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Jesus Snchzrents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
rents was founded by Yiftach Swery in 2010, while he was studying computer science
at University of Waikato.[2] Yiftach is an app developer, web developer and archery
champion from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] The first YIFY movies were a result of
Yiftach experimenting with the x264 video codec to encode HD movies in a way that
took up as little hard drive space as possible, which were then uploaded to The
Pirate Bay.[5][6] The releases were initially encoded on a ten-year old laptop
sitting in his bedroom.[7] In August 2011, the YIFY brand was gaining enough
traffic to warrant the launch of an official YIFY Torrents Website. The website was
blocked by ISPs in the United Kingdom on December 14th 2013, so a mirror domain
yify-torrents.im was launched.[8]
The YIFY name continued to generate traction, to the point where in 2013, 'YIFY'
was the most searched term on Kickass Torrents, along with other related search
terms such as 'yify 720p', 'yify 2013' and 'yify 1080p'.[9] This popularity was
maintained through to 2015, where it was once again the most searched term on
BitTorrent websites.[10] In an interview with TorrentFreak, YIFY attributed the
success of his group's releases to the consistency of the information and cover art
coming with the movies, as well as the small file sizes allowing for easier
accessibility.[11]
In January 2014, Yiftach announced that he was retiring from encoding and
uploading, mentioning that it was 'time for a change' in his life. The website
rebranded to YTS, and moved to a new domain name at YTS.RE. Management and encoding
was handed over to the existing team of staff members. The encoding and uploading
job was given to OTTO, the nickname for the automated system that YTS would run on
until the end of the operation.[12] YTS is an abbreviation of YIFY Torrent
Solutions.[13]
The entire website was re-programmed at the backend and redesigned at the frontend
in February 2015, as the site was dealing with an increased number of technical
issues due to an increasing number of visitors (approximately one million unique
visitors a day, at the time).[14]
In March 2015, The YTS staff were informed by the domain registry FRNIC that their
current domain YTS.RE was frozen and would be suspended by the end of March. The
cause of this suspension was unclear, although legal pressure from copyright
holders was the speculated reason. By March 20th 2015, the website had been
successfully moved to a new domain, YTS.TO.[15]
In October 2015, the YIFY website went down, with no word from any of the staff or
those connected with the site, and no new YIFY releases. It was confirmed on
October 30th 2015 that YIFY/YTS was shut down permanently.[16][17] The site was
shut down due to a lawsuit coming from the MPAA.[18] They filed a multi-million
dollar lawsuit against the website's operator, accusing him of "facilitating and
encouraging massive copyright infringement". A spokesman for the New Zealand Screen
Association stated their surprise that the site was operated out of New Zealand,
due to past knowledge of many pirate sites running out of Eastern Europe.[19] Swery
was able to settle out of court a month later, signing a non-disclosure agreement.
[20]
Additionally, YIFY had a registered company in the United Kingdom, titled YTS.RE
LTD, incorporated on 5 February 2015.[21] The company was based in a virtual office
in London. The company was dissolved in February 2016.[22]
Legacy
Since its shutdown, the YIFY name has been used in numerous copycat websites.[23]
Some of them are claiming to be the 'new' YIFY, while various others simply use the
name for purposes such as streaming sites and subtitle download repositories. The
most significant one of these sites were YTS.AG, which quickly climbed in
popularity when the original YTS site shut down.[24][25] There has been some
backlash to these imitators.[26] Kickass Torrents stated that they would only allow
YTS.AG rips if they were uploaded under a different title. ExtraTorrent and RARBG
banned them altogether.[27][28] In late 2017 after approximately two years of
operation,[29] YTS.AG shifted to the new domain YTS.AM,[30] and is currently ranked
by Alexa as the 213th most viewed website globally.[31][32] The site, since gaining
such a large userbase, has been blocked by ISPs in several countries, such as
Greece, Australia and Ireland.[33][34][35][36]
In July 2016, the YIFY name made a cameo in season 2 of the television series Mr.
Robot, where the lead character Elliot is seen using the uTorrent client, and his
Plex folder, filled with films from release groups such as RARBG and YIFY. When
approached by TorrentFreak, Yiftach stated that he appreciated the 'bad ass'
mention.[37]
See also
123Movies
Putlocker
aXXo
References
Pineda, Erik (2016-05-15). "YIFY/YTS Meaning, Identity of Operator behind Popular
Torrent Brand Finally Revealed". Yibada English. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Kiwi teen behind vast internet piracy says he loved bragging about it to his
friends". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Archery champion allegedly behind global piracy site shut down by Hollywood
studios". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"NZ archery rep caught up in piracy suit". NZ Herald. 2016-03-13. ISSN 1170-0777.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"About - YIFY Torrents". 2013-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"What Happened to YIFY Movies & YTS? � City Of Hype". City Of Hype. 2017-12-18.
Retrieved 2018-11-26.
Kovacs, Eduard. "YIFY-Torrents Becomes YTS as Founder Retires". softpedia.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY-Torrents is Battling the Internet Censors - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak.
2013-12-14. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top Torrent Searches 2013: YIFY Is The Most Popular Search Term On Kickass
Torrents". International Business Times. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Reporter, Staff. "List of top 50 keywords that people searched for in BitTorrent
in 2015, includes 'YIFY', 'Hindi' and 'Game of Thrones'". International Business
Times, India Edition. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY: Hollywood Nemesis Becomes Iconic Piracy Brand - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YIFY Torrents Announces Retirement of Founder, But Show Goes On - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"After Half a Decade, We Now Know What YIFY Stands For - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"YTS Rolls Out New Design and Features - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-02-02.
Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"YIFY Torrents Faces Domain Suspension, Moves to YTS.to - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
AfterDawn.com. "Torrent scene group YIFY shuts down permanently". AfterDawn.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"How YIFY Became one of the Biggest Online Movie Pirates". TVOvermind. 2018-08-17.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2015-
11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Hollywood studios swoop on global piracy site in Mt Wellington". Stuff. Retrieved
2018-11-23.
"YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate". Engadget.
Retrieved 2018-11-23.
Supplement, Company law official notifications - Weekly (PDF). The London Gazette.
2015. ISBN 9780116825063.
"YTS / YIFY Has a Company in the UK & It's About to Close Down - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"The MPAA Killed Another Movie Torrent Site". Motherboard. 2015-11-04. Retrieved
2018-11-26.
Bhatt, Aishwarya (2015-12-15). "4 Reasons Why YTS Will Fare Better Than YIFY".
Chinatopix. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"What the top pirate sites in South Africa have to offer". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2018". TorrentFreak. 2018-01-07. Retrieved
2018-12-09.
Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (2015-11-15). "Is YTS.ag Real or Fake? 5 Fast Facts You
Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
"Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
"Whois yts.ag". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"YTS.AM: new domain name for YTS/YIFY website - YTS YIFY". yts.am. Retrieved 2019-
02-02.
"Yts.am Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved
2018-11-18.
"Whois yts.am". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
"Greek ISPs Ordered to Block 38 Domains, Including The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak.
2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Big expansion for Australia's anti-piracy website blocking regime".
Computerworld. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
Kennedy, John (2018-01-16). "Movie industry victory as eight piracy sites blocked
in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"YTS". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
"Mr. Robot 'Plugs' uTorrent and Pirate Release Groups - TorrentFreak".
TorrentFreak. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
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