To the uninitiated, 1337x is just a directory. To the 50 million monthly users who pair it with a BitTorrent client, it is the last functional democracy of file sharing.

1337x offers permanence. Once you download a torrent, it is on your hard drive. It cannot be un-released. It cannot be geo-blocked.

In the cat-and-mouse game of online piracy, websites are culled daily. Domains are seized, admins get arrested, and “The Bay” has become a ghost ship of its former self. Yet, one green-and-black skull continues to grin in the face of the copyright industry: 1337x .