The Pirate Bay To Delete BitTorrents Feb. 29

But music and movie sharers don't have to worry much -- TorrentFreak reports that the files will be available via magnet links, and that Pirate Bay will persist in a slightly different role.

Here's how the change will work: at the end of the month, the Pirate Bay will begin deleting all files with more than 10 peers, giving less frequented files -- which take longer to get traction as magnet links -- more time to find user-hosts.

So, you'll still get to download your files, but you won't use a .torrent -- you'll use a magnet link, TorrentFreak reports.

What Pirate Bay will now do is convert uploaded torrent files into magnet links. Also, the website won't host the content of the torrents on its servers -- people will download from each other, making it harder for cops to shut down the site under anti-piracy regs.

The news comes shortly after Pirate Bay announced last week that a torrent-less, 90-MB version of the website could be stored on a thumb drive. The move to magnet links might reflect a shift in the file-sharing world, in which users -- and not servers -- play the most important hosting role. Tribler talked to TorrentFreak last week about its virtual invincibility -- since it's entirely peer-to-peer, it's almost impossible to regulate.

Follow Victoria Bekiempis @vicbekiempis.