TorrentReactor Buys Town, Gives It Free Internet

TorrentReactor.net, supposedly one of the biggest torrent sites on the Internet, has apparently purchased a small village in Russia for $148,000 and re-named it as TorrentReactor. The site administrators claim that the purchase wasn't a promotional stunt, but rather a way to reach out and provide help "to at least one single village."

Originally called Gar, the village was established in 1958 by the Old Believers, a religious movement of the Russian Orthodox Church. Currently only 214 citizens reside in the forgotten, desolate village--their only means of survival is to sell home-grown vegetables in a nearby town. The average income per villager is around $42 per year.

TorrentReactor said that it was met with some resistance from the Tomsk region authorities at first, however the matters were cleared when money came into play. Most of the "donation" will be split amongst the people while the remaining funds will be used to repair roads, purchase agricultural equipment and machinery, re-equip the local school and more.

Previously there were only three PCs in the village--two in the school library and one in the administration office, one of which had an Internet connection using a dial-up modem. In addition to the $148K payment, the site administrators said that TorrentReactor would pay for the installation of a broadband connection, estimated to cost $30,000 as there are no local networks nearby.