RuTracker
Since the moment officials decided to “forever” block the largest bittorent tracker RuTracker in Russia, it took more than a year. Of course, the blocking could not but affect the attendance of the resource – as early as in early 2016 it became clear that it had fallen. Nevertheless, the site feels good – the number of downloads of torrents from the moment of blocking has practically not changed. The tracker also does not think to close, what the initiators of the lock expected. According to officials, after the measures taken, the number of visitors to the site had to decrease, after which advertisers would refuse from Rutracker. Accordingly, without financial support, the resource would not be able to work.
“In the first few days and weeks – while the media is blocking Rutracker – the” Barbra Streisand effect “is being written, and users go to the resource to check whether it is blocked or not. The real drop in attendance can be traced only in three months, when only permanent visitors will remain on the resource, who are interested in using the portal even after it has been blocked, “said Vadim Ampelonsky, Roskomnadzor press secretary. A year later, you can give a real assessment of the situation, realizing what has changed and to what extent.
The current situation was told by the representatives of the tracker in an interview with the Internet media Apparat. According to the administration of the resource, attendance fell, but the audience declined slightly. In addition, the dynamics of file sharing has remained almost unchanged – the number of files downloaded per unit of time has not decreased.
As far as can be judged, the number of visits to the resource of users of mobile devices has significantly decreased. The problem is that you can bypass the lock on a mobile device more than on a PC. On a laptop or computer, you can configure blocking bypasses in a couple of clicks, so that even users who are not too sophisticated in computer technology and software can cope with this task.
And the maximum number of downloads is carried out by PC users, and not by those who enter the tracker from mobile devices. Every day from the tracker it is downloaded about one million files, this indicator has not changed since the moment of blocking.
An interesting point is that after the blocking of the site in Russia the amount of work for the administration of Rutracker has decreased. The fact is that communication with rightholders from Russia used to take a lot of time, resources and resources. And now, since the site is blocked on the territory of the country, all cooperation with domestic rights holders is terminated. “Once the site is blocked entirely, there are no grounds for complaints. On the territory of Russia, the site is inoperable and violating someone’s rights can not by definition, “- says one of the representatives of the administration of the resource.
As for foreign copyright holders, work is underway with them, but there are practically no claims from them.
Another moment that can affect the work of Rutracker is the possible blocking of “mirrors” of sites, the introduction of which has been for many months. It is quite real, on March 17 the State Duma considered amendments to the laws “On Information …”, adopting in the first reading the moments concerning the permission to block the “mirrors” of sites banned on the territory of the Russian Federation. The author of the document, which was considered by the State Duma – the Ministry of Communications. The main purpose of the introduction of the lock is called “suppression of illegal distribution and use of audiovisual works on the Internet”. That is, we are talking about the possibility of quickly suppressing the spread of “illegal” content.
Previously, representatives of various Russian courts stated that they can not dispose of the “mirrors” of any sites, since the very legal interpretation of the concept of “mirror” was absent. Now we are introducing a new term “derivative site in the Internet” for “mirrors” of sites. And this step just allows you to block “derivative websites” in pre-trial order. To do this, only a court order is needed, for which you only need a formal appeal to the court without the need to hold hearings. In the event of adoption of amendments, the search services operating in the territory of the Russian Federation will be required to filter the search issue. This applies to both Yandex and Google.
According to the administration of Rutracker, the amendments to the resource are not terrible. There are many Russian-speaking users outside of the Russian Federation, so even if access to the resource in Russia is blocked entirely, the site will live and work.
As for the “eternal” lock, Rutracker will not fight with it. With her tried to cope with “Roskomvoboda”, but this organization, which employs professional lawyers, nothing happened. So far no action has been planned in this direction.
There is Rutracker still on funds from banner advertising. This is still the only source of revenue for the site. “Since Rutraker has never been positioned as a business project, the amount of advertising we have is limited, much less than on similar sites. We do not have any other ways of monetization: we have nothing to do with the content that users are exchanging, and the site is filled by users themselves, “said one of the administrators. He also added that the resource is balancing on the verge of payback.
Financing, however, is sufficient for the work of five employees. This is, first of all, programmers and system administrators. We can assume that the tracker’s management receives some money, but about this, nothing was said. Hired professionals are paid by engaging in the technical side of the project. Administrative work is conducted by enthusiasts – these are the administrators of the forum and about 200 moderators.
According to the representatives of the tracker, now the resource is not just a place where people exchange files, but also a certain degree of self-regulating social network. In general, the site continues to live and work. Probably, it can be said that the blockade did not reach the goal set by the officials – Rutracker is flourishing.
