A major BitTorrent website providing thousands of television shows and movies without permission amongst tens of thousands of users has been closed today.

OVH, the French internet services company, has pulled the plug on xtremespeeds.net’s servers.  The website had ballooned in size during its 12 month run, proving a popular site amongst torrent users to download a very wide range of new television shows.  Most shows appeared online within 15 minutes of airing on the East Coast of American.

OVH did not return immediate comment around the reasoning behind the closure.

In recent weeks France effectively aligned itself with the entertainment industry by passing laws to stop online distribution of copyrighted material without permission.

Update on 05/01/10 at 9.38am:

The site is back online.  It has moved host to 1&1 Internet AG in Germany.