Slashdot Mirror
P2P BitTorrent Tool Could Replace Pirate Bay
With the US and other G8 countries trying to outlaw The Pirate Bay and its ilk, an anonymous reader suggests that a solution may have emerged out of Cornell University. A new open-source project called Cubit is an Azureus plugin that provides decentralized approximate keyword search of torrents in the network.
Sort of. The main point of the Gnutella network (of which Limewire is a client) is searching. The network is inefficient, but it allows for arbitrary searching. This would be along the same vein as using a Gnutella-like network to share .torrent files, then using a BitTorrent client to actually transfer the data. (I haven't read the article, but I suspect their searching network is more efficient than Gnutella.)
No, it's implemented in an Azureus plugin.
I see nothing in the design of their searching network that would preclude implementations independent of Azureus.
I've read the GP's post and I've been pulling out the Old Constitution trying to figure out where he's coming from.
We, the US, are governed by the rule of law. And sometimes, the rule of law is very unfair for a few of us. BUT, it will correct itself eventually and to be honest, I prefer "eventually" to a bloody revolution. I mean "bloody" in the "folks are dieing in the streets" bloody - not the British version.
...we still need trackers, right?
X.
We had applications like this previously to bittorrent that did not list files, and one of the big golden opportunities of not maintaining a file catalog was that you didn't really have the possibility of you having illegal content on it, it was just like downloading. You don't see companies like Microsoft or Mozilla getting pressure about the fact that people download copyrighted files there. Decentralized? As in no servers, no directories and no trackers for files? How do the individual nodes find each other? If you have something where nodes pass their knowledge of other nodes along (the longer you are connected, the more nodes you might potentially learn about) that could be interesting. But how can you have something totally decentralized? Can discovery truly work on a whole-internet-sized scale?
activestudios web design
Download Cubit 0.31. Put in string "pink floyd meddle".
Lots of hits. But no "pink floyd meddle".
Maybe next year...
Nope. There are other things you can do of course. Reputation based schemes like Credence ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credence_(reputation_management_scheme ) applied to peers could help you boot off peers out of swarms with no or poor reputation. This would force certain organizations to build reputation up first, but keeping that will be a tough cookie. Won't be fool-proof, but will make it harder. Not many people will give RIAA/MPAA the thumbs up.
Then there is small world theory. Downloading stuff through trackers from people you don't know is somewhat silly. You should be able to get the same content (though a bit slower) through semi-trusted contacts. The only way to defeat that is infiltration by certain organizations, but, rather tedious and difficult.
You can also create a scheme where you us peers as proxies. Instead of downloading something directly, you ask a peer to relay a bunch of encrypted anonymous bytes for you. Will slow down speeds well over 50%, but difficult to defeat.
There about a billion more ways. The fact that they are not implemented yet, is simply because most p2p-apps/networks don't want to start an arms race.
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
Digital files can be copied without depriving the original owner of theirs, be it software or music. Your money was taken from you leaving you with less (I hope your insurance covered it).
Now just imagine once 3d printers become cheap enough for the common household... Manufacturers of small cheap trinkets had better be worried because their time is next.