Private torrent sites, or private trackers as they are commonly known, have a special place in the piracy ecosystem.
These sites tend to be more community-oriented than public torrent and streaming sites, which most people simply visit with a hit-and-run mentality.
Many private trackers have come and gone over the years, but some have been going for decades. With most anti-piracy enforcement focused on public platforms, predominantly streaming sites, private trackers generally operate beyond the limelight. Or so it seemed.
Private Trackers Targeted
Given this backdrop, it’s interesting to see a recent DMCA subpoena issued through a California federal court targeting several private torrent trackers: passthepopcorn.me, broadcasthe.net, karagarga.in, beyond-hd.me, hdbits.org, and bibliotik.me.
Despite their comparatively low public profiles, these platforms are well known and have been established for many years.
Karagarga (KG), for example, has been around since 2005 and offers access to a wealth of film obscurities. The site focuses on archiving rare classic and cult movies. Blockbusters and other popular Hollywood releases can’t be found on the site, as uploading them is strictly forbidden.
HDbits was launched around the same time, with no restrictions on popular film titles, while PassThePorpcorn and BroadcasTheNet both came onto the scene a few years later. Despite early DDoS attempts, these Gazelle-based trackers have been going strong for more than 15 years.
Filmmaker Wants Cloudflare to Unmask the Operators
The subpoena was obtained by filmmaker Matthew Schneider, who stated that he owns the rights to several movies. The titles include Do Us Part, Split: A Film Anthology, and Orlando Gloom – Always the Same. These are linked to the Canadian company Dirtbag Films, which has not been very active recently.
As shown below, the filmmaker listed the URLs through which his works are allegedly shared on these sites. These URLs are not public, so Schneider or someone he works with presumably has access to these elusive trackers.
Note: The subpoena commands Cloudflare to produce the documents by August 27, 2025. However, the court clerk didn’t officially sign and issue the subpoena until September 8, 2025. This apparent clerical error could give Cloudflare legal grounds to challenge or ignore the request entirely.
Schneider represented himself in court, but an attached takedown notification sent to Cloudflare in late August was signed by his attorney, David Bernstein.
The attorney asked Cloudflare to “immediately and permanently disable access to the infringing material” and to enforce its repeat infringer policy. Whether Cloudflare took any action in response to this notice is unknown, but it serves as the basis of the legal request.
Names, emails, IP addresses, payment details, and more
On September 8, a court clerk issued the DMCA subpoena, compelling Cloudflare to hand over all usable information it has on the associated users. This includes basic contact information such as names, physical addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
Cloudflare must also disclose all relevant billing information from credit cards, bank accounts, or other payment systems. In addition, it has to hand over historical logs of IP addresses and information related to hosting companies and servers that are used by these torrent trackers.
Note: While Bibliotik.me was listed as an infringing site in the case exhibits, it was not included in the final subpoena command that compels Cloudflare to release user data, shown below.
These types of DMCA subpoenas are not uncommon. Anti-piracy group ACE, for example, has used these dozens of times in attempts to gather intelligence on popular piracy sites. However, this is the first time that we have seen a small independent filmmaker target such prominent private trackers.
Whether this attempt to gather information will result in any usable intelligence will depend on how much effort the operators have put into shielding their identities. Generally speaking, this is a key priority.
The legal paperwork does not explain what Schneider intends to do with the information he receives, and our request for additional details remains unanswered. At the time of writing, all targeted domain names continue to use Cloudflare’s proxy services.
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A copy of the DMCA subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is available here (pdf). The associated declaration can be found here (pdf). Whether Cloudflare has complied with this request is unknown.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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