The Federation Against Copyright Theft may have forced the closure of private torrent site TorrentShack, but any celebrations will be short-lived. As servers close and the old domain is signed over to the Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group, a clone site is already online and ready for business.

With police and trade groups such as the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the BPI on the prowl, it has to be said that running a file-sharing site in the UK right now is not without its risks.

Earlier this month it became clear that the long-standing private torrent site TorrentShack (TSH) had run its course after FACT managed to track down the site’s operator. As is usually the case, FACT told the site’s operator he could either close down the site and hand over its domain – or face the consequences.

To avoid trouble TSH’s admin agreed to FACT’s terms, and at the time of writing the site is unreachable, presumably as agreed. However, if FACT are thinking of cracking open the champagne, those celebrations might be a bit premature.

A few hours ago the official TorrentShack Twitter account published its final tweet, but it didn’t signal the end of the road.

The end result is that a TorrentShack clone is now online. An announcement reveals that the site’s former .net domain is already in FACT’s hands and the old servers and their databases have been taken offline and wiped. However, the former admin of the site was apparently not the only person with a set of keys to the back door.

“Luckily for us though, [the admin] was not the only one with access to the main site box,” the announcement reads.

“In short we have managed to get hold of one of the latest back ups before everything was taken offline.”

So, against the odds, TorrentShack appears to have been resurrected. The site’s operators warn that they currently have no funds but will do their best to get the site back to normal soon. Whether FACT will stand for that remains to be seen.

Long live TSH

Good to hear they have returned, and struck to the feds