The file-sharing world experienced something like an earthquake when it was announced that KickassTorrents, the Web's number one BitTorrent content index, had been shut down by US authorities, just as the site's alleged creator was being arrested in Poland. The fall of KickassTorrents was felt, but at its core it's nothing more than a "BitTorrent phone book", and there are plenty of alternatives out there ready to take its place. Here are five of them.
One day, the lights at KickassTorrents went out. The possibility always existed, but deep down we believed it was on its way to becoming another The Pirate Bay — permanent and indestructible. However, with the arrest on Polish soil of a certain Artem Vaulin, a 30-year-old Ukrainian directly linked to the creation of KickassTorrents, the classic copyright hawks, aided by the US Department of Justice, believe they have enough evidence to request his extradition and serve him a taste of the same sauce they want to share with Kim Dotcom. Needless to say, the big industry representatives declared the fall of KickassTorrents a "major victory", ignoring (once again) the fact that BitTorrent indexes are just that — indexes. The information may be harder to find, but that doesn't mean it has disappeared. Which portals are emerging as replacements? Let's take a look.
The Pirate Bay
The first option is so obvious it embarrasses me to write about it. Ladies and gentlemen, The Pirate Bay is still working great, and beyond the occasional pop-up, once the user gets the magnet link for what they want to download, the story ends. It's like when Facebook or WhatsApp go down, and everyone runs to Twitter to announce it. With KickassTorrents out of the equation, The Pirate Bay is the first port of call.
1337X
Good design, excellent aesthetics, plenty of content… I think there's nothing bad to say about 1337X. It offers both magnet links and .torrent files, and depending on popularity, it also includes streaming or direct download options. 1337X has a DMCA takedown pathway, but KickassTorrents did exactly the same, and we saw how that turned out. If The Pirate Bay is too "Spartan", 1337X can comfortably take its place.
ExtraTorrent
Recommended on several occasions by social network users like Reddit, ExtraTorrent reminds us a bit of the old Suprnova.org, especially because of its search mechanics and the way content is presented on the main page. Results appear quite disorganized, and seeding classification is limited to VIP users (?), but with magnet links there’s not much more to discuss or question.
IsoHunt
Shortly after writing the lines about The Pirate Bay, I remembered the Open Bay project, and when I tried to visit it, I noticed it no longer exists… although its place is taken by IsoHunt. It would be hard to say if they are the same people behind the original IsoHunt, but suffice it to say that content search works, it’s easy to sort by number of seeds, and it offers magnet links. If everything else fails, IsoHunt might be the last piece of the puzzle.
KickassTorrents!
The original address may have been torpedoed by the authorities, but that didn’t stop the creation of several mirrors within hours. This variant appears to have been registered in China, while this address belongs to an IsoHunt mirror. Then we find this portal, and this other one. The KickassTorrents community on Reddit keeps reporting the functionality and validity of the mirrors. Remember the story of the hydra? That’s exactly what happens with KickassTorrents.
To finish, I want to briefly mention torrentz.eu, which searches across several indexes at once, and we can't forget Tribler, which besides acting as a BitTorrent client, also has its own search system. In short, the authorities' "masterstroke" lasted just over 24 hours, leading us to one conclusion: They really don't understand how the Internet works.
