ImageShack Starts Free BitTorrent Download Service
Written by Ernesto on April 05, 2008The popular media hosting website ImageShack just launched a new service that lets you download torrent files onto their servers. When the download is complete, you can download the files from ImageShack via an http link.
ImageShack’s torrent download service is still in Beta, but it works just fine. The only thing you need to do is point ImageShack to the torrent file and press start. The download will start immediately, and once it’s finished you can download the files via http onto your computer.
Services like this are not new, but up until now I haven’t seen one that doesn’t charge money. There are some limitations though. Per month you can download a maximum of 15GB to your computer, and the storage on ImageShack’s servers is also limited to 15GB.
Jack Levin, the founder of ImageShack told TorrentFreak: “We think its going to be a great service for users, especially in the light of ISPs ratelimiting torrent traffic.There is a lot of free and legal torrents out there, that people should have easy access too
to. We have the capacity to do it, and the world needs it.”
For those people who are concerned about the anonymity of the service (or think it’s a honeypot), Levin said: “We will not look at what you download and simply provide you, an account, with bandwidth and space. What you do with it is up to you. The DMCA applies, so, if we get reports from copyright owners to take down content, we will comply.”
The service comes with some great features. It supports selective downloading, which means that you can deselect files from the torrent if you don’t want to download them all. This can be quite useful if you only need one album from a complete discography for example.
ImageShack also provides some basic details about the progress of the downloads. Under the “status” link they list information about the download progress, connected seeds and leechers, share ratio and more.
The status reports are not yet working perfectly, as it keeps reporting that a torrent has stopped, while it was downloading just fine. However, the torrents I have tested were downloaded very fast, and I had no problem downloading the files from ImageShack onto my computer.
A more serious point of critique is that the torrent seems to disconnect as soon as the download has finished. This basically means that you will be sharing less than you should. I hope that ImageShack will add a sharing friendly feature in the future, and will at least continue seeding until the share ratio is 100%.
Levin told us, however, that there are no plans to include such a feature. They will offer (paid) premium accounts, but this will be only for bandwidth and storage upgrades.
Overall I must say that Imageshack’s new torrent download service looks very promising, especially for a free service. Decide for yourself, we think it’s worth a try.
This article was updated to include Jack Levin’s answers
Previously: Lawyer Who Threatened File-Sharers is Banned For 6 months
Next: BitTorrent Tracker Sends Takedown Request to Torrent Indexers
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dammit, i’m the only one who’s getting a fuckin’ slow http download from imageshack? (15 kB/s!!!)
NOTICE:
April 06, 2008 - Our private Beta is closed to new users, please come back later.
^Bollocks on that.
I have a question: If I did this on a college network, would it work, ip wise etc? I don’t want music; I can get music from blogs. I’m more interested in tv, programs from HBO and such from eztv et al (I don’t want to pay for commercial television.) I know tv downloading is a lot foggier legal-wise than music downloading, so I might be interested in this (once it opens up again).
It seems like this would be good for people on networks where p2p is banned, like workplaces, colleges, etc.
Yeah, new Sandvine/Ellacoya/P-Cube policy for Imageshack ranges. :P
RCJ : normally it will work unless they block imageshark and I don’t think that’s gonna happen :)
NOTICE:
April 06, 2008 - Our private Beta is closed to new users, please come back later.
lol
Completely pointless. Legal content is almost always hosted and if not, has a large seedbase. Speed is usualy not an issue on legal torrents. As this service is incapable of seeding on the bittorrent network, it is even more poinless as that is the onlt real advantage people would get from using it, to account for poor upload bandwith or the inability to seed due to constraints placed by their ISP. So its pointless for downloading, its useless for uploading, what else are you going to use it for? If you only want to share the odd thing with your friends, get a free hotmail account and 5gb space on skydrive, then rar and password your illegal shit and let msn host it for you.
@108: Sorry for the misunderstanding.
IIRC, if you’re using Bluetack’s
blocklist (or the Azureus SafePeer
plugin), Performance Systems IP
addresses are already blocked. I think
those may include Imageshack.
“ImageShack Starts Free BitTorrent Download Service
Written by Ernesto on April 05, 2008″
“NOTICE!
April 5th, 2008 - Due to an unexpected rise in usage this weekend, we’re in the process of adding more capacity.”
Says it all!!!!
@133, aye, because there’s only about 300 IPs they haven’t actually blocked yet. ;)
Did any of you even bother to read #75?
Try reading before acting. Or are you all talk and no action?
If Imageshack was going to allow “illegal” torrents to be stored on its server, I shouldn’t think it would be long before all the usual ISPs started throttling (or banning) downloads from Imageshack. They may have spotted a gap in the market, but I can’t see how it will lead to many happy customers.
We’re all gonna end up paying for large downloads some way or other.
“A more serious point of critique is that the torrent seems to disconnect as soon as the download has finished.”
ImageShack = Leech Client.
Fuck them.
Using this “service” is contrary to the sharing ethic of p2p, to say nothing of all that DMCA bullshit.
Fuck them in their assholes.
Ackbar knows what time it is.
I want more than 15GB pls.
Beta is now closed…
Not accepting new users
Come to my parlor said the spider to the fly.
And like the fly, 90% of you are walking right into a trap set up by Jackshit himself.
Hey morons using this service, how many of you are seeding to it?
Makes you an “uploader” you know. And good old Jack is collecting all your info. IP’s and all.
Bah, not usefull since you can’t download copyrighted content.
burn nigger burn
sounds like crap to me imageshacks servers are so slow. It would take longer to download it from them once you wait to torrent it than just torrenting it.
[quote comment="334284"]sounds like crap to me imageshacks servers are so slow. It would take longer to download it from them once you wait to torrent it than just torrenting it.[/quote]
You’re right! imageshack servers are so slow…
[quote comment="333399"]you’re an utter fool if you think Imageshack won’t happily turn over your IPs once their friends in authority apply some “gentle persuasion”.
and if you do think giving your details to a bunch of shady bastards like imageshack is a good idea, then i’ve got $20 million dollars a nigerian prince wants to rest in your bank account - just send me your details to halfwit@gullible.com[/quote]
i tried,but it didnt work. so can i just post my personal info here on TF instead ? pls ?
i really want niger-ria prince resting in my acc.
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