In 2007 the Pirate Bay crew resurrected the legendary BitTorrent site Suprnova.org, which had shut down due to legal pressure three years earlier. The legend returned, but due to a combination of circumstances it remained just a shadow of what it once was. This week, The Pirate Bay crew returned the domain to its former owner who now has big plans for the site.

In the fall of 2002, just months after Bram Cohen released his first version of BitTorrent to the public, a new website called Suprnova.org was born.

Before The Pirate Bay, Torrentz and isoHunt started linking to torrent files, Suprnova was already serving to the masses. Like many sites in the early days of BitTorrent, the site began with a very primitive setup. It was hosted on a Linux box at the the home of its founder Andrej Preston, a Slovenian teenager better known as Sloncek.

In the months that followed Suprnova grew out to become the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet, with over a million visitors a day. But it didn’t last. Along with huge popularity came the legal threats, and these eventually made Andrej decide to close the site in December 2004. As time went by other sites quickly filled the gap left behind by Suprnova.

That wasn’t the end of the site though. In 2007, Suprnova returned to the BitTorrent stage, resurrected by the folks behind The Pirate Bay. Unfortunately, the site never even came close to its former glory, with just a few thousands visitors passing by each month.

For the former owner of the site, the decay of his baby was hard to watch.

“The Pirate Bay got huge press and they made a big statement on piracy (and how there is no stopping them) which benefited them a lot. Unfortunately, when the media attention passed, they completely forgot about the site and left it dead for years,” Sloncek told TorrentFreak today.

Because the site wasn’t of much use to anyone, Sloncek contacted the Pirate Bay crew a few months ago, hoping that they would return the domain that he once donated to them.

“A few months ago I tried to get the domain back, since I do feel like it is still a part of me. Even though it is just a domain name it has a lot of sentimental value. Thankfully, the Pirate Bay crew were kind enough to return the domain. On Monday, Suprnova.org was finally transferred back to me, and I have to admit, it feels good to have it back.”

Although he does sound a bit disgruntled, Sloncek says that there’s no bad blood between him and the Pirate Bay crew.

“I don’t want it to sound like I am mad at The Pirate Bay or anybody involved, I think that they tried to make a statement and they did. I just wished they actually did more with the domain or had returned it sooner,” Sloncek explains.

“All in all, I’m happy to have it back. My plan is not to turn it into a torrent site, but more of a online video portal. I guess I will go into more details later on, once I understand exactly what I want it to become. The thought of having it back is still very fresh and exciting,” he adds.

This new project suits the 2010 Sloncek better as he’s currently in San Francisco and attending the Academy of Art University where he focuses on TV and online video production. Although Sloncek is no longer actively involved, he didn’t cut his roots to the BitTorrent scene completely. He’s currently directing TorrentFreak TV in his spare time, which might be featured on the new Suprnova later this year.