New data is pouring in and trickling down at professional pirate headquarters, TorrentFreak. The reports are largely positive, but that, of course, is all relative to which side you're on. For big business and "anti-piracy outfits" -- for instance, the infamous RIAA and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) -- things look bleak. In a breakdown of the Top 25 torrent sites as of March 27, TorrentFreak is noting "explosive growth," with 21 of the piracy-aiding websites moving up in the rankings according to Alexa, the web information company that lists the top 500 sites globally.
The Pirate Bay, no stranger to threats and even litigation (TMT News), has seen an approximately 40% rise in traffic over the past three months. Elsewhere, sites like Torrentz.ws, Torrentvalley.com, and Newtorrents.info have also experienced large jolts in their online popularity. Mininova.org, the most popular torrent site, has jumped ten places to become the 53rd most popular site on the internet as of March 2008.
This is all in the face of a "crackdown" on illegal downloading, with many U.S. universities, for example, being targeted by wide-reaching litigation letters. Is it starfish that regenerate limbs? Hydra-heads? Lizard tales grow back, right? What's that one game -- whack-a-mole? Yeah.
You're gonna need a bigger boat.
Here's the top 10. You can check out the rest of the list here.