub-categories. It tracked and displayed users' upload/download ratios, but, except in its early years, took no action against users with low ratios (members who took more than they share). The website 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.
Demonoid prohibits linking to torrents containing pornographic material and malicious software. In addition to forums, the website features an IRC channel, #demonoid at P2P-Network, which supports discussion among users.
History
Demonoid was founded on April 21, 2003, by a Mexican Internet user known under the pseudonym of 'Deimos'. It initially worked as a fully-private BitTorrent tracker with intermittent periods of open registrations. From the mid-2000s, Demonoid grew as one of the largest trackers in the world along with The Pirate Bay, which led to an increase in legal threats from copyright owners.
On April 10, 2008, Deimos stepped down as the administrator of Demonoid, citing a number of reasons and "distraction with real-world issues". 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 read as follows:
In August 2012, Deimos faced criminal investigation in Mexico, and was eventually released from jail in February 2013. After a decrease in the audience during the 2010s, he was reportedly working in early 2018 to rebuild the website to the thriving community of the previous decade. Deimos died in an accident in August 2018, leading to the closure of Demonoid on September 17, 2018. In July 2019, staff of the original community relaunched the website.
Legal issues
In a 2007 study, Slyck.com found twelve cease and desist letters to users of Demonoid. On September 25, 2007, the Demonoid website, forums and trackers went offline. 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 until October 2, 2007. The explanation as widely speculated was that they had received a letter from a lawyer for the Canadian Recording Industry Association threatening legal action. Demonoid began blocking Canadian traffic, a strategy similar to that taken by isoHunt and TorrentSpy in blocking American traffic to avoid RIAA complaints. 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. The CRIA has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement despite Demonoid's claims.
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. 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: