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Why can't these people design a protocol more like HTTP? Both the data and control packets can go out over a single TCP port and it's very easy to proxy.

Bram Moolenaar for vim and Bram Cohen for BitTorrent.

"Indeed, Cohen, 29, recently relocated from Seattle to San Francisco, and he and his chief operating officer are making the rounds on Sand Hill Road looking for venture capital for their new company, BitTorrent. They've forged a partnership with paid-search provider Ask Jeeves, and recently the duo flew to Burbank for high-level talks with the Motion Picture Association of America."

Whatever your opinion is of torrents or Bram, you have to be in awe of just how "hobby" coding can make you filthy rich (granted, this probably is a very rare exception to the rule). Now I realize that congratulations to Bram are pre-mature, but I think he's very much on his way. And when he does get rich, with a head for numbers and the stock market, I'm sure he'll stay that way. I do suppose, however, it's a bit too early to take down that paypal-donation link on the bittorrent site (http://www.bittorrent.com/donate.html).

From the bittorrent website:

BitTorrent, its logo and its web site are all copyright © 2001-2005 BitTorrent, Inc.
http://www.bittorrent.com/

Nothing is showing up on BitTorrent search.

Come on this is Slashdot, you just can't link directly to an Windows executable and get away with it.

Here is the link real people should be using: BitTorrent_OSX_4.1.2.dmg

alternate link if the first doesn't work

Aww.. Ain't that cute. A newbie.

Here you go, install the appropriate version for your OS.
http://www.bittorrent.com/

This will explain how the whole thing works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent

What's a bittorrent file?

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/btclientconfig .html#HowBTWorks

After reading that page, which describes how bittorrent works, you might want to go to the following page, where you can download a bittorrent client and learn more about the system.

http://www.bittorrent.com/

There's always freshmeat to search for options. EZTorrent appears to be what you want. mod_bt also looks promising if you're using Apache 2.x.

There's always freshmeat to search for options. EZTorrent appears to be what you want. mod_bt also looks promising if you're using Apache 2.x.

For torrent, the host setup is going to be much more involved. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you need:

Correcting:

Current BitTorrent betas support "trackerless" torrents, which removes the only problematic step. If you can host a file, you can host a torrent.

Go ahead, RIAA / MPAA . . . shut down BitTorrent.

And how do you propose they do that. Read this once and you should be able to write a tracker and client from scratch. BitTorrent is disgustingly simple. It's like banning the use of wheels since they help people get away from the police faster.

It isn't just this quote that's the problem, it's the new search engine too.

Together with the Grokster ruling -- and all happening within such a short interval -- he's just too likely of a target now. Once big media realizes that knocking down the Grokster's does NOTHING to stem the tide of wares being traded via BT, they have to go after Bram.

It really sucks that a guy who's given us so much is going to be made to suffer so, but it looks to be damn near inevitable.

Time to donate to the very-soon-to-be-needed legal defense fund.

It isn't just this quote that's the problem, it's the new search engine too.

Together with the Grokster ruling -- and all happening within such a short interval -- he's just too likely of a target now. Once big media realizes that knocking down the Grokster's does NOTHING to stem the tide of wares being traded via BT, they have to go after Bram.

It really sucks that a guy who's given us so much is going to be made to suffer so, but it looks to be damn near inevitable.

Time to donate to the very-soon-to-be-needed legal defense fund.

...developers of software violate federal copyright law when they... take "affirmative steps to foster infringement..."

To use an analogy: I can sell guns. I just can't sell them with a slogan like "Number 1 tool for killing your ex-wife!" And I can't sell a P2P app named "Most efficient piracy software for pr0n and anime!" But the technology is safe.

This is good because it means The Supreme Court found a way to see through the jerks who are abusing this stuff without stifling innovation.

I'm waiting to see the decision, but from the sound of it the Court did about as well as I could hope: rather than address the technology point, they addressed the business model. For now, it seems, Bram Cohen is safe.

There's also another Mac BitTorrent client (Azureus) for power users and another Mac BitTorrent client ("Mainline") for people who want a lightweight one. Not just Tomato Torrent. Plus they're both nice and user-friendly as well.

The developer said Microsoft had completely misunderstood the way BitTorrent operated. The paper quotes "the tit-for-tat approach used in the BitTorrent network" as an inspiration for parts of Avalanche's own operation. Under the approach, a peer-to-peer client will not upload any content to another client unless it has also received a certain amount of content in return.

Someone may want to update this paper http://www.bittorrent.com/bittorrentecon.pdf that begins:

The BitTorrent file distribution system uses tit-for-tat as a method of seeking pareto efficiency.

Well, Bram is a little upset because they offended his baby....

Geez people, is this really a news for nerds site? One would expect crappy stories like this being rejected immediately. Bittorrent is not infected with spyware and never will be unless Bram Cohen wants that to happen. Of course, unofficial clients may have all the spyware they want, it wouldn't be the first time for this to happen with BT...

I won't even mention distributing spyware using a bittorrent tracker...

Torrent for MAC OS X (tiger):
http://search.bittorrent.com/search.jsp?query=mac+ os+x&Submit2=Search

Check for "04.17.05.Mac.OS.X.10.4.Tiger-XiSO".

Without Bittorrent:
1. Click the link
2. Get 404
3. Whine about the site being down instead

If your ISP sends you that sort of letters you need to change. What you do with your internet connection is no business of theirs. The 'torrent bandwagon' is here because most people have a BT client anyway - it's not hard to find a simple, reliable client, and this is a nerd site. Not everyone cries "Oh nos!!!!!111oneeleven1!! Technology that I don't like must die!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Toys, of course, but a good way to learn.

Or you could google for 'winknoppix' . Plenty served !

Yes us alpha-geeks here on Slashdot may get our music from allofmp3.com or SoulSeek or whatever, but

Allofmp3? SOULSEEK!? You are behind the times, man. Anyone who wants music need but four simple links.

Azureus
Torrent Spy
http://www.bittorrent.com/ - Bittorrent Search

Ahhh.. The trackerless network...

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Revenge+of+the+S ith%22+filetype:torrent&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=u tf-8&oe=utf-8
74 results likely with duplicates

http://search.bittorrent.com/search.jsp?query=Reve nge+of+the+Sith&Submit2=Search
18 results assumably with no duplicates

http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=%22Revenge+of+ the+Sith%22
229 results with no duplicates, and combined tracker listings of torrents from multiple sites

HTML MOSAIC

PERL

Bit Torrent

The open source guys hate it when I say this, but...

I found these three examples on one google search page. Saying something as broad as "Open Source is not Innovative" without some sort of proof to back it up just proves your talking out your rear! That statement is like saying "Innovative Products are never invented by anyone outside of a corporation"! Airplanes, the first Apple, come to mind.

Sure most have one or two innovative features, but what applications in the OS world are really innovative, especially from an end user perspective?

Certainly not desktop environments, servers, remote shells, anonymizing (or swarming) networks, or compilers.

Because all of those things are just replacements for commercial applications, and did nothing new.

IT's the webserver it's running.
http://search.bittorrent.com/search.jsp?query=open bsd&Submit2=Search
-----

HTTP Status 500 -

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.handlePa geException(PageContextImpl.java:498)
at org.apache.jsp.search_jsp._jspService(search_jsp.j ava:659)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(Http JspBase.java:92)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:853)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.servic e(JspServletWrapper.java:162)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFil e(JspServlet.java:240)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspSe rvlet.java:187)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:853)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.in ternalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:200)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.ac cess$000(ApplicationFilterChain.java:51)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain$1. run(ApplicationFilterChain.java:129)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.do Filter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:125)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invo ke(StandardWrapperValve.java:209)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$Standard PipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.j ava:596)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(S tandardPipeline.java:433)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(Cont ainerBase.java:948)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invo ke(StandardContextValve.java:144)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$Standard PipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.j ava:596)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(S tandardPipeline.java:433)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(Cont ainerBase.java:948)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(St andardContext.java:2358)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke( StandardHostValve.java:133)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$Standard PipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.j ava:596)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.in voke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$Standard PipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.j ava:594)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke (ErrorReportValve.java:116)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$Standard PipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.j ava:594)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(S tandardPipeline.java:433)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(Cont ainerBase.java:948)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invok e(StandardEngineValve.java:127)

Can't find the slashdot article about this now, but very similar thing...
http://www.towerseek.org/

http://search.bittorrent.com/search.jsp?hitsPerPag e=10&hitsPerSite=3&query=redhat&Submit2=Search%5D

http://www.towerseek.org/search.jsp?query=redhat%5 D

Snap?

no problem. there's always http://www.thepiratebay.org/

and http://www.bittorrent.com/ of course :)

Will he get sued?

Someone will.

Seems to me this makes it much easier to go after those who link to torrents, though I suppose the jury is still out on the legality of linking to copyrighted material.

Sooner or later someone less lazy than me will graft tit-for-tat bandwidth allocation onto Gnutella, or decentralized peer discovery onto BitTorrent, and trackers will be a thing of the past.

No one here will probably ever read this as I'm posting as AC, but this BitTorrent stuff is making me feel on edge these days..

Anyhow, I checked out the new BitTorrent search and the results pages are identical to the ones returned by TowerSeek. Here's a test you can do to see the similarities:

Searching search.bittorrent.com for "doctor"
Searching www.towerseek.org for "doctor"

Did the 'official' site just scrape TowerSeek's database? TowerSeek has been around for a while now so it's definately a possibility.

I thought Bram was a bright guy? Wtf is he thinking?

Put in "sith," for example, and you'll see links to known "illegal" torrent sites, like Pirate Bay.

One nice thing about his search site is that it allows you to easily copy/paste the URL at the top with the search strings. Lots of the other engines don't let you (easily) do that.

You can wait two weeks for them to link it on the homepage or you can search now at search.bittorrent.com

> Next thing you know someone will start trying to distribute the stuff on some website ...

Nah, everyone knows that pirates use bittorrent.

There are quite a lot of differences in the three major P2P technologies. Here I try to cover the most important of each:

ed2k (eMule)

• + Easy linking. Links can be shared anywhere: in web pages, IRC, email. The single 100-200 character link contains everything that is needed to download the file.
• + Supports usage with and without a server (in eMule, ed2k server and serverless Kademlia)
• - If you run a server, you can't make it private
• - If you run a server, you cannot control what is shared there
• - Inefficient, seems to waste bandwidth

Direct Connect (DC++, Reverse Connect)

• + You can run servers (hubs) private
• + You can see what everyone is sharing in your hub
• + Using eMule-like links has recently become available, though clicking a link doesn't add the file in your queue, it only allows you to search for it
• + Efficient, you can download directly from someone very fast, even through intranet
• - No serverless mode
• - You don't have total control on what is shared in your server
• - Only in Reverse Connect you can download from multiple sources simultaneously

BitTorrent (Azureus, BitComet)

• + The most efficient p2p yet
• + Server (tracker) admin can have total control of what is shared choosing a directory where he uploads allowed torrents
• + A single .torrent file can contain instructions on how to download multiple files
• - No serverless mode
• - No searching
• - To share download instructions for a file(set), you have to be able to transfer a .torrent file, a plaintext link isn't enough

This has been the situation for a while. In ed2k nothing big has changed for a year. DC++ (incl. Reverse Connect) is evolving, but magnet (TTH) linking has been the only major change in years. When DC++ gets its support for ADC complete, the evolution of Direct Connect is predicted to get a major boost.

What trackerless BitTorrent does is to make every client a small tracker. So it doesn't just enable searching and serverless usage, it also makes sharing illegal files easier (more than it does for legal). Previously, to share content, you had to find a tracker that allows posting .torrents. To share copyrighted content, you also had to find a tracker that didn't care about legal aspects. So sharing legal and illegal content is now equally easy, while it previously was (at least in theory) a little bit easier to share legal content.

Overall, the changes of trackerless BitTorrent would still make it the best available p2p techonology. For certain special cases, Direct Connect could be better, and both DC and ed2k support easier linking than BT, but even that can change in the future: BT could implement a meta-p2p engine, so that you could share plaintext links that make your client download the right .torrent file and add it to your queue. This would make BT superior to eMule in every aspect.

The trackerless system is not consulted when downloading a traditionally tracked torrent.

Yes

Support the software you use, if you like BitTorrent, consider donating to the project.

http://www.bittorrent.com/donate.html

Essentially, the client is now also a simple tracker. You still need a torrent file, you just don't have to set up a tracker now, just open your client, like you'd normally do for Kazaa or other file sharing programs.

Here is the bittorrent.com explanation:

***
BitTorrent Goes Trackerless: Publishing with BitTorrent gets easier!

As part of our ongoing efforts to make publishing files on the Web painless and disruptively cheap, BitTorrent has released a 'trackerless' version of BitTorrent in a new release.

Suppose you bought a television station, you could broadcast your progamming to everyone in a 50 mile radius. Now suppose the population of your town tripled. How much more does it cost you to broadcast to 3 times as many people? Nothing. The same is not true of the Web. If you own a website and you publish your latest video on it, as popularity increases, so does your bandwidth bill! Sometimes by a lot! However, thanks to BitTorrent the website owner gets almost near-broadcast economics on the web by harnessing the unused upstream bandwidth of his/her users.

In prior versions of BitTorrent, publishing was a 3 step process. You would:

1. Create a ".torrent" file -- a summary of your file which you can put on your blog or website
2. Create a "tracker" for that file on your webserver so that your downloaders can find each other
3. Create a "seed" copy of your download so that your first downloader has a place to download from

Many of you have blogs and websites, but dont have the resources to set up a tracker. In the new version, we've created an optional 'trackerless' method of publication. Anyone with a website and an Internet connection can host a BitTorrent download!

While it is called trackerless, in practice it makes every client a lightweight tracker. A clever protocol, based on a Kademlia distributed hash table or "DHT", allows clients to efficiently store and retrieve contact information for peers in a torrent.

When generating a torrent, you can choose to utilize the trackerless system or a traditional dedicated tracker. A dedicated tracker allows you to collect statistics about downloads and gives you a measure of control over the reliability of downloads. The trackerless system makes no guarantees to reliability but requires no resources of the publisher. The trackerless system is not consulted when downloading a traditionally tracked torrent.

Although still in Beta release, the trackerless version of BitTorrent, and the latest production version are available at http://www.bittorrent.com/

Actually... From TFA.... The official client has it as well...

http://www.bittorrent.com/trackerless.html

clipping for you so you can save your fingers from that harsh clicking..

BitTorrent Goes Trackerless: Publishing with BitTorrent gets easier!

As part of our ongoing efforts to make publishing files on the Web painless and disruptively cheap, BitTorrent has released a 'trackerless' version of BitTorrent in a new release.

1. O(1) scheduler
2. Freenet, TOR, I2P
3. Bittorrent
4. Kademlia (as applied in Azureus)
5. Plugger
6. Autocorrelated music downloads (iRate radio)
7. TiVo (Code is GPLed)
8. "Mindstorms" (less earthshattering, but a good example)
9. The concept of the Wiki
10. The Scientific Method

The Bittorrent protocol uses SHA1 hashing.

Yes, there was recently a paper presented that "broke" SHA1, but the result is 2**69 operations instead of 2**80 to find a SHA1 collision. 2**69 is still a very large number of operations... a lot less than a full 2**80, but still a prohibitively large number (more costly than the actual realized losses the entertainment industry is suffering).

Ok, fine then.
I received ~500KBps, KiloBytes per second, or around 4000kbps, kilobits per second.
It took me about 5 minutes to download it. Check your firewall to make sure ports 6881 to 6889 are directed to your computer to improve your speeds.
Also, may I direct you to http://www.bittorrent.com/FAQ.html#firewall if you're still having problems.

People just want more cash money, which is understandable, after all - we have to have some kind of incentive for research, development and innovation. Anyway, with BitTorrent and IRC, I don't think anyone can keep digital media private anyway.

That would be naughty. The Man & the other man is watching.
Bittorrent is evil & no one would Battlestar Galactica