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New Service Converts Torrents Into PNG Images

Posted by Soulskill on from the pretty-useful-pictures dept.

jamie points out that a new web service, hid.im, will encode a torrent into a PNG image file, allowing it to be shared easily through forums or image hosting sites. Quoting TorrentFreak: "We have to admit that the usefulness of the service escaped us when we first discovered the project. So, we contacted Michael Nutt, one of the people running the project to find out what it's all about. 'It is an attempt to make torrents more resilient,' Michael told [us]. 'The difference is that you no longer need an indexing site to host your torrent file. Many forums will allow uploading images but not other types of files.' Hiding a torrent file inside an image is easy enough. Just select a torrent file stored on your local hard drive and Hid.im will take care the rest. The only limit to the service is that the size of the torrent file cannot exceed 250KB. ... People on the receiving end can decode the images and get the original .torrent file through a Firefox extension or bookmarklet. The code is entirely open source and Michael Nutt told us that they are hoping for people to contribute to it by creating additional decoders supported by other browsers."

16 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. The race is on... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    The.Black.Hole.1979.dvdrip.xvid.torrent -> goatse.png
    ... you know you want to.

    .

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. wait wait wait... by Rooked_One · · Score: 4, Funny

    you mean the pirates are going to continue to beat out "the man" and get away with it?

    I'm just utterly shocked.

    1. Re:wait wait wait... by just_another_sean · · Score: 2, Funny

      you mean the pirates are going to continue to beat out "the man" and get away with it?

      I'm just utterly shocked.

      Oh just wait, PNG's won't be around much longer.
      Remember folks, when PNG's are outlawed only outlaws will have PNG's.

      --
      Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
  3. Re:What? by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    It's hidden in their header png.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  4. Does that mean... by EricX2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can download all of my pirated torrents and view pr0n in one convenient step? If so, this is one brilliant Nutt!

  5. Re:Still limited by lxs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously you have never visited 4chan.

  6. PNGs?! by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    OMG, who uses PNG files?! The compression routine is rubbish! I'm going to use this technology, but I'm going to convert the files to JPEG before I upload them. When people see how much smaller the file is that they have to download, they'll quickly move over to my way of thinking.

    --
    Summation 2
  7. Re:Still limited by tooyoung · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hosting a bunch of images doesn't do any good unless you have a text (or at least searchable) description of what you're downloading. Without context, warehoused information is useless.

    Yes, someone should invent a method for posting images on the internet and associating text with them.

  8. IE6 FTW! by wangahrah · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lack of transparency support for your PNGs won't let those bastards see through the image to your thinly veiled P2P activity! Looks like IE6 just won the browser war.

  9. The REAL Da Vinci Code by Blixinator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Take a .png of the Mona Lisa and convert it to a torrent and it downloads several thousand hours of voice notes by Da Vinci... and porn

    --
    "The Y chromosome is genetic. The odds are very good that if you are male then your father was too." -Internet Commenter
  10. Re:The other way around works too *evil grin* by discord5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The.Black.Hole.1979.dvdrip.xvid.torrent -> goatse.png

    goatse.png->The.Black.Hole.1979.dvdrip.xvid.torrent

    Well, that explains why in the UK piracy is down.

  11. full rounded pr0n by uncanny · · Score: 3, Funny

    So now, what this is telling me is that you can post porn videos INSIDE porn pictures? mind boggling!

  12. Re:Why bother to hide it at all? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if the xxAA gets the torrent from the image, they're illegally circumventing a technical protection measure!

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  13. Re:Why not just use slashdot instead? by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone can then use slashdot's search feature

    I take it you've never actually tried to use slashdot's search function.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  14. Re:An example.. by nschubach · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow! It's a schooner.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  15. Re:Why bother to hide it at all? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    What does the Gay Nigger Association of America have to do with this ?