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Most pirate sites try not to attract the attention of rights holders and anti-piracy groups. The Spanish torrent site DonTorrent is clearly not on this list because it openly taunts the Motion Picture Association. The site lists MPA’s Head of Global Content Protection, Jan Van Voorn, as the “official” owner in its legal disclaimer.
With millions of monthly visitors, DonTorrent is a force to be reckoned with. The site is particularly popular in Spain and offers links to a curated selection of torrents.
DonTorrent regularly changes domain names to evade ISP blocking efforts, a common practice among pirate sites. It currently runs off of dontorrent.cat and also has a dedicated .onion address so it can be accessed anonymously through the Tor network.
ACE and MPA Watch DonTorrent
In addition to site blocking, other potential risks loom on the horizon. Anti-piracy coalition ACE is following the site closely. The group had previously asked Cloudflare to share any details it has about the site’s operators, presumably ahead of legal action.
ACE attempted to obtain this information through a subpoena submitted by MPA’s Head of Global Content Protection, Jan Van Voorn. This is a common practice these days, which – in some cases – helps ACE and its members obtain useful information.
It is unknown if Cloudflare has shared anything useful on DonTorrent. However, the site is certainly aware of the interest of ACE and MPA since it openly taunts anti-piracy collectives. According to the site’s disclaimer, DonTorrent is owned by MPA Content Protection Officer Jan Van Voorn.
Who owns DonTorrent?
“This website is owned by Jan van Voorn, address 15301 Ventura Boulevard, Building E Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 USA,” the disclaimer begins.
This post isn’t some belated April Fool’s Day prank, as it’s been up for weeks already. That said, this is obviously kind of a joke, as the MPA and Van Voorn are on the other side of the piracy spectrum.
The advisory is a bold move nonetheless, and we suspect ACE and the MPA will only become more determined to find out who’s really behind the scenes. And they can get help from Spanish law enforcement.
MPA’s close ties with Spain
Two weeks ago, the president of the MPA, Charles Rivkin, met with Francisco Pardothe Director General of the Spanish Police, who has pledged to protect rights holders against online piracy.
“General Manager Francisco Pardo Piqueras told me today that the film/TV/streaming industry needs to be protected from piracy because it “creates dreams, hope and happiness , and it’s…magical,’” Rivkin tweeted in response.
For now, the Spanish torrent site seems pretty safe. Before publishing, we tried to find out what motivated the operators of DonTorrent to put Van Voorn on the change, but we did not get an answer.
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