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Bittorent from Flicker
Or rather not so much. Turns out that The Delft University of Technology has been working on an application that will make them all moot. From Raw Story.
A piece of software getting a fresh look this week seems to have the answer that media pirates are looking for: invincibility, with zero liability for website operators. That’s because this software, known as Tribler, does not require a website to track users sharing “Torrent” files, a peer-to-peer network protocol that enables computers to share files with thousands of others.
Such “tracker” websites, like The Pirate Bay and BTJunkie, have been going offline or switching domains in the wake of U.S. enforcement action against MegaUpload, a file sharing site that is accused of facilitating media piracy.
Tribler, in development for the last five years according to technology blog Torrent Freak, is a purely peer-to-peer network that requires no tracker, meaning it is impossible to shut down unless the whole Internet goes down with it.
The nature of its technology is completely decentralized, leaving moderation to the users. Individuals can rename files, flag phony downloads or viruses, create “channels” of verified downloads, and act as nodes that distribute lists of peers across the network.
Right now the internet is mostly client/server based but this technology would make it possible for every computer on the internet to be it’s own server as well as a client. A kind of MESH topology that would be very difficult to control. It also opens up a realm of other possibilities where information could be replicated and stored in as many places as there are computers to store it. There by making access to it even more robust.
In the recent U.S. debate over anti-piracy measures, absolutely none of the proposed enforcement mechanisms would affect Tribler: it is, quite literally, the content industry’s worst nightmare come to life.
Much like when the original media piracy platform, Napster, was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America in the 90s, the Internet’s most prolific have once again found another way around copyright enforcement.
The more the powers that be attempt to control the internet, the less they will be able to succeed.
7 Comments
VERY interesting diary hoss, thanks.
I’ve wondered how all this SOPA/PIPA will impact dimeadozen, along with all the other peer to peer share sites.
Tribler, sounds amazing . . . and most indie artists and many mainstream artists of various genres have LONG forsaken any RIAA influence over their work or profits.
The internet is their friend, and they KNOW it.
*G*
Oh, highly rcc’d.
When I first heard about the attempt at putting the kibosh on file sharing, I figured that either A) The users are figuring out how to circumvent it or B) have already figured out how to circumvent it.
B it is.
Extremely cool application of the MESH concept!
Found a nice review:
Tribler 5.5.10 for Windows, Windows XP, Windows Vista,and Windows 7
Tribler 5.5.10 for Mac OS X
Tribler 5.5.10 for Linux, Ubuntu 10.10 – 11.10
BitTorrent client that doesn’t require a tracker for finding content.
Publisher:
Tribler P2P Research team http://www.soft-go.com/softwareby/Tribler-P2P-Research-team.html
download at http://www.soft-go.com/view/Tribler_86434.html
and at http://dl.tribler.org/download.html
code at http://svn.tribler.org/abc/branches/release-5.5.x
Filesize 33.80 MB
Install Support Instal And Uninstall
License Freeware
After 5 years of effort, the Delft University of Technology provides Tribler, a social community that facilitates filesharing, providing invincibility from proposed internet limitations, with zero liability for website operators, because Tribler does not require a website to track users sharing “Torrent” files, but remains a peer-to-peer network protocol that enables computers to share files with thousands of others. as discussed at technology blog Torrent Freak, it is a purely peer-to-peer network that requires no tracker, meaning it is impossible to shut down unless the whole Internet goes down with it, because of it leaves moderation to the users who can rename files, flag phony downloads or viruses, create “channels” of verified downloads, and act as nodes that distribute lists of peers across the network. Every computer on the internet becomes it’s own server as well as a client in a kind of MESH topology that governments can not control, and where information could be replicated and stored in as many places as there are computers to store it. None of the proposed enforcement mechanisms would affect Tribler. Tribler is a file sharing based on the BitTorrent protocol but with some special functions such as a decentralized search engine that searches through the shared contents of other users. Tribler enables streaming and playback of audio and video, as well as search on video portals like YouTube but there can be crashes as the interface is still in development. When the Tribler application program is started it will automatically start searching other users that have Tribler running on their computer. After starting a successful connection, Tribler begins exchanging data. First it exchanges personal information (such as your avatar picture, your friends list, download history, etc.) and information about files that are available in the network. These files can be personal, shared files, but also files that one has received from another person. When a user clicks on one of the search results, the meta-data is pulled in from another peer and the download starts immediately. Tribler is based on the standard BitTorrent protocol and uses regular BitTorrent trackers to communicate with other peers. But, it can also continue downloading when a central tracker goes down. The same is true for spam control. Where most torrent sites have a team of moderators to delete viruses, malware and fake files, Tribler uses crowd-sourcing to keep the network clean. Content is verified by user generated “channels”, which can be “liked” by others. When more people like a channel, the associated torrents get a boost in the search results. The latest addition to Tribler is a Wikipedia-style editing system dubbed “Open2Edit,” where users have the option to edit names and descriptions of torrents in public channels. All without a central server, totally decentralized. Tribler still continues to support .torrent and magnet links. Just copy/paste the link in the searchbox and the download will start. One thing that could theoretically cause issues, is the capability for starting users to find new peers. To be on the safe side the Tribler team is still looking for people who want to act as so called bootstraptribler peers. These users will act as superpeers, who distribute lists of active downloaders. There are only a few thousand users at the moment.
Alternative: There is always BlockAid DNS http://www.blockaid.me/category/blockaid-dns/…. and … business internet accounts so as to avoid the bandwidth caps and metering that could stop this.
BTW – Since the MAFIAA has shied away from going after individual downloaders (pay up or else schemes are becoming toxic everywhere but Germany) by removing the centralized trackers, it takes away one of their main vectors of attack. If you combine this service with something that makes your IP address anonymous there is little to no chance that you would have anything to worry about and you would never have to fear your content being removed from the source. But Private copyright owners can legally use this to determine who is infringing on their copyright as they find a bunch of IP addresses sharing their copyrighted content.
Cops n robbers hoss, who is ahead at any given moment?
N life goes, on and and on (a song I know and love).
I for one, do NOT believe for one nanosecond the good guys got a lead on the bad guys (RIAA, etc).
It’s like our political system, legislation, and justice.
N well, you and others know where I stand on that stuff.
I can see this technology as putting a crimp in the server/client business model in general as well.