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Researchers Warn of Possible BitTorrent Meltdown
secmartin writes "Researchers at Delft University warn that large parts of the BitTorrent network might collapse if The Pirate Bay is forced to shut down. A large part of the available torrents use The Pirate Bay as tracker, and other available trackers will probably be overloaded if all traffic is shifted there. TPB is currently using eight servers for their trackers. According to the researchers, even trackerless torrents using the DHT protocol will face problems: 'One bug in a DHT sorting routine ensures that it can only "stumble upon success", meaning torrent downloads will not start in seconds or minutes if Pirate Bay goes down in flames.'"
And nothing of value was lost?
No, I agree. It's getting weirder and weirder and some things I used to know how to do I can't figure out.
Might force more people to 'member-only' or subscription sites, for a short time, is all.
Meanwhile, isohunt (among others) is going strong.
Finally, could also push more people into IRC, which I'm sure the MAAFIA would just adore.
The internet is resilient, and someone somewhere will pick up the slack that could be left by TPB going down. There's enough trackers out there to lend a hand.
Solution? Support The Pirate Bay. Don't download? Support them anyway for the things they do to battle the MAFIAA and other evils.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
We hardly knew ye.
Forgive the crudeness, but this is bull. Bit Torrent has survived a major tracker shutdown before (Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprnova.org). Traffic will redirect, other trackers will open in their place, and things will return to normal within a week.
Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
Argh. WTF. UI Design Fail.
Disable the beta index. It's beta for a reason.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
I had the same problem, until I logged in. Anyway I think it's an epic UI fail, because since when is it a good idea to alienate new users with this kind of crap?
No, it's not just you.
If one close, ten will open...
I can't call that English
As I recall, one of the guys running the site said they had made arrangements such that the actual hardware is no longer under their direct control, so even if they are all found guilty, it would be outside their ability to shut it down, even if ordered to do so by a court.
My front page just switched over to only displaying headlines and hour ago, I have to click through to each article now to get the summary!
Didn't they already mention before that if something like this happened that they'd just move to somewhere like Antigua and just reopen again?
I can't help but have mixed feelings about that. While I don't condone copyright violations or ever recommend the service to others, the pirate bay has been very influential in terms of stirring up some major debates about digital content, which I think is a good thing.
And this is a problem because?
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
With Pirate Bay shut down that means that uploaders will move on to better trackers - PRIAVTE trackers - which have higher quality control, fewer trojans, and ratio requirements.
Yes. They need to fucking cut this shit out. Seriously.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Whenever Pirate Bay goes down, let's everyone agree that bittorrent is dead. Say it very loudly when around RIAA types and look morose, say it looks like we're going to have to pay top dollar for entertainment, pantomime getting out your wallets. And for xod's sake, don't mention any of the other torrent sites. *wink*
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
the best option is a web of trust plus p2p application. This p2p would be used only to distribute tracker locations and or edonkey links, not the actual content. This way you would need no centralized web servers. Webservers are too easy a target for the MAFIAA.
With this an something like the kad protocol we would have truly distributed content distribution. Not only the files, but the urls for the files.
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
Yeah no kidding. I noticed a week ago that it now requires me to login in order to view the "Moderation Comment Log".
This space is not for rent.
Even if we are in the process of removing our rights according to the EU directives. Our constitution the "grundlag" is just a piece of paper with serious-sounding words on it, much less important than, say, an EU-directive.
But the law still applies for a few more year, probably. Pirate Bay can't be put down by the government yet.
If the above sounds at all critical of my government, in my defense I would like to point out that:
1. I am wardriving this through a poorly encrypted WiFi connection that some guy or girl put up in their apartment.
2. Hails to the Great Leader GÃran Persson and the Dear Leader Fredrik Reinfeldt, and our saviors from all that is evil: Justice Minister BostrÃm the Wise and justice minister Ask the talented, who so eminently carries out her work with exceptional quality, considering she's never put her nose in law school. She is truly a genius.
3. This was written back in 2009 and I have since withdrawn all of my criticism of the Swedish Government.
I am logged in, I still see that firehose crap. They're not just alienating new users, I'm getting sick of this crap too. I don't even let slashdot.org run scripts anymore. It stalls firefox, and doesn't provide any desirable functionality. Once upon a time Slashdot had the best forum software around. Now, it's the worst.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Will seed to 1:1
Disable the beta index. It's beta for a reason.
How do you do this? I tried www.slashdot.org/index.pl but it just switches me back to "index2.pl".
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
The servers is not in sweden, so it's impossible for swedish police to shut them down, and 'the pirates' has no reason to do it themself.(Impossible to prove that they are still running it.)
All the cool tech sites are jumping the shark these days, it's the new awesome tech thing to do.
See also: ars technica.
Argh. WTF. UI Design Fail.
Craniorectals at work.
Before long, the site will become so laden down with useless cruft, it will slashdot itself. Someone needs to go back to basics and look at what's actually needed. The balance was pretty good a year or two ago - I think people have got carried away.
We've had a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) - now I'm ready for a campaign for real HTML.
1. Tribler designs P2P client that pushes decentralized tracking. 2. Tribler publishes research which predicts doom and gloom for the future of centralized bittorrent trackers. 3. ??? 4. Profit!
Slashdot has a pro-windows philosophy after all! Fair and balanced coverage ftw.
If there is truth to this, then the IP trade groups will go after TPB harder and faster now.
Uncheck the box, and you can return to non-beta bliss!
Go to Preferences > Index and disable Beta Index (should be the first checkbox). I've had mine disabled for a long time and I never see any significant changes to the UI I know and love.
Idle is still green though :P
That's it.
You are required to be authenticated.
So much for anonymous readers.
And this is a site where people are arguing about privacy?
Is privacy in danger when gov is in the game or when privates are also in the game.
Do I trust more /. or the gov?
And what if I don't trust them both?
...not only will the network stay up, performance will be improved. They need to at least evaluate the new NinnleBSD server package.
Shut it down. It won't make any difference.
It will force coders to create a better system.
It will promote the use of another protocol/network that is immune to particular traits of law/jurisdiction that The Pirate Bay may fall foul of.
In the meantime, hundreds of pretenders will show up to take the flak and the sheer volume means that all that can be done is trying to shut them down one at a time with legal threats.
Just look at the history of ANY P2P system and it's pretty much identical.
Give it a few more years, the Internet will be nothing but the basis of a global, anonymous, reliable, authenticatable P2P system that everybody uses to do everything. We have the technology (Tor, CloudVPN, Bittorrent, DHT, etc.), it's just a matter of fine-tuning and prevelance. As an additional bonus, it then won't matter that some people are using IPv6 and some IPv4 - everything will be in this cloud of dark smoke that you can only see what enters and leaves and nothing inbetween. You'll be able to tell that User X shared an MP3 if you are able to see all of User X's traffic. You'll be able to see that User Y downloaded an MP3 if you are able to see all of User Y's traffic. But even compromising User X completely won't reveal to you who User Y is or was. Trying to masquerade as User X without their private key would be useless, so the best you could do (even with the key) would be to propogate false content to... who? Nobody would know - everything is just an anonymous connection from a dozen random peers.
The media companies and governments are, by a process of digital evolution, driving anonymous communications into necessities and they become more prevelant with each generation. Hardly anybody warezed back in the 90's as a percentage of Internet users - now most ordinary people know how to find and download illegal content in a few clicks. Each time the problem of "piracy" is "fixed", it crops up yet again, somewhere else, in a new form that's more convenient, faster, harder to prove and more ubiquitous.
Even in terms of general users - the only things that people ever ask me about when the subject comes up are "something like Napster or something". They've never used Napster but the fame of being shut down was enough to make them into a household name for free/illegal content. Do it to The Pirate Bay (whose name I'm already getting mentioned in conversations from people who I thought couldn't work a mouse) and the same will happen.
It doesn't mean that they *shouldn't* be shutting down The Pirate Bay, or that The Pirate Bay are somehow "right" or "heroes". They have taken advantage of an interesting legal technicality. It just means that you're not going to win with the sorts of tactics where you just try and shut the sites down. Maybe the opportunity for the media companies EVER winning has now passed and they'll never be able to anymore - who knows? But they are trying to catch fog in a net... this isn't a problem they can solve by shutting down a server - they need something else. I don't know what. They certainly don't. But until it exists, they are playing a losing game.
I like how the article says that bit-torrent will melt down if a torrent site goes down. Well duh? Wouldn't that be the goal of shutting the site down? What kind of a warning is that.
If anything it's just research that backs the copyright holders desire to shut it down.
That reminds me, can anyone tell me WTF the firehose is and why are we supposed to care about it?
You're missing a zero in that ratio, I hope? That ratio is an order of magnitude off from BitTorrent sainthood.
Thank you! /. is now usable for the first time in months!
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
...but private trackers will be strong as ever. We just have to move a little more underground to avoid the MAFIAA.
Before long, the site will become so laden down with useless cruft, it will slashdot itself.
Slashdot has already slashdotted itself.
Your ad here.
You are required to be authenticated. So much for anonymous readers.
Fantastic! Now the 4chan'ers can stay in 4chan, and maybe Slashdot will regain some of its quality user base.
If you agree with copyright law and think this is wrong that's fine but I'm having trouble understanding how you find them to be hypocritical. Their basic philosophy seem to be "Okay big content industry, you want to hold our culture hostage, let's see you try it!" Basically exhibiting the Ragnar Danneskjöld school of though.
There is no such thing as "the BitTorrent network". That's like talking about "the HTTP network". It's a distributed download protocol. It doesn't do search and different trackers and torrents are not interconnected in any way. Thus, it is not a network. The ability to use BitTorrent will not be harmed in any way by any one site going down.
Remember when everyone used suprnova and then it went away? The world of BitTorrent will be fine.
i would hate to see legal torrents disabled because of a few copywrite infringers, please think of the children ^^err The Linux ISOs...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Then use the RSS feed like any 'sane' person. All 'modern' browsers, and IE7, have integrated RSS feed readers, so you shouldn't complain.
Fantastic! Now the 4chan'ers can stay in 4chan, and maybe Slashdot will regain some of its quality user base.
You can still post anonymously by checking the "Post Anonymously" while logged in.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
For all those who go "But BitTorrent has noninfringing usages", having PirateBay go away will have no effect on the legitimate torrents. Its only the pirate-trackers that will melt down.
So for those interested in legitimate P2P content delivery, this "meltdown" would be a feature, not a bug, because as long as BitTorrent is almost all piracy, it is easier to make a case for traffic management.
Test your net with Netalyzr
That'll show em.
I go to 4chan for the intelligent and insightful discussion but I come to Slashdot for the moronic trolling. No, really.
but they'll still know who you are, mannnnnnnnn
Fantastic! Now the 4chan'ers can stay in 4chan, and maybe Slashdot will regain some of its quality user base.
You owe me a new keyboard. "Quality user base". You kidder.
Slashdot has really made me learn to hate CSS. (or bad CSS programmers)
Simple Design + Low Bandwidth + No Icons + No Boxes + Large Browser Font
and I still
get a narrow
story column
and a ton of
wasted
whitespace.
Traffic will only flow to other trackers automatically if torrent files have multiple trackers listed, which isn't all too common. A vast proportion of TPB users are random college kid types with little tech knowledge, and would not know how to find alternative trackers.
Additionally, there are dozens of small private/invite trackers which would not be affected as they have limited membership. Generally, these researchers have their heads up their asses.
Demonoid ftw.
And Tom's Hardware -- I can't use the CPU graphs anymore, for example.
I come here for the love
It's yet another concept the overlords think is cool, but no one else does (more specifically, it's a way to influence what stories get picked a la Digg). We shouldn't care about it.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Because stupid people would understand enough of it to attack him with it. In this day and age, it makes sense for politicians to encode things for people capable of rational thought.
I doubt that anyone other than the thieving hypocrites would likely notice.
Assuming that by "thieving hypocrites", you mean anyone who wants to get free shit off bitorrent, you realise that covers most of the people here.
And I may be a hypocrite but I'm no thief.
Never mind that the Napster name survived and came back as another DRM'ed monstrosity. We still have the Gnutella protocol, free and unencumbered (poisoned, but we tech types can deal with that, eh?).
If TPB goes under (like SuperNova - can you say "mininova"?), there'll be plenty of other site operators ready to take advantage of their country's laws to make money from the opportunity this would represent. Trust me - even if TPB is forced to shut down (a questionable liklihood), there'll be plenty of others coming behind to pick up the profitable pieces left behind.
Data occupies space, has mass, exerts gravity. Even physically turning off TPB's servers won't make that data go away. Even if you nuke the servers holding the data and wipe all the hard drives, the data still exists (scattered about on the internet in some form or another). It'll be found (rediscovered) and used.
This is just another example of the existing media cartels (MPAA, RIAA, et. al.) trying to stuff the genie back in the bottle. They obviously haven't learned from their past experience with Gnutella just how difficult rebottling the jinn can be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of some types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network. ...
Functional relationship (network architecture)
Computer networks may be classified according to the functional relationships which exist among the elements of the network, e.g., Active Networking, Client-server and Peer-to-peer (workgroup) architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer
It's the right time to develop torrent protocols that are multi source and multinational in such a way that individual governments can do nothing to disrupt them. We also need to protect those less able at computing by using untraceable ISPs and encrypted methods of delivery such that no accusation of infringement can be made.
So it's a call to white hats, black hats, gray hats and people who just love freedom to get busy, write the code and get it into the hands of just about everyone. Keep in mind that everyone from kiddies to grandmas like to download so stupid-simple interaction with such torrent systems is the right way to build.
Heh, people still use torrents?
It's part of a long term experiment.
And yes, as long as I've been a member they have done something to make it worse.
Some of the experiments they have tried have been really hideous.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I always seed to .999 then cut off.
I do it for the lulz.
Where will the bittorrent community ever find EIGHT servers... this is insurmountable.
Not everyone who knows how to use RSS prefers to use RSS.
I'm sorry but digital archiving has been around since the birth of the computer. I'd like to see the public boycott major entertainment companies if p2p takes a dive. Idk about the rest of you but being able to preview before I buy has not saved me money, simply it has allowed me to spend my money on what i like. You all know what i'm talking about... who here hasn't spent an outrageous amount on at least a dozen times on a crappy game/movie and never actually played it more than 1 or 2 times because it sucked so bad? Also for the music side p2p has allowed for so many small/no-name groups to get exposure.
Who the hell would buy a car before test driving the thing? Look, all I'm saying is that as a consumer I spend more now on media now than before torrents. This is a simple concept; I have a perfect understanding of the content once I've been able to experience it. At that point I wish to have a legal copy to add to my library. Most importantly, this sale helps the specific artist and I can then expect that they will continue to produce more and even hope that said artist will come play a show in my area. We also know that word of mouth plays such a large roll in this scenario also. If I haven't heard/watched/played any of the media I can't recommend it. If I can't recommend it, many of my friends would have no idea that some of these bands, games and movies exist or are even worth watching.
The RIAA is on a mission to come down on the masses so that they can reap ungodly amounts from the consumers. The artists won't see any of these settlements.
Also, by show of hands, who else downloads free/open source from TPB or other trackers (and by free, i mean legally free). I've been notified by comcast that I've been downloading illegal stuff. Comcast got a not-so-forgiving letter explaining that it is not illegal to download ubuntu via torrent. Next they are going to tell me it's illegal to connect to the internet because the internet may contain information!
I can see it now,a police officer saying, "boy, you can't play your music that loud! There are others here that haven't paid the $20 for that CD. I'm going to have to place you under arrest." Later you get a $250,000 fine, violated by your cell mate, and end up selling a kidney and your left testicle to pay your fine so you don't have to be homeless because the courts ordered you to sign over your checks for the next 10-15 years.
JUSTICE! whats that word mean again?
(on another note, is it coincidence that my security word to submit this post was 'beatnik')
Mmm real ale. There's something that doesn't stall firefox itself. Maybe the ability to use firefox! :p
I'm glad to see that adventure in unusable front pages died quickly.
And yes, the Campaign for Usable Websites : CAMUW. First target: Slashdot.
WHAT quality userbase?
I dunno about "quality user base" but I hope this, at least, discourages those damn Niggerbuntu and ninn1e posters, they're really getting annoying.
I still get a narrow story column and a ton of wasted whitespace.
Well if they used it, it wouldn't be whitespace, now would it?
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
The ones who wants to shut it down do not have the power to do so. The only ones with that power is the people who runs it, and they are not going to shut it down, especially not as they've been continiously harassed by the ones who want it shut down.
They have redundant servers spread all over the world, some of them in server halls at ISPs that will not allow the police to just enter and shut them down. They also have several servers that are not active now, but which could be activated if need be.
Add to this that the last time they tried to shut them down, they recieved donations of new servers, money, server hall space and fast internet connections from both ordinary people and companies, emerging stronger than before and was running within three days. Now, they are prepared, and the same pattern will happen again. If attempts are made to shut them down, they will get more support and emerge stronger.
I can even tell you how the trial will go:
* They will be found guilty in the first trial, as the judge and "nÃmndemÃn" (not a jury, but an advisory group of "trustworthy people") are politically appointed, and will get orders from their parties to convict.
* They will appeal. The next court is not politically appointed, so it will instead look at the law. Swedish law allows linking to possibly illegal content, and there are precendents showing that such an interpretation holds up in court. In other words, they will be found not guilty. This is also in line with tradition, as everyone accused of file sharing who have appealed to this court has been found not guilty.
* The public attourney may appeal, and once again get his butt spanked. It's not entirely sure that he will do this, though, as this court has the power to set precedents. Another file sharer have been paid large sums of money by the media industry to not appeal, as they do not want to lose here.
* The case will go to the European court, which, at least on paper, should test if the Swedish courts have followed Swedish law. If it does it's job, they will once again be found not guilty.
Also, don't forget that these guys are activists, they will not back away from a fight. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to appeal even if they won in the first trial, just to make sure that they won in a court high enough to set a precedent.
Worth noting is that there are strong evidence of taking bribes against Jim Keyzer, the corrupt police who headed the investigation. Roswall, the public attourney, similarly is also suspected of various kinds of corruption and breaches of protocol. BodstrÃm, the minister of justice who initiated this spectacle broke three out of our four constitutions in order to make this happen, and this will also taint the case.
Of course absolutely nothing will appear out of the series of tubes, now will it?
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
So, much like the banks in America, TPB is too big to fail, can we expect a bailout for them sometime soon?
If the torrent doesn't start in seconds or minutes... I let mine run all day while i'm at work. It doesn't bother me that they won't start downloading in a matter of seconds..
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
Despite the hype about the bittorrent "network" the first thing on Sweden's agenda should be the adverse affect on their peering relationships.
What about all the ActiveX IE6 was blocking at work last week? If the text hadn't been in English, I could have sworn I was surfing Korean sites.
ActiveX? C'mon, on this site too? Disgusting.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
i had 103:1 on a cbb soundtrack torrent once. I was only keeping it there as a record after a certain amount. Server seriously crashed later so i had to redl everything and my total ratio is like .6 from the 6:1 i had before. I should really backup my azureus files to keep ratios. I feel like such a leech
Yes, the comma works well, but possibly better might have been the use of the word "even", although enclosing the whole phrase in brackets would have been overkill.
Wish I had mod points for the finest subliminal dig at MSIE I've seen in a long time.
And here I always thought it was just adblock detritus...
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
It especially makes sense if you're trying to obfuscate what you're doing - namely orchestrating the largest transfer of wealth and power in human history from citizens to their overlords.
"Windmills do not work that way!!"
I believe it was introduced after the better part of a decade of people whining about how they wanted to be able to "moderate" stories as well as posts.
and that's why they normally have donation sections where you can paypal them some money that will to running the site. In return, they give you download credit.
another time for warez scene to save the liberties big buck tries to deny people.
no, this is not an uninformed zealot rant, and i am able to elaborate it with historic proofs and examples, but it is a friday night -> you'll have to do with your own memory.
Read radical news here
There are few better ways to piss off a judge than to go into court with an argument like this. You Are Not A Lawyer
For some reason this option doesn't exist for me... When I'm replying to a comment, all I see are the 4 buttons under the text box that say "Preview," "Quote Parent," "Options," and "Cancel." Where'd the post anonymously option disappear to?
If patriotism is racist, is racism patriotic?
Oh no! They started to support IPv6 lately http://thepiratebay.org/blog/146 What else would I use now?
Heh... I turned off all the new stuff.. but now the subject and comment text boxes are shoved WAY to the right..and so the comment on goes past the edge of the browser window into the black border..
Office, coffee, mouthful, your post, projectile, new 16:9 HD LCD ... you get the picture.
Above the comment box
Nope, nothing there but the e-mail address settings
If patriotism is racist, is racism patriotic?
What browser? Working fine for me in Firefox 3.0.6. Wide story column and everything else seems fine once I turned off the stupid Beta index option.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
The admins are probably just going with the masses since nobody here reads the summaries anyway, let alone the articles.
Go to Preferences > Index and disable Beta Index (should be the first checkbox). I've had mine disabled for a long time and I never see any significant changes to the UI I know and love.
Idle is still green though :P
Thank You. Slashdot pages load seem faster as well.
Other *public* trackers might be overloaded, but meanwhile anyone who knows what they're doing will already be on an invite-only tracker.
And don't forget that this has happened before. Remember when Suprnova died? Other sprang up in its place.
Find a country with the following conditions:
1.Stable government (long-running dictatorship might work even better than a democracy for this since a change of govt might mean a change of views on IP)
2.Doesn't need the US or "western countries" to stay alive (which is why Russia failed with allofmp3, they need the WTO and the west to stay around)
3.Has acceptable pipes to the rest of the world
4.Government doesn't respect western IP laws
Just put the illegal stuff in such a country.
Maybe Cuba could work, they have a stable communist government, no love for the US (and the US has no love back) and are building some new fiber lines AFAIK. Only question is whether the Cuban government respects western IP or not.
What would the big media companies do against a server in a country that didnt respect western IP laws, would they pressure the government to invade? Ram through laws requiring US ISPs to IP block/null route these servers?
Here's a Stylish style I made that makes Slashdot not look like shit:
http://pastebin.com/f39655fa6
No existe.
This whole campaign against copyright infringement has taken on comedic overtones of monumental proportions.
I quit watching Saturday morning cartoons in lieu of keeping track of the MAFIAA's efforts to keep profitable buggywhip production going. It's like a Keystone Cops movie marathon.
Two of my Grandfather's oft used phrases apply here:
'Like trying to herd cats in a burning barn'
and
'Like trying to stuff a wet noodle up a wildcat's ass'
Pure hilarity!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Oh my God! I had completely forgotten about the pain in the balls that was Kermit . . . . I had a client I used to have to upload stuff to using Kermit after the close of business. You'd do it the same every time, whether it'd work would seemingly depend on whether she was wearing a skirt or pants.
This arrangement was made precisely to make sure that they couldn't shut Pirate Bay down even when forced or coerced by the judicial system.
Yes, the police and such can make your life hell, even if you're in the right. The people behind Pirate Bay know this, they are not stupid. They also know how easy it would be for the authorities to say 'we can make your life hell unless you shut it down'. Illegal yes, but easy, and fighting it in court takes a long time and loads of money. So they said, we have a long term commitment to keeping the Pirate Bay up, so we must make sure that even we ourselves simply cannot shut it down, not even if we wanted to.
Also, why should I wait for a TV show to be released on DVD, buy it, wait for it to be shipped to me when people, who live in the country where the show was made, get to watch it for free on TV?
There is no content that the Pirate Bay had that is copyrighted by anyone. A bittorrent file is an original creation. Art, if you like. It has no resemblance to anything similarly named. Still, if it goes away, it represents one challenge to content distribution. There have been millions over the years. Every one of them has met with an increased ability to distribute content. Kill off TPB and 30 others will replace it, and 20 different methods for pushing content will arrive. Those running businesses with outdated business models have more to fear if they shut down TPB than if they left it alone. The always find out the hard way though. About 10 years ago, I had an uncle who thought spam seemed a legitimate means of advertising on the internet. About 8 years ago, he started changing his mind. About 7 years ago, he started hating it. Too late.
Your irrelevant wiki quotes aside, the fact that BitTorrent is a protocol in use by a large number of completely disparate networks remains. It does not constitute a single network.
Hmm. You, Sir, make a very good point there. Unfortunately you've just given me a lot of work, finding out how closely that theory fits with the numbers. I don't suppose you could back it up with numbers (say, how much goes to banks that won't feed back to citizens vs. how much goes directly to welfare programs etc.) and save me the trouble?
A lot of shows are not worth buying on DVD because one viewing is your lifetime fill of them.
But are they worth renting from Netflix or a foreign counterpart?
Seriously folks, Gameboy games dont have this problem.
But only because Nintendo no longer manufactures Game Boy Advance games. If you want to pirate handheld games, it's all DS now.
Hey Hollywood. Get rid of DVD's. Just use proprietary hardware for movies
Proprietary? DVD players are already non-free hardware. DVD's physical layer is patented, as are the MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital codecs.
This has nothing to do with the protocol.
Nuff said
Freenet is quite usable at the moment, and there is a fair amount of file trading going on. It can easily handle whole albums in a few hours and DivX rips of movies in a day or so, depending on popularity.
Once you install it, download the FMS (Freenet Messaging System) application, which is like anonymous Usenet, and make requests or offer uploads.
The benefit is that no-one, not even your ISP or government agencies can see what you are uploading or downloading.
It is also designed to be very difficult to censor. Currently it uses UDP for communication between Freenet nodes, with no real fingerprint to the traffic, so it is difficult for ISPs to filter without affecting things like VoIP or gaming.
Should UDP filtering become more prevalent, it will move to another form of transport, ultimately ending up as steganography, where it disguises itself as some other encrypted protocol.
which version?
I used to have an open wifi for the neighbors hooked to my dsl. p2p caused my dsl to clog up and it became unusable for a year. Nothing could make me happier than to see torrent go belly up. It would reduce the internet traffic substantially if my neighbors didn't leave their torrents running 24x7. I will pray that tpb goes down asap. Then we can go back to teaching ethical behavior to the kids.