What.CD was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

invitation-only An invitation system is a method of encouraging people to join an organization, such as a Club (organization), club or a website. In regular society, it refers to any system whereby new members are chosen; they cannot simply apply. In relation to w ...

music

BitTorrent tracker A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. In peer-to-peer file sharing, a software client on an end-user PC requests a file, and portions of the requested ...

and community launched in 2007. The site was shut down on 17 November 2016, after French authorities seized the site's servers.

History

What.CD was founded on the day of

Oink's Pink Palace Oink's Pink Palace (frequently stylized as OiNK) was a prominent BitTorrent tracker which operated from 2004 to 2007. Following a two-year investigation by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonog ...

'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 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

threatening to press charges for illegal downloads. In 2008, the

Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to some of Canada's leadin ...

asked now-defunct Moxie Colo, then What.CD's host, to take down several 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 A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

that contributed to the site. Earlier that year, the site released Volume One. In December 2008, What.CD and Open Your Eyes Records formed a partnership in which the record label would exclusively distribute new releases on the tracker. In 2010, CNET.com reported that a teenage boy had gained access to playMPE.com (MPE meaning Music Protection by Encryption), an industry website used by

music label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

s to share music with radio stations, by posing as an Australian music critic. He subsequently uploaded a number of unreleased albums to What.CD. In September 2010, What.CD debuted a new lightweight tracker called "Ocelot". The lightweight tracker used only 3GB of RAM to power over five million peers. In December 2010, What.CD's collection reached one million torrents, a record for a private BitTorrent tracker. Throughout early 2014, the site was subject to a severe and prolonged

DDoS In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host co ...

attack, causing intermittent tracker downtime and limiting many of the site's services.

Shutdown

On 17 November 2016, French authorities seized 12 servers from the internet service provider

OVH OVH, legally OVH Groupe SA, is a French cloud computing company which offers VPS, dedicated servers, and other web services. The company was founded in 1999 by the Klaba family and is headquartered in Roubaix, France. In 2019 OVH adopted OVHcl ...

in the north of France. Later, What.CD announced its closure on its index page and Twitter, saying, "Due to some recent events, What.CD is shutting down. We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish," a reference to ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...

''. The site's Twitter account later posted the tweet "Reports of our database being seized are not factual". On 18 November 2016, What.CD issued a statement about its shutdown, stating that its users and staff were safe, thanking all contributors and recommending that donations go to

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

La Quadrature du Net La Quadrature du Net ('' Squaring the Net'' in French) is a French advocacy group that promotes digital rights and freedoms for its citizens. It advocates for French and European legislation to respect the founding principles of the Internet, m ...

and Initiative für Netzfreiheit. In October 2017, for What.CD's ten-year anniversary, former What.CD staff released a torrent containing the last backup of all non-user data from the site, saying that this message would "likely be the last".

Leaks

The

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

song "

These Are My Twisted Words "These Are My Twisted Words" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released via BitTorrent on 12 August 2009, possibly by Radiohead. On 17 August, Radiohead released it as a free music download, download on their website. Several ...

" was uploaded to the tracker on 12 August 2009. Fans speculated the song had been leaked by the band itself and contained hints to an upcoming EP entitled ''Wall of Ice''. The song was released on 17 August 2009, on the band's website, similar to their release of ''

In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America t ...

''. In 2009,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

's forensic tool,

Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is a tool kit, developed by Microsoft, to help computer forensic investigators extract evidence from a Windows computer. Installed on a USB flash drive or other external disk drive, it acts as ...

(COFEE), was leaked on the site. Administrators later removed the software. The What.CD staff said of the removal: "Suddenly, we were forced to take a real look at the program, its source, and the potential impact on the site and security of our users and staff. And when we did, we didn't like what came of it. So, a decision was made. The torrent was removed (and it is not to be uploaded here again)." On 28 November 2013, a What.CD user uploaded scans of three unpublished stories by American author

J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger ( ; January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel '' The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger published several short stories in '' Story'' magazine in 1940, before serving in World Wa ...

. Similar to the response to the COFEE upload, an administrator removed the torrent.

References

External links

* *
A eulogy for What.cd, the greatest music collection in the history of the world—until it vanished
',

Nikhil Sonnad Nikhil () is a male name of Sanskrit origin. It is predominantly found in India, Nepal, and the diaspora of these countries. The name means "complete" or "whole". Notable people * Nikhil Advani, Hindi film director *Nikhil Banerjee, sitar playe ...

, 18 November 2016,

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:What.CD Canadian music websites Defunct BitTorrent websites Internet properties established in 2007 Internet properties disestablished in 2016