Do you remember the putlocker🇧🇷 For many people, the answer is yes. This is the name of a site that, for many years, was a reference for those who downloaded movies illegally. Eight years after its closure, Putlocker remains popular. So much so that your .com domain just sold for over $100,000.
It was like MegaUpload
Putlocker was not a torrent site or anything like that, but a file sharing service similar to the defunct MegaUpload. Like the latter, Putlocker was widely used for distributing pirated copies of movies, series and TV shows.
This feature made the site join the Hollywood crowd’s list of pirate services. After that, Putlocker was on the radar of US and UK authorities.
At the beginning of the previous decade, authorities and associations such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) looked very strictly at MegaUpload. The site was eventually taken down by the FBI in early 2012.
After this action, Putlocker began to receive around 1.6 million visitors per day, double the average registered before that. But there was no reason to celebrate. Its maintainers knew that the service could be the next to go down.
In an effort to escape the worst, Putlocker claimed to have taken drastic measures to remove pirated content from its platform. It didn’t help. The siege was closing in until the PayPal stops working with website🇧🇷
O TorrentFreak says that, after so much pressure, Putlocker administrators decided to change the name of the service to Firedrive, in 2014.
$102,000 from putlocker.com
After switching to Firedrive, the search for Putlocker progressively decreased. In the meantime, Firedrive itself ceased to exist.
Despite this, the address putlocker.com continued to be accessed. Current estimates indicate that the domain receives about 4,000 visits per day. In absolute terms, it is little. But for a site that hasn’t been up and running for years, that’s a sign that Putlocker is still fresh in many people’s minds.
That’s probably what led someone to shell out $102,499 (R$555,000) for the domain putlocker.com at a recent auction.
It is not known what will become of this address. Currently, the domain displays advertisements that redirect to alleged online streaming services or file storage. He must keep it up.
In addition to a possible “affective memory”, there is another likely reason for Putlocker’s popularity to this day. Several websites promising free video streaming have popped up in recent years using this name. Some still work. However, none of them are related to the original Putlocker.
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