RIP, EZTV: One of the largest TV pirating rings is dead. Torrent sites like Kickass and Pirate Bay have also added a warning to EZTV’s files reading: THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY SCAMMERS. STAY AWAY.
After EZTV had its IP address suspended, it was purchased by scammers. NovaKing was told he needed a court order to get control of his domain, which may be tricky to do considering the less-than-legal nature of EZTV’s file-sharing.
These still-unknown scammers were able to lock EZTV ringleader “NovaKing” out of his accounts and are continuing to run the non-profit pirating ring as though no fishy coup d’ etorrent had gone down.
Since EZTV had such a sterling reputation in the torrenting community, there’s plenty of suspicion that this hostile takeover is a way to distribute malware, or a precursor to a good ol’ fashioned MPAA honeydick situation. Even if it’s neither of those things, it’s smartest to avoid downloading from a group that has been publicly hijacked for unknown purposes.
[Engadget via Torrent Freak]
Image via Pirate Bay
Contact the author at kate.knibbs@gizmodo.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: FF8F 0D7A AB19 6D71 C967 9576 8C12 9478 EE07 10C