LegalTorrents Launches Copyright-Compliant Tracker

drDugan writes "Many legitimate media providers are using Bittorrent to distribute content, but the recent Pirate Bay legal verdict and closures left many content downloads unavailable. Along with the ongoing legal issues at Mininova and other sites, options have been scarce for legitimate Bittorrent tracking service. Once a torrent is created with a tracker URL, that tracker has to stay running for normal distribution to continue. LegalTorrents.com has quietly launched a solution with three open Bittorent trackers for its members, including a fully automated, community-based flagging system to blacklist and immediately remove copyright-infringing content. Users submit SHA1 hash values for content with infringing materials. Site members can include and track their own published materials regardless of flagging."

Comments

slashvertisement

[sopssa]

This slashvertisement conveniently left out the fact that
1) You need to add the hash via their website, which for you need a member account and
2) Member accounts start at $20 an year up to $399 an year

While the trackers itself are "open", as in everyone can get the peers via them, you need to add the hash first for it to function. So no, this isn't open tracker.

Re:slashvertisement

[drDugan]

Actually, this is not accurate, the trackers are open, and can be used without adding the hash to the website. Unfortunately, a completely open system is open to abuse, copyright infringement, and other issues.

To publish your own content, or content you have a license to distribute, membership is required to "whitelist" content, and prevent automatic removal by blacklisting. This is the solution we have come up with to minimize and prevent abuse.

Any logged in user can flag content as copyright infringing, here
http://www.legaltorrents.com/flag_content
and unless that hash value is in the whitelist (added by a member), the tracker will remove it in about 15 minutes.

Re:slashvertisement

[drDugan]

There are several steps to qualify for safe harbors, and we will follow each of them to the letter. We have not yet had to reply to any DMCA takedowns yet - all the content on the website must have a share-friendly license before content can be uploaded.

In such a situation, we will both defend the rights of our customers and provide them all the information possible to resolve the issue. I disagree the FAQ is slanted toward "IP-thieves". This does not represent the ethos of LegalTorrents.

Fred von Lohmann from the EFF provides an excellent .pdf review for service providers; there is a recently updated version here:
http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/niro_symposium_09/pdf/paper_cohn1.pdf
plus EFF has a wiki page with additional details: http://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Copyright:_Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

... why bother?

[Lead Butthead]

There's no benefit as whatever may be available on "their" side isn't as appealing anyhow. Wake up, give people what they want and you'll make money. Keep trying to force your business model on people, you'll go under.

Re:Still, it validates the technology

[MBCook]

I'd think the use of BitTorrent for things like World of Warcraft updates, for about 5 years, is more validation than someone hosting a pay-to-join tracker for legal content.

Aren't there already totally free trackers for legal content (like Linux ISOs, etc)?

Already done by the eMule project!

[Antiocheian]

The eMule Content Database has been doing that, very successfully and for many years. Legit content, that is.

And you need no tracker in eMule. As long as the file/collection is moderately popular, once a few people download it from you it will exist in the network for ever. I know as I have published service manuals there and I can still find them after 4 years...

Re:Still, it validates the technology

[nsayer]

It depends on where you live, but out here on the West (U.S.) Coast, the prevalent heating fuel is natural gas, which is used in the vast majority of forced air furnace and hot water heaters. They work with open flame. Unless you have an electric hot water heater (they do exist, but are phenomenally expensive to run, by comparison, according to my brother-in-law in Florida who has one), it's very likely that your hot water needs are met by fire.

If that's not enough, there's more: Your house likely has copper plumbing pipe in it. Which would have been sweated together with an open flame. You probably have neighbors who occasionally grill meat either over charcoal or natural gas. The list goes on and on.

In other words, it's unlikely that you can entirely escape the metaphor, and even if you can, all it does is demonstrate that you are an outlier.

Re:Who cares?

[icebraining]

Well, people actually do, but only if it's worth it:

Indepedent movie Nasty Old People:
  -> Financed by a bank loan
  -> Freely distributed via bittorrent at TPB
  -> Released October 10
  -> 16 day later (October 26), they had paid 25% of the loan, all with donations

http://nastyoldpeople.blogspot.com/

Re:Legal Torrents

[patrick_hx]

I'm wondering how "Profane MuthaFucka" is so insightful here.

Approved... how so? The point of this article is that for $20/year ($1.67/month) LegalTorrents will provide a reliable tracking service so YOU can host and publish anything you want with Bittorrent. For $45/year (less than $4/month !!) they will *HOST* 10GB of your content AND DISTRIBUTE it for you with no bandwidth charges.

This service is super cheap and available to anyone.