Trackerless BitTorrent Beta Posted 432
jgarzik writes "BitTorrent development is occuring at a furious pace. At the beginning of May, an Azureus update added distributed tracker and database features. Yesterday, Bram updated BitTorrent to include support for trackerless torrents in the new BitTorrent 4.10 beta."
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How (Score:1, Insightful)
How does it work? (Score:4, Insightful)
Great, further adoption (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA (Score:2, Insightful)
"This distributed tracker is an Azureus only feature."
So if other clients are working on other ways of distributed tracking, wouldn't this mean bittorrent would be different for every client and there would not be one "bittorrent" that worked with everything?
So... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not linux but CC licensed movies (Score:5, Insightful)
But lets say your band releases an album online, or your movie club makes a film... You've only got a geocities website and the desktops of your members.. With tracker-based BT you had to talk someone into running a tracker for you... With tracker-less that limitation has been removed.
Re:wryy (Score:3, Insightful)
Won't stop the RIAA/MPAA (Score:5, Insightful)
What's needed is some kind of distributed HTTP overnet that works; that can handle dynamic content semi-intelligently, and MUCH faster than freenet/frost sites.
Re:How (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone confused by the parent should realize it's an allusion to Primer [imdb.com].
Sorry to rain on anyone's parade.
Re:wryy (Score:5, Insightful)
It's kinda handy if the tracker goes down. Additionally, if you don't want your torrent to operate in this distributed fashion you flag the torrent to not operate in distributed mode.
It's more like a hydra in this fashion...
Re:wryy (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, now people with shared hosting, blog sites, and free or included web space with their ISP or Yahoo Geocities / Angelfire / etc. (or otherwise are unable to set up a tracker) can now publish videos and other large files with bittorrent without trashing their TOS limits. Sounds legitimate to me. How many of these types of sites has Slashdot shut down by pointing to them?
Re:How (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think the idea was to make an anonymous torrent; I think it was to make it easier for bloggers and websire owners to post a
Joe Six Pack wih webhosting can now post a
How about encryption (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:3, Insightful)
Less lobbying, less facist laws and less greed notwithstanding, this also helps in the big picture by promoting and strengthing open source software development in general. This has many benefits, some we've seen, and some we have yet to realize.
These people may not be working in the front lines, they're still contributing.
A lot of coders I know never had a college education, nor any friends with similiar mindsets. Projects like this help adolecents chose a path for the first part of their lives. It can be argued that potential coders who _don't_ find projects like these never get into programming. Some of these people may work themselves back into blue collar status, where some can start the cycle of not being able to read/eat/work all over again.
Firefox bit torrent support (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:wryy (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a fair-use advocate, but I don't see the legitimate purpose to trackerless torrents that cannot be fulfilled by trackered torrents.
**AA are not the only enemies of free filesharing. That's a very US-centric view of the 'net. What about propagating samizdat literature und news within dictatorships? A trackerless torrent could help save some lifes. Even if it saves only one life, would be well worth it!
Re:wryy (Score:5, Insightful)
Then rather shortsighted you are. If I take a home video and want to share it with my friends and family, previously I would have had to upload it somewhere and spend money on web hosting. Now, with trackerless BT I can easily share this file without having to worry about web hosting or running a tracker. I just have to email the torrent file to people and run a BT client on my machine.
Legitimate file sharing doesn't only include large organisations "sharing" files with their customers/users. There's a whole other side to it as well that you've most conveniently forgotten about in your rush to share your misplaced sarcasm with the world.
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
PLEASE explain the to me, I want to know.
Re:no bittorrent download upgrade option? (Score:5, Insightful)
The answer in all cases is to work around the problem by not storing the code in the format it supports. eg: make comes with a shell script to build the binary. gzip is distributed in
BitTorrent isn't all that large, so there isn't much to be gained by distributing it that way. It's best at file packages in the multi-hundred megabyte and larger range. The largest BT download is only around 1 MB
Re:I'm curious (Score:5, Insightful)
It is now easier, though not any more secure, to offer files. The creation of torrents and trackers is now rolled into one - but there's still location information in it.
It's implemented. It doesn't hide your ID, so illegal users still have the same problems.
Re:wryy (Score:5, Insightful)
OTOH, the lack of centralized control means that trackerless BT will likely be vulnerable to a new class of attacks that could make it possible to disrupt the download of a file you don't like. So, ironically, warez groups might stick to running trackers for attack resistance and Linux providers might move to trackerless for the scalability. It all depends on how scalable and attack-resistant trackerless downloads turn out to be.
Application of Idle Hands. (Score:1, Insightful)
Now wouldn't it be better to do the right thing. Rather than spending the rest of your natural lives trying to solve near impossible goals.
Re:wryy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:5, Insightful)
People have lives OTHER than charity, as your presence here proves. As for this being less than honorable, that's the eye of the beholder. It's like the VCR, guns, or deep fryers. They can all be used for good or for evil. Just because they can be used for evil doesn't obviate they're good potential, nor should we ban them because of their potential for abuse.
Re:There still is a target (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:no bittorrent download upgrade option? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not everybody is good at charity; sometimes, someone's better at advancing science (in this case, computer science) than at helping the poor through traditional means.
Bittorrent is a brilliant system, and the fact that it's not saving any starving children's lives at this very moment does not mean that it's not a worthwhile thing. If we all concentrated, as you suggest, on charity all of the time, science would become stagnant, and we'd be in a far worse condition than we are now.
I don't know why I'm responding to this; the parent is obviously a troll, but just in case it's at all serious, I may as well reply anyway now that I've gotten this typed up.
Re:Diluting its strengths? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:There still is a target (Score:3, Insightful)
Bittorrent isn't designed for distribution of subversive or otherwise contraband content; it's designed to take the load off the backs of legitimate distributors of large files. There's nothing stopping the *AA from shutting servers down, and to the best of my knowledge this feature was not created with the intent of making it difficult for anybody to do so. Bittorrent might be optimal for quickly getting large files, but it isn't intended to protect anybody from anything; for that, you'll want to look into things like MUTE [sourceforge.net] or Tor [eff.org]. The download speeds are not as high, but you aren't going to get caught.
Bittorrent, basically, is a content distribution system, not a copyright-circumvention system. The latter exists, but those need quite a bit more work before they get to the level Bittorrent has attained in terms of popularity and usability (and considering the purpose, this might be a good thing.)
Distributing .torrent files through BT (Score:2, Insightful)
Someone still has to host the .torrents.
Unless a group's .torrent files come out in a weekly zipfile. Then somebody has to host the .torrent of that zipfile (or put it on eMule), but it's likely much smaller and further removed from copyright liability.
Not really trackerless (Score:5, Insightful)
This begs the question, why wasn't this beta postponed until its implementation could be made compatible with the already existing distributed tracker implementation in Azureus? Both projects are open source and both are written in high-level programming languages: Python and Java respectively.
Right. This only solves part of the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The *AA can still nail you for being a distributor of unauthorized Copyrighted material if you use Bittorrent. You are of course giving out copies to other users; so all the *AA needs is a list of IP addresses that are in the swarm. Granted, the *AA hasn't really done this. But if there's one thing that they have shown is that they are extremely motivated to find people who are involved, and hit them with a bill for a $2-3K settlement.
With an economic bounty like that, the only thing the Lawyers of the *AA are lacking is a way to automate the technology. From what I hear, that technology is coming. Supposedly some of it is in beta test now.
The only defense one might hope for in the U.S. is a scheme which added plausible deniability. That's not here yet with BT; and even if implemented, would undoubtedly result in a slowdown of downloads.
Personally, I think your best bet if you are concerned is to use an offshore ISP.
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's start with hunting, varmit removal, and self-protection. We won't even have to get into just plain fun.
Guns are used for legitimate purposes hundreds, probably even thousands, of times for every time they are used in the commission of a crime. BitTorrent is much closer to the reverse. Probably 5%/95%. Also, plenty of legitimate alternatives for BitTorrent exist. This is not true for guns. In other words, eliminating BT barely affects the ability of legitimate BT users to exercise any rights, while eliminating guns severely restricts the rights of legitimate gun owners.
Re:Won't stop the RIAA/MPAA (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:1, Insightful)
The tool is what you make of it. Say a charity or human rights group wants to distribute a video but doesn't have the money to pay for bandwidth. Would you call it a waste of money then?
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you not still have a knife for self-defense? You can go hunting with a bow. Poisons, traps and pheromones work well for varmit removal and are overwhelmingly the preferred method. I have fun playing with Jacks. You don't need to punch holes in something to have fun. Well you might, and if that's the case I have a pneumatic drill you can borrow. But only if you ask nicely.
I'd also would like to know where that %5/95% statistic came from. Because it sounds like a rectal figure. You are forgetting all of the several hundred megabyte Linux ISOs BitTorrent serves. What about Windows SP2? It was available via BitTorrent after the release. Sites with large videos, such as AMV sites, offer torrents. Video Game Speedruns offer torrents more often than not. How about Project Gutenberg? [gutenberg.org]
I think that you should open the blinders from your eyes, stop petting your goddamn gun and lauding the wonders of a fast moving hunk of metal, and rejoin civil society.
I'm not saying you shouldn't own a gun. Just for chrissakes realize that it isn't the be all and end all for the entire world.
And to all the BitTorrent users out there. If you find Fifi behind your computer with a ruptured anus two weeks from now... we never talked.
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:5, Insightful)
Y is an activity that saves lives, such as buying vaccines. X is a frivolous activity such as buying a DVD. People don't live their lives choosing Y instead of X every time because you end up with no life of your own.
And you only whine about it when X happens to be something that reminds you of the need for Y, or when Y suddenly occurs to you and you want to make a point. But every single time you buy a goddamn DVD, you're choosing X over Y. That's how life works. Every cheap novel you buy is a child who dies because you didn't spend the time to go out, find her, and help her. Come to terms with this before you start tossing it out as a random argument against a given X.
And why does Bittorrent even remind you about the need for charities? I mean, you've got a strange set of connectiosn going. I mean, pointless artwork in Central Park, sure, but why on Earth do you jump on a random technical project like this?
(Score:-1, Flamebait)
Oh, right. Some people. So there's a 50/50 chance you're flamebaiting or that you've just got a weird set of things that trigger thoughts of Y for you. Either way, spend some time thinking about these issues; it'll do you good. Maybe think about the kids dying as you sit there. Think about that each time you speak with righteous indignation about what people should be spending their time on. I'm not even telling you not to say what you're saying. I'm just saying give it some thought.
$10 can buy vaccines to absolutely save someone's life. With what rationale are you buying a DVD with that $10? I know why I do it. Do you?
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just think of what a difference Mother Teresa could have made if she had gotten an MBA, passed the Series 7 exam, and went to work at a high-powered Wall Street firm.
If she dedicated her life to that job, working tirelessly around the clock at the expense of her personal life and giving up on the opportunity to start a family, she could have made hundreds of millions of dollars, and used some of that money to have a real effect on making the world a better place.
Oh wait, i forgot, it only counts as charity if it's sentimental and photogenic.
Re:So...Idle Hands are... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:BT, Azureus & Mainline use the same protoco (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Right. This only solves part of the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
You're damned right it doesn't. THIS ISN'T THE POINT OF BIT TORRENT!!!
Why doesn't anybody here seem to get this?
People DO 'Get it' (Score:3, Insightful)
They want to be hidden as well. Doesnt matter what the 'products' goals is, the 'consumers' want this feature.
Until BT provides this, expect the 'consumers' to continue to complain.