In theory. In practice, most just can't be bothered using private trackers because of this. Hard to get into, hard to keep up - you have to be a dedicated archi

In theory. In practice, most just can't be bothered using private trackers because of this. Hard to get into, hard to keep up - you have to be a dedicated archivist just to use them. Which is the polar opposite of why people have been torrenting in the past - piracy had less friction than using licensed content. Rutracker works differently, they aren't afraid of snatch-and-run. They managed to build a community out of those dedicated archivists. So the volunteers keep the rare content afloat, and the tracker can also be open and usable by ordinary people as well (which keeps popular content afloat). This approach also has its flaws, of course.