Early on these warez sites were mainly distributing software such as games and applications after the release groups removed any protections.
[6][7] Unlike their predecessors in the Bulletin board system (BBS) scene, topsites aren't advertised broadly.
With the increased threat of police raids, topsites have been forced to employ elaborate security precautions in order to stay hidden from authorities.
[9] FTP bouncers are commonly used to hide the topsite's real IP address, and to share network load.
For example, a topsite with the hypothetical name "Blackbox" could be abbreviated as "BBX" and subsequently referred to as "B**" during an IRC conversation between those with knowledge of the site.
Release databases used by topsites are private, but a number of public websites exist with similar information.
A group will choose topsites based on geographical location, mostly by country but sometimes by region, such as Northern Europe or Western US.
The most exclusive topsites will avoid affiliating with an excessive number of groups for security purposes and also to maintain adequate network resources.
When a new release has finished uploading on each of the group's sites, a command is executed to simultaneously copy it into a directory accessible by other users, and trigger an announcement in the topsite IRC channel.
Couriers are a specific class of topsite users who earn their access by uploading new releases and filling requests.
When a courier gains access to a topsite, they are often required to pass a trial test such as uploading a certain amount in a short period of time.
Tens of thousands of copies of software, games, movies and music were on leech sites reserved for their members only, having the names Lake of Fire, Packet Storm, Fatal Error and High Octane.
[13] As of June 2005[update], Operation Site Down was the latest significant law-enforcement attack on the warez scene.
In November 2006, the Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN claimed their first shutdown of a topsite, MadBiker (MB), after infiltrating the closed user community.
[15] In name of the international interest organizations MPAA, IFPI, RIAA, ESA and BSA, Brein explained the situation to the network administrator Edutel, who closed the site down at their request.
[19] Tim Kuik, the managing director of Brein, told Slyck.com that TV Land was penetrated before the release of the notice.
Rumours said the shutdown was related to the raid on topsite LOOP two days earlier, which was (supposedly) one of SceneTorrent's main content providers according to insiders.
Two servers with a total storage capacity of 40TB spread over 28 hard disks were raided at their hoster in Amsterdam.
[27] In September 2010, after being in the planning for two years, the police executed a file sharing raid in up to 14 countries across Europe.
[30] In December 2010, a site known as Devil was raided by the Swedish police after receiving information from an anti-piracy group.
[31][32] In January 2011, the Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN claimed to have taken down their largest topsite ever: Swan (previously known as ATS).
Operation Bahnhof (March 2005) failed when the officials entered an area that their warrant didn't include.
Although they found several dedicated servers with terabytes of illegal material, they ended up being sued for illegal trespassing and harassment, and were accused of planting evidence, since one of the Antipiratbyrån (Swedish anti-piracy group) employees was trying to infiltrate the scene to gather evidence, and in doing so violated Swedish laws against entrapment.