The administrators posted a farewell message on the site’s front page. It was a rare moment of transparency from a group that had operated in the shadows for 15 years. They cited a convergence of insurmountable problems:
: Downloading or sharing copyrighted material without permission is illegal in many jurisdictions and can lead to fines or other penalties.
In the wild west of the early internet, downloading a movie was a gamble. You might think you were downloading the latest blockbuster, only to find a corrupted file, a virus, or a completely different video. RARBG distinguished itself by acting as a curator. The site became famous for its stringent moderation. If a torrent appeared on RARBG, the community trusted that the files were clean, the video quality was as advertised, and the uploaders were verified.