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As a tradition, we use the last day of the year to look back at some of the biggest stories of the past twelve months. However, since TorrentFreak just celebrated its 20th anniversary, we're zooming out even further, looking back at some of the key moments in the past two decades.
For writers and readers, news often comes and goes, with major headlines swiftly fading into the background.
Therefore, it can be a good idea to stop and reflect now and then. After covering piracy news and copyright challenges for more than two decades, we look back at some of the most memorable moments.
This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it surely shows that times have changed. And they continue to do so.
2005 – 2009: The Formative Years
The Failure of eXeem:
The adware-heavy “successor to Suprnova” fails and shuts down due to massive technical flaws and community distrust. (2005)
TPB Milestone & DHT:
The Pirate Bay hits its first major milestone of 100,000 torrents as the mainstreaming of DHT enables trackerless downloads. (2005/2009)
The Pirate Bay Raid:
Swedish police seize the site’s servers in Stockholm, marking the start of a criminal investigation into the site’s founders. (2006)
TPB’s Resilience:
The Pirate Bay returns to the web just three days after the raid, establishing itself as an icon of digital defiance. (2006)
Comcast Throttling:
Technical evidence reveals Comcast is forging “RST” packets to sabotage BitTorrent uploads, a landmark moment for Net Neutrality. (2007)
MediaDefender Leaks:
Leaked internal emails expose the anti-piracy firm’s use of a “honeypot” website and aggressive sabotage tactics. (2007)
The Pirate Bay Sale:
Global Gaming Factory X fails in its bizarre attempt to buy The Pirate Bay and list it on the stock market. (2009)
The Pirate Bay Trial:
The founders of the site receive prison sentences and multi-million dollar fines in the closely followed “Spectrial” verdict. (2009)
Mininova Goes Legal:
A court order forces Mininova to delete all copyright-infringing content, effectively ending its dominance. (2009)
Rise of the Pirate Party:
Public backlash from the TPB trial propels Sweden’s Pirate Party into the European Parliament. (2009)
2010 – 2014: Mega Legal Wars
Mass U.S. Piracy Lawsuits:
The first wave of mass piracy lawsuits hits U.S. shores, targeting thousands of BitTorrent users at once. (2010)
U.S. Domain Seizures:
ICE and DHS launch their first round of piracy-related domain name seizures as part of “Operation In Our Sites.” (2010)
LimeWire Shutdown:
The legendary Gnutella client shuts down under legal pressure and is briefly resurrected as the “Pirate Edition.” (2010)
MegaUpload Commercial:
Filehosting service MegaUpload launched the controversial “Mega Song,” featuring stars like P Diddy and Kanye West, sparking a legal battle with Universal. (2011)
Megaupload Raid:
New Zealand police raid Kim Dotcom’s estate, shuttering the world’s largest file-hosting empire in a global operation. (2012)
BTJunkie Shutdown:
One of the internet’s largest torrent indices voluntarily shuts down in the wake of the Megaupload raid. (2012)
SOPA/PIPA Blackouts:
Massive digital protests and web blackouts successfully kill controversial US anti-piracy legislation. (2012)
UK ISP Blocking:
High Court orders compel UK ISPs to implement nationwide blocks of The Pirate Bay with other sites following later. (2012)
Popcorn Time:
A new open-source app, dubbed the “Netflix for Pirates,” simplifies torrenting into a user-friendly streaming experience. (2014)
The Nacka Raid:
Swedish police seize servers at a data center in Nacka, taking The Pirate Bay offline for several weeks. (2014)
Sony Pictures Hack:
Hackers leak unreleased films and sensitive emails following a catastrophic breach at Sony. (2014)
2015 – 2019: Slaying Torrent Giants
YTS/YIFY Settlement:
The world’s most popular movie uploader shuts down permanently following a secret legal deal with the MPAA. (2015)
KickassTorrents Shutdown:
https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-shut-down-owner-arrested-160720/”>shuttering the world’s #1 piracy site. Vaulin later disappears. (2016)
Torrentz.eu Signs Off:
The internet’s most popular torrent meta-search engine abruptly ends its operations with a “farewell” message. (2016)
TorrentHound Shutdown:
Following the fall of KAT, another giant, TorrentHound, voluntarily pulls the plug. (2016)
ExtraTorrent Closure:
One of the last remaining torrent giants, ExtraTorrent, permanently shuts down its website. (2017)
Article 13/17:
The European Parliament passes the Copyright Directive, mandating “upload filters” for platforms. (2018)
Streaming Fragmentation:
The launch of Disney+ and other siloed services triggers a resurgence in BitTorrent piracy, which they were supposed to solve. (2019)
Cox Liable for $1 Billion:
A Virginia jury orders ISP Cox to pay $1 billion for failing to disconnect repeat pirates. The legal battle is ongoing and landed at the Supreme Court in 2025. (2019)
2020 – 2025: Modern Piracy & AI
Pandemic Surge:
Global piracy traffic spikes by over 40% as a direct result of COVID-19 lockdowns. (2020)
The YouTube-dl Takedown:
The RIAA uses a DMCA notice to remove the popular tool from GitHub, sparking a massive developer revolt. (2020)
Team Xecuter Arrests:
U.S. authorities arrest the leaders of Team Xecuter for selling Nintendo Switch hack tools. (2020)
Z-Library Seizure:
The FBI seizes over 200 domains belonging to Z-Library and arrests its alleged operators. (2022)
RARBG Permanent Shutdown:
The iconic site RARBG closes permanently, citing inflation and the war in Ukraine. (2023)
AI and Copyright (Books3):
AI companies face scrutiny for using pirate datasets like “Books3” to train large language models. (2023)
FMovies Global Takedown:
In a historic operation, ACE and Vietnamese authorities shut down the FMovies syndicate. (2024)
TorrentGalaxy Disappears:
After multiple “downtime” scares, TorrentGalaxy faces massive disruption and potential closure attempts. (2025)
Pirate Site Blocking Demands Expand to DNS Providers:
Rightsholders increasingly seek site-blocking measures from DNS resolvers, starting with Quad9 in Germany. These requests later expand to other countries and providers, including Google. Cloudflare and OpenDNS. (2021/2025)
U.S. Site Blocking Resurgence (ACPA/FADPA):
Lawmakers push for new bills like PADPA and ACPA to bring back SOPA-style site blocking. (2025)
Anna’s Archive Spotlight:
The shadow library search engine triggered an unprecedented 750-million Google takedowns. At the end of the year, it also scraped 86 million Spotify tracks, (2025)
Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.
Posted Thursday 1 January 2026 at 4:24 am AEST (my time).
News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025: 5,700+
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