Controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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2007
Shutdown of major eDonkey servers
DonkeyServer and other major servers were closed following legal proceedings and a temporary injunction, adding to the pressure on the server-dependent portion of the network.
2006
Razorback2 server seizure
On 21 February 2006, Belgian police confiscated servers associated with Razorback2 at a datacenter near Brussels and arrested its Swiss-based operator. The action followed copyright-enforcement activity involving the MPAA and IFPI and removed one of the network's most important server hubs.
2006
MetaMachine copyright settlement
MetaMachine agreed to pay $30 million to avoid potential copyright-infringement lawsuits brought by the RIAA. It also agreed to stop distributing eDonkey software and to take measures intended to prevent file sharing through existing copies.
Server poisoning and impersonation
Some servers were reported to manipulate search results, censor content by file type or keyword, advertise fake files, or exaggerate user counts. Copyright-enforcement groups were also reported to have operated imitation Razorback2 servers that returned no useful results. These practices undermined search reliability and made user-count estimates difficult to interpret.