Torrent site YTS loses control of its domain

Torrent sites remain just as popular as ever, as people continue to seek ways to grab copies of the latest blockbuster movies to watch free of charge. While the Pirate Bay is probably the most famous torrent site out there, it is closely followed by YTS.

But anyone trying to visit yts.mx will find that the site is inaccessible after the domain was put on hold by its registrar. It is not entirely clear what is happening, but legal issues are thought -- unsurprisingly -- to be involved.

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Legal problems are par for the course for torrent sites, as the Pirate Bay is only too aware. Operators of such sites tend to self-host and lean on registrars that are either sympathetic to their cause, or turn a blind eye to what's going on.

As the Pirate Bay has found over the years, domain issues can be highly disruptive, and the same problems now seem to have struck at YTS. As reported by TorrentFeak, this is not the first time YTS has run into trouble:

The site's parent company Techmodo Limited and its operator have been targeted in several lawsuits and previously agreed to pay over a million dollars in settlements. In addition, YTS has had several domain name troubles as well.

When the site first entered the scene it was operating from the YTS.ag domain name, which it traded in for YTS.am two years later. In 2019, the torrent site moved yet again to a new domain, YTS.lt, which was later switched to YTS.mx.

The Mexican ccTLD has served the site for well over a year but today it suddenly became unreachable. Users who try to visit the site will see a browser error instead, indicating that there’s no A record defined, which makes it impossible to resolve the domain.

The status of yts.mx is currently "clientHold" which is generally indicative of legal or administrative issues. Considering the type of content the site is known for offering and linking to, legal action is hardly a shock -- but it will also not be surprising to find that the site reappears with a new domain in the near future.

Image credit: Sharaf Maksumov / Shutterstock