What.cd
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
BitTorrent tracker |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Revenue | Voluntary donations |
| Slogan(s) | "move along" |
| Website | what.cd (defunct) |
| Alexa rank |
 11,689 (5 March 2016[update])
|
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 27 October 2007 |
| Current status | Defunct As of 17 November 2016[update] |
What.CD was a private, invite-only music BitTorrent tracker and community launched in 2007. The site was shut down on 17 November 2016 after a report that its servers had been seized by French authorities.
What.CD was founded on the day of Oink's Pink Palace's closure in October 2007. In November 2007, many site users received a hoax email purporting to be from the Recording Industry Association of America threatening to press charges for illegal downloads.
In 2008, the Canadian Recording Industry Association asked now-defunct Moxie Colo, then What.CD's host, to take down a number of tracker sites including What.CD. The company refused, saying "We will not be following the request and will be fighting for the rights of our clients as--to date--laws in Canada protect them." In October the site released "The What CD Volume 2", a compilation album of artists that contribute to the site. Earlier in the year they released Volume One.
In December 2008, What.CD and Open Your Eyes records formed a partnership in which the record label will exclusively distribute new releases on the tracker.
In 2010, CNET.com reported that a teenage boy had gained access to playMPE.com (an industry website used by music labels to share music with radio stations) by posing as an Australian music critic. He subsequently uploaded a number of unreleased albums to the What.CD tracker.
In September 2010, What.CD debuted the new lightweight and highly efficient tracker called "Ocelot". The lightweight tracker used only 3GB of RAM to power over five million peers.
In December 2010, What.CD's collection was reported to have reached one million torrents, a record for a private BitTorrent tracker.
Throughout early 2014, the site was subject to a severe and prolonged DDoS attack, causing intermittent tracker downtime and the limitation of many of the site's services.
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