BTJunkie quits file-sharing after Megaupload take-down

File-sharing site BTJunkie has shut up shop voluntarily, as international law enforcement agencies are taking a hard-line stance on copyright infringements.

A statement on the web site said its operators had fought for years to support users' “right to communicate”, but it could no longer continue.

“The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down,” the statement reads.

BTJunkie, which styled itself as the “world's largest BitTorrent database”, had been ranked in the top 400 most visited web sites, according to web ranking firm Alexa. It had also been ranked as the fifth most popular BitTorrent in 2011 by TorrentFreak.

The move comes just weeks after the US authorities took down file-sharing site Megaupload, and initiated legal action against the site's owners.

According to TorrentFreak, those cases convinced BTJunkie's founder that it was becoming too much trouble to keep the site operating.

To date, BTJunkie has not been subject to legal action in the US, but both the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America had listed it as a “rogue” site, which facilitated copyright abuse.

Last week, two of the founders of file-sharing site The Pirate Bay had their request for an appeal against their prison sentences turned down by the Swedish supreme courts.