aXXo facts for kids

aXXo
A picture of aXXo's name made with ASCII art in a file.
Years active	2005–2009
Known for	Sharing movies online

aXXo is the Internet name of a person who shared movies online. Between 2005 and 2009, this person made commercial DVD movies available for free download. These files were usually new films. They were very popular among people who used file sharing methods like BitTorrent.

A company that tracks downloads found that in late 2008, about 33.5% of all movie downloads were aXXo files. aXXo made these movie files about 700 MB in size. This was the same size as a compact disc. Because of how well aXXo made these files, many people tried to copy their style. They would often add "aXXo" to the end of their own file names.

History of aXXo

aXXo first appeared in November 2005. They started sharing files on an online forum called "Darkside_RG".

In November 2007, aXXo removed many of their files from The Pirate Bay. They did this because they felt the website allowed mean comments. These comments might have been from people who didn't want movies shared freely. While older aXXo files were still on other sites, new uploads stopped on November 11, 2007.

After four months, aXXo started uploading again. Their first new movie was I Am Legend on March 9, 2008.

On December 15, 2008, aXXo uploaded their one thousandth movie. It was a copy of the horror film Mirrors. This file appeared on the Darkside Release Group's forum.

On March 11, 2009, aXXo stopped uploading new files. Their last movie was Punisher: War Zone. For a while, they visited Mininova. This was until the site changed its rules. Mininova then only allowed files that were free to share or had no copyright.

On April 19, 2009, aXXo made their last known comment. It was on the "Darkside_RG" forum. They were responding to rumors that they had stopped posting there. They said:

I can only say a big thank you for your appreciation mates, hope you all enjoy the darkside as much as you can My home is my beloved Darkside and as I've said so many times before on each of my torrents.... Be aware of bogus sites and lamers See ya.

How aXXo's Files Were Made

aXXo would take movies from commercial DVDs. They would turn them into .avi files, usually around 700 MB. Then, they would create a .torrent file. These torrent files were uploaded to special websites called Bittorrent Trackers. This allowed people to download the movies.

On file sharing websites, aXXo's files were very popular. More than a million people downloaded aXXo files every month. Files released by aXXo followed a special way of naming them. For example, "Name.Of.Movie[year]DvDrip[Eng]-aXXo.avi". "DvDrip[Eng]" meant it was copied from an English-language DVD. "avi" was the type of file. The video was made using a common standard called Xvid.

aXXo's uploads also included a .nfo file. This file had information about the movie. It also had a text file that warned users: "Be aware of bogus sites and lamers, download your aXXo files from aXXo accounts. Enjoy!"

Who Was aXXo?

In an interview, a person claiming to be aXXo said they were one person. They had been copying DVDs since they were a teenager.

People Who Copied aXXo

Because aXXo was so popular, many people pretended to be them. They would use the name aXXo for their own uploads on file sharing websites. Some of these fake files were put there by companies that protect copyrights. They did this to try and find people who were sharing files illegally.

These fake files often contained useless or harmful data. Some fake files were RAR files that asked users to download a trojan (a type of harmful software). This trojan was disguised as a codec needed to watch the movie. Other fake files encouraged users to sign up on strange websites. Some even asked users to install certain software like DomPlayer. Fake files could also contain malware. This malware could send the IP address of the user's computer to a private server.

For many years, aXXo warned their followers. They told them to "beware of bogus sites and lamers" in the .nfo files that came with their torrents.

About a year after aXXo stopped uploading in 2009, another user named YIFY started sharing torrents. YIFY eventually launched their own website called YTS.

See also

In Spanish: AXXo para niños

• Warez
• YIFY