Facing trouble from the Italian .it registry, the popular TV-torrent site EZTV has ditched its .it domain name. The impact of the intervention is relatively small, as EZTV has already found a new home at the Swiss domain eztv.ch. Founded in 2005, the TV-torrent site EZTV has served torrents for nearly a decade. Over the past several years it has maintained a steady user-base and with millions of users it’s undoubtedly the most used TV-torrent site on the Internet today. This popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by copyright holders. The site has already been blocked in the UK via court order and there are efforts underway elsewhere to frustrate the site’s operations. Most recently EZTV ran into trouble with the Italian domain name registry NIC.it over some paperwork. Facing a possible confiscation of the EZTV.it domain name, they saw no other option than to switch to a new home. Without going into detail, EZTV’s NovaKing tells TF that a complaint from copyright holders is likely to be the driving force behind the recent issues. “NIC.it hasn’t been very cooperative in trying to find a solution. While they haven’t admitted it on the record, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were pressured by copyright holders,” NovaKing says. EZTV’s domain registrar EuroDNS suggested several options to resolve the problems but all these paths were fruitless. With the Italian registry not willing to cooperate, EZTV decided not to wait any longer and has now ditched the .it domain. EZTV swiftly relocated to a new home using the Swiss TLD EZTV.ch. The Swiss domain name wasn’t chosen for any reason in particular, it was just the most convenient option for now. “We have a stockpile of domain names in reserve. The Swiss domain was the easiest option as that was already partially setup, but we can easily relocate again if needed,” NovaKing says. And so the Whack-A-Mole can continue for a while. For EZTV the domain intervention is a relatively minor inconvenience. The site has faced bigger problems in the past. Just last month it was down for nearly two weeks after its servers were taken offline in the Pirate Bay raid.
