After being founded in 2012, the popularity of French pirate download site Zone-Telechargement soon attracted interest from the authorities. In 2016, with the platform recently crowned the 11th most-visited site in France, two friends were arrested on suspicion of being the site’s founders. Seven years later, a court has now handed both men custodial sentences.

For those who care to remember it, November 2016 was a dark month for communities with a penchant for sharing files. Two huge sites fell in a matter of days, both courtesy of French authorities.

When OiNK was shut down in 2007, the world’s largest dedicated music-sharing community fell with it. Few believed that a new site could fill the pig-shaped hole left behind; some insisted it would be wrong to even try.

What.cd not only filled that hole but did so by meeting and then surpassing all expectations. Then in November 2016, as French authorities swooped, What.cd self-destructed and disappeared into history, exactly as previously promised.

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