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    The Pirate Bay set to kill torrent files, keep its service running with magnet links

    The Pirate Bay set to kill torrent files, keep its service running with magnet links

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    The PIrate Bay has made magnet links the default method of grabbing torrents, with plans to remove the links to torrent files this time next month.

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    Having shut down its tracker server a little over a year ago, The Pirate Bay's now removing the torrent files themselves from its service. This step began today as it made magnet links the default across the site, which allow people to add torrents without downloading a file first — ultimately the same service via different means. The implication here is that even less potentially incriminating data is stored on The Pirate Bay's servers — it's far easier for them to claim that they're purely a search engine if users don't have to download files in order to find content. Torrent Freak has been told that by next month, the torrent download links will be removed, and only magnet links will remain.

    The Pirate Bay says that the decision is based on magnet links taking far lower bandwidth, making it easier to use them through a proxy. This is particularly significant in light of the Dutch court order banning the website. The site's faced protracted battles over the past few years over the legal implications of hosting torrents, with the founders receiving prison sentences in Sweden for copyright infringement. Whether this new strategy will fare better in the eyes of the law — or escape the censorship of SOPA — remains to be seen.