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Deluge Anonymizing Browser Now Includes Bittorrent

markybob writes "An open-source bittorrent client, Deluge, now provides an internal, anonymizing browser to protect its users from overzealous ISPs. The client runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. From the site: "Everyone knows that it is common practice for ISPs to do their best to either block or throttle bittorrent users. We believe that this is wrong and unethical, as there are many legal uses for bittorrent. If an ISP is throttling or blocking bittorrent traffic, you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." Their forum has more info"

12 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. More Accurate Headline... by Symbolis · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Deluge BitTorrent Client Now Includes Anonymizing Browser"

    And to be exact, this is Deluge 0.5.8RC1

  2. Mac OS X by christurkel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Small correction: The Mac OS X version uses X11, not Cocoa.

    --

    CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
  3. Anonymizing Browser Now Includes Bittorrent? by stsp · · Score: 5, Informative

    In related news, semantically reversed article headlines now include slashdot!

    Also, the summary is highly misleading. This is not a bittorrent-based replacement for TOR as one might conclude from the summary. The browser is merely designed to conceal the IPs of people surfing websites hosting torrents by going through a proxy. You also see ads while using the service. I wonder how long it will take ISPs with an anti-bittorrent agenda to block their proxies... Quoting TFA's FAQ:

    Can we use the internal browser to surf any site?

    No. This is a very touchy subject, so I want to be very clear. Our proxy servers have a whitelist of bittorrent-related sites (trackers, index sites, etc), which it allows you to visit.

    Why are there ads? Are you turning evil? This is free software!

    This is free software, however, our proxy servers (which anonymizies the browsing) costs us very real dollars.

    I can't download any files. What is that about?

    To prevent abuse, Deluge's internal browser only allows you to download bittorrent files..
  4. Re:Legitimate use? by burris · · Score: 4, Informative

    BitTorrent works just fine behind a typical "firewall." It is not necessary to accept incoming connections, especially with a well seeded legitimate torrent. If you can't download with BitTorrent at all then you have a problem with your firewalls policy not the firewall per se.

    It's not a horrible method of distribution. Its an excellent method of distribution, especially for free software. Thats why it is being used for such distribution.

  5. Re:Legitimate use? by the_B0fh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why the hell are comments like this marked insightful?

    *waaa* I can't download via p2p, all the free stuff I want, at work

    Either go home and do it, or work with your IT. If you have a business need to download linux distros, it's up to your ork IT to provide that to you. If you don't, well, go suck at Microsoft's teat.

    I used to run a firewall, and I allow out what is business appropriate. If that includes bit-torrent, so be it.

  6. Re:Ad-supported and whitelisted sites by Tom9729 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but did you even read the paragraph you cited? The guy is funding the service out of his own pocket. He needs to have some way to make back at least most of the money he's spending.

    This on top of the fact that he's already dedicating his time to writing the software... Geez.

    It's worth pointing out that the ads aren't showing up in the actual program. If you don't want to see them, don't use the anonymous browsing service.

  7. Picture if you will... by thegnu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well considering that the main point of using his software is to be able to download torrents anonymously, it's rather self-defeating to say if you don't want the ads don't use the anonymizer. I don't begrudge the guy for wanting to make some money back on this, and obviously he's not twisting anyone's arm here, but come on.

    Picture if you will a pasty-white geek who has written some software. "The service my software provides puts people who use it at risk," he muses, "How might I protect those who may not know how to protect themselves?"
    Suddenly, a light goes off. Or on. I think it goes on. Anyway, he thinks, "I could integrate a browser that accesses a limited number of related services in such a way as to provide a safety net for the non-nerds whom I appreciate so well!"
    Time passes. "Oh, fuck. This is going to cost me money," the nerd thinks, "How can I provide this service when it costs me money, and I need to buy Ramen?"
    Another lightbulb does its thing. "Advertisement!"

    There you have it. If you don't like it, cut pasty-dude a check.
    --
    Please stop stalking me, bro.
  8. Relakks, an anonymous VPN by wdebruij · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best solution, ofcourse, is to switch to a less zealous ISP. But that is not always possible: I, for example, find myself subletting an
    apartment that comes with horrible, horrible Comcast DSL (who actively reset with your TCP connections).

    In these cases say Aye, matey and hook up to the swedish Pirate Party's Relakks VPN service (as seen on Slashdot)
    to get past your pesky ISPs rules. It's also be very useful if you use coffeeshop wireless a lot and your email provider still requires plain-text passwords.

    Arrr, we be lootin' again!

  9. Soviet Russia by poopdeville · · Score: 4, Funny

    The headline was obviously written in Soviet Russia.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
  10. not this ISP by not_anne · · Score: 4, Informative

    "...you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." My employer, a large cable ISP, does not track or monitor what sites customers visit. However, we do track the types of traffic on our network and shape traffic as needed to keep the network reasonably healthy.

    We don't single out users, we monitor nodes, which many customers are attached to. If a node is exceeding healthy levels (different nodes have different max levels, there's no one set "healthy" level) then that node is shaped until the traffic goes down.
    --
    My comments here are my own; I do not speak for my employer.
  11. Pay for the things you value by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Insightful
    One of the problems with "Free Software" are the take, take, take folk. Ultimately if you value something you should support it, either financially by direct payment or by recognising that it needs money (eg putting up with ads).

    To give you those "free roads" you drive on, the government charges you taxes. To give out free services, charities accept contributions.

    I doubt many of the gimme,gimme, free software takers actually develop anything substantial or contribute anything, apart from annoyance.

    Perhaps with time people will mature in their outlook and freely contribute better than they do now: "Hey I like service x or software y. Here's $20 to say thanks!". This is not yet happening but perhaps it will one day.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Pay for the things you value by wrook · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, the take, take, take, gimme, gimme, gimme users provide invaluable benefit to Free software producers. But to understand this, you must understand the economics of Free software development (I will assert that most people, even Free software producers have a difficult time understanding this). With Free software, you *can* make money off of distribution, but really it won't last for long. Eventually, since the cost of distribution is nearly free, someone will undercut you. Instead, you must make money (or better stated, value) out of the software itself.

      This can be done in a few ways. First, you can get value from using the software you wrote. Often the value you receive more than offsets the cost of development. If the software is popular and useful, then you can also benefit from forming a consortium with other parties to do development. You each share the costs and share the benefits. People who fund development get a greater say in what gets written (i.e., they write it ;-) ). Examples of this are the Apache software and the Linux kernel.

      Second, you can get value from future work on the software. If it is a popular, useful work, then often someone else will be able to receive value from funding you to do some new development. Probably the best example of this is the GCC tool set as it was developed by Cygnus software (google around for Michael Tiemann's description of how to make this work -- it's brilliant.)

      Finally, you can gain value (either directly or indirectly) through advertising. Usually (as is the case with this software), the software allows you to connect with a service that gains value from advertising. The best example of this is Mozilla who make nearly $100 million a year from the google search bar in Firefox.

      Now, I hope you'll excuse my tangent, I'm finally coming to the point. What all these methods of creating value have in common is that they work best (return the most value) when the software is *popular* and *useful*. Take, take, take, gimme, gimme, gimme people are essential to creating popular and useful software. First, they are often the absolute best sources for ideas. They are so internally focussed (i.e., selfish) that they have a really highly developed sense of what they want. Yes, they are annoying, but if you cut through the annoyance, you find gold. Second, these people are like rats. When one finds a good source of food *all their buddies join in*. This is indispensable for a Free software project.

      Now, what I read from the posts above is that these selfish users are not happy with direct advertising on the associated service. This is incredibly useful feedback! It means that there is significant risk involved in the venture. People are not against advertising per se. Take the google search bar in Firefox. I've never heard anyone complain about it. The connection between the google advertising and the search bar is removed enough to appease the user. But I would worry, in this case, that users will not accept the advertising on the associated service.

      In the end, cherish your selfish users. They are a PITA, but they are honest and they will spare no expense to tell you what they think. For software projects that don't have budgets for things like user studies, these people will pave the road to success.