The Megaupload shutdown has claimed another victim. BitTorrent indexing site BTJunkie has closed up shop.
Visiting btjunkie.org currently displays a blank page with nothing more than "btjunkie 2005-2012" and a brief http://btjunkie.org/goodbye.html from the founders.
"This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down," they wrote. "We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!"
The company did not specifically address why it opted to shut down, but in an interview with TorrentFreak, BTJunkie's unnamed founder said the threat of legal action was a main reason. "Witnessing all the trouble colleagues got into was cause for a lot of worry and stress, and those will now belong to the past," TorrentFreak wrote.
The blog noted that BTJunkie was reported to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in November, the MPAA and RIAA list it as a "rogue" Web site (like those targeted by SOPA and PIPA), and it is censored by Google over piracy concerns.
Last month, the Justice Department shut down Megaupload.com for massive copyright infringement. Several of its executives were arrested and they face up to 50 years in prison on various charges.
In the wake of that takedown, multiple cloud-based services altered their services - shutting down file-sharing options, eliminating upload rewards, or cutting off access to U.S. users.
In a January roundup of the most popular torrent sites, TorrentFreak said BTJunkie landed at number five.
The number-one site on that list was The Pirate Bay. Last week, Sweden's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the site's founders, who were found guilty of copyright infringement in 2009.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
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