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Pirate sites come and go, often without being noticed by the public at large. That was certainly not the case when RARBG said its goodbyes last year.
The popular torrent site had millions of daily users spread across several domain names. This included RARBG's flagship .to domain, where the usual torrent index was replaced by a farewell message, attributing the decision to personal and financial reasons.
The surprise shutdown of RARBG and its tracker was even more significant due to RARBG also being one of the most used torrent distribution groups, which secured a steady stream of movie and TV-show releases across the broader piracy ecosystem.
As is often the case, attempts were made to hijack or take over the RARBG brand in the months that followed, but none came close to the original. Other torrent sites did benefit from a big traffic spike and most are still online.
RARBG.to Domain Auction
After the shutdown, nothing was heard from the original RARBG team. Anti-piracy groups were pleased to see the site gone, while most of its users moved on to other sites. Those who revisited the site's main domain, just to make sure, saw the farewell message again and again.
While it's clear that the original RARBG isn't coming back, the site's domain name became active again last month. Out of the blue, it started redirecting to domain name auction site Park.io, where it was listed for sale.
RARBG.to Auction
The domain could be interesting for operators of RARBG knockoffs but with a decent amount of traffic, as well as millions of backlinks, others could be interested too.
After 22 bids, RARBG eventually sold for $5,250.00. The new owner is unknown, but it soon became clear that they were not interested in bringing RARBG back to life. Instead, the domain is now used for something else entirely.
Thai Casino Affiliate?
Soon after the sale, the new owner put up a WordPress blog with filler data, referencing the well known XYZ Doohickey Company. This blog featured a prominent logo of the online casino company “3XBet”, which shouldn't be confused with “1XBet,” which were repeatedly called out as ‘piracy' advertisers.
In this case, the RARBG.to ‘comeback' has nothing to do with piracy. At the time of writing, it's not quite finished yet, but the site is gearing up to become a Thai Casino affiliate.
“Playing baccarat on a direct website 3XBET is an excellent choice for teenagers and adults who need to find a reliable, safe and modern platform,” the site explains, translated from Thai.
RARBG.to Today
Why the new owners picked this domain is not clear. It's possible that they hoped that millions of backlinks would be good for search engine performance. However, due to RARBG's pirate history, the site was demoted by Google and others. In fact, searching for RARBG.to returns zero results today.
DuckDuckGo & More RARBG Confusion
Not all search engines have downgraded RARBG's presence. DuckDuckGo, for example, decided to keep the site and other piracy portals, such as The Pirate Bay, prominently at the top of relevant searches. The company took this decision after its data partner Bing downgraded the sites.
This anti-censorship stance was praised by many DuckDuckGo users, but its effectiveness stands or falls on how well these curated links are maintained.
When searching for RARBG on DuckDuckGo today, RARBG.to is still listed as the official site. However, the official RARBG is no more, and the Thai casino blog doesn't even mention RARBG on its site.
Official site
This ‘official site' problem isn't limited to RARBG. DuckDuckGo also points to Fmovies.to as the official Fmovies domain. However, Fmovies shut down months ago and the referenced domain had been retired long before that.
DuckDuckGo isn't the only one that could benefit from a database update. Other RARBG remnants include anti-piracy outfits ‘MUSO' and ‘DMCA Piracy Prevention' continuing to report ‘infringing' RARBG.to links to Google as recently as this summer.
Even the Motion Picture Association, which is at the forefront of most piracy developments, continues to reference the domain. Earlier this month, it called out the Tonic registry as a piracy facilitator, mentioning Rarbg.to as an example.
Needless to say, not everyone has their records up to date yet. But, as the Thai would say: No one is immortal.
From: _, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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By David Minister
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