Plug pulled on download websites in copyright crackdown

Movie fans were surprised recently when they visited popular websites that offer free entertainment downloads and found them closed by regulators after China ramped up its battle against copyright infringement.

The move left millions of Chinese users disappointed after they checked out their favorite BitTorrent (BT) websites.

BT sites offer peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to distribute large amounts of data. Last week, many such sites were either gone completely or carrying messages advising that links to downloadable movies and TV shows were unavailable.