TorrentFreak

Specialist areas

According to Canadian law scholar Michael Geist, TorrentFreak "is widely used as a source of original reporting on digital issues".

Frequent areas of reporting include:

• The City of London's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit
• United States Trade Representative and Notorious Markets reports
• Anti-piracy web blocking
• Torrent tracker news
• VPN and seedbox reviews
• File sharing website news
• Copyright law news
• Warez scene news

As well as other news affecting copyright, privacy, file sharing and adjacent topics.

Editorial stance

In a 2021 article, Andy Maxwell outlined TorrentFreak's editorial stance. He wrote: "As a publication entirely dedicated to reporting on copyright, piracy, torrent, and streaming sites (plus all things closely related), here at TorrentFreak we aim to tell all 'sides' of the story. We do not shy away from reports that show that piracy hurts sales and we have no problem publishing research projects that show completely the opposite. It's called balanced reporting and it hurts absolutely no one."

History

On 17 August 2007, TorrentFreak reported that Comcast had begun throttling its upload bandwidth, specifically against BitTorrent users. This made seeding, which is an essential part of the BitTorrent protocol, effectively impossible. It was later determined that Comcast was using Sandvine products, which implement network traffic shaping and policing, and include support for both blocking new and forcefully terminating established network connections. Comcast denied these claims whenever asked to comment. A guide for customer service representatives when asked about Comcast's BitTorrent throttling was leaked to The Consumerist on 26 October 2007.

Between October 2008 and March 2011, TorrentFreak ran a short-lived video news service titled torrentfreak.tv, directed by Andrej Preston, founder of the torrent site Suprnova, and made available for streaming and download on Mininova.

On 21 August 2013, Comcast threatened TorrentFreak with legal action for reproducing publicly available court documents. The document linked a Comcast subscriber with the Prenda Law firm in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

In August 2013, Sky Broadband blocked the site for UK customers after torrent site EZTV pointed its DNS servers to TorrentFreak's IP address. In July 2014, the site was also blocked by the Sky Broadband Shield parental filter system.

2020s

During the 2020s, TorrentFreak continued to focus on copyright, digital rights, and anti-piracy developments, covering topics such as court-ordered website blocking, IPTV enforcement, domain seizures, and new enforcement strategies by rights holders.

In 2022, TorrentFreak highlighted the takedown of the e-book library Z-Library and the increasing global scope of ISP blocking orders in its annual “Most-Read News Articles of 2022”.

In 2024, the site reported on film companies’ attempts to obtain a Reddit user’s torrenting history, illustrating the widening scope of discovery requests in U.S. piracy litigation. It also covered the largest IPTV piracy trial in U.S. history, involving the Jetflicks and iStreamitAll services.

In 2025, TorrentFreak reported on a $15 million judgment obtained by Netflix, Amazon, and several Hollywood studios against the operator of the pirate IPTV service Outer Limits.

Throughout its history, TorrentFreak has documented copyright litigation, ISP enforcement policies, and digital rights cases, maintaining a reputation as a long-running independent publication focused on the intersection of technology and copyright law.

References

References

1. (17 April 2009). "Piraten zijn digitale pioniers". [[NRC Handelsblad]].
2. "Copyright".
3. Injijian, Allen. (14 May 2007). "Pwned: Final Project Interview #2: Ernesto of TorrentFreak.com".
4. Smith, Ethan. (4 August 2008). "Web Piracy: The Enemy Within?". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
5. "About TorrentFreak".
6. Profile. [https://torrentfreak.com/author/rick-falkvinge/ Rick Falkvinge] {{Webarchive. link. (16 January 2013 , torrentfreak.com.)
7. San Miguel, Renay. (30 June 2009). "Pirate Bay Decides to Join the Navy". E-Commerce Times.
8. Geist, Michael. (20 April 2010). "The 2009 Copyright Consultation: Setting the Record Straight".
9. "File-sharing site back up after copyright suspension".
10. (29 July 2014). "Police placing anti-piracy warning ads on illegal sites".
11. (15 November 2013). "U.S. Trade Representative Defends Pending Trade Pact After WikiLeaks Disclosure".
12. (1 September 2014). "MPAA research bigs up UK web-blocking".
13. (18 May 2012). "UK Pirate Party sees more than 1.8m visits in 24 hours after ISPs block The Pirate Bay website".
14. (23 March 2014). "Five Best VPN Service Providers".
15. Maxwell, Andy. (January 3, 2021). "Police Have a 'Secret Weapon' to Stop Fans Streaming Pirate TV For Free". TorrentFreak.
16. Lawler, Ryan. (21 August 2007). "Comcast Takes on TorrentFreak". Light Reading.
17. (26 October 2007). "Comcast's "We Don't Throttle BitTorrent" Internal Talking Points Memo". [[The Consumerist]].
18. (20 March 2011). "TorrentFreak TV Is Back!".
19. (14 May 2011). "Suprnova.org: Former Pirate King Embraces Web Video".
20. (21 August 2013). "Comcast Threatens to Sue TorrentFreak for Copyright Infringement".
21. (21 August 2013). "Comcast Threatens to Sue TorrentFreak for Copyright Infringement (updated)". TorrentFreak.
22. "Comcast Business Record Affidavit". Docket Alarm, Inc..
23. (9 August 2013). "News site TorrentFreak 'blocked' by Sky's piracy filter".
24. (6 January 2014). "TorrentFreak News Site Blocked By Sky Porn Filter".
25. "TorrentFreak – News".
26. "TorrentFreak’s Most-Read News Articles of 2022".
27. "Film Companies Seek ‘Torrenting History’ Related to Redditor".
28. "Biggest IPTV Piracy Trial in U.S. History Underway and Already Controversial".
29. "Netflix, Amazon & Hollywood Win $15 M Judgment Against U.S. Pirate IPTV Operator".