Opentracker is a lightweight BitTorrent tracker which uses minimal resources. The software does not store any data or log any IP-addresses, supports UDP-tracking and is more stable and efficient than most other tracker software. Last year, The Pirate Bay started using the software, which allowed them to handle more users with the same hardware.

As with most software, Opentracker comes with a license, although it is an unusual one. The software is published under a Beerware license, meaning that if a satisfied user should ever run into the developer, he or she owes the developer a beer. This is exactly what the German Pirate Party did, as the party is actively using BitTorrent.

As a token of appreciation for all his efforts, the party donated 50 litres of Augustiner, a German wheat beer, to Opentracker developer Dirk Engling (aka “Erdgeist”). “Pirates, P2P and especially BitTorrent is part of a new culture. Users decide on their own what kind of information they want to get, instead of simply sitting in front of the TV,” the German Pirate Party writes on their blog, as they thank the Opentracker folks for all their hard work.

The beer is well deserved of course, and it came as no surprise that Erdgeist promised to share it with the other congress goers.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Of equal annoyance, is a new torrent which the user knows is well seeded, yet for one reason or another it is impossible to connect to the tracker in order to complete the download. Maybe the tracker has gone down or is simply too busy to accept the connection – either way, the download isn’t getting very far without it.

The good news is that with a little perseverance it’s possible to resurrect a seemingly moribund torrent. The key to bringing the torrent back to life is the hope that an identical release is available on another tracker, and in that swarm there are people that have enough data to complete the download. But how is it possible to find the same release on other trackers?

There are manual solutions involving Google, but quick and easy is my preferred method and btReAnnouncer offers just that. The site is really easy to use, so, although it is well seeded, here is a walk-through to find more trackers tracking Michael Moore’s ‘Official’ ‘Slacker Uprising’ torrent – the same technique can be used for any release, especially ones with tracker or seeding issues.

First of all I downloaded the .torrent file from The Pirate Bay onto my PC and uploaded it to btReAnnouncer. Within a few seconds the site displayed the current primary tracker – http://tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce. However, it also displayed a list of 17 other tracker URLs identified as tracking the same torrent – any one or combination of which could help you to complete a stubborn download. Note that it doesn’t make sense to add more than one tracker from the same url (e.g. thepiratebay.org) because they often track the same peers.

At this stage it is possible to select a new primary tracker for the torrent by ticking the checkbox and pushing the ‘ReAnnounce’ button. Then check any of the other trackers in the list to be used as an alternative and click ‘ReAnnounce’ again. To finish up and start downloading the .torrent, download it by clicking on the hyperlinked text underneath ‘Download ReAnnounced Torrent…’ and import it into your favorite client, not forgetting to point it at your previously incomplete download.

btReAnnouncer can also be used to find public sources for otherwise private torrents, just don’t forget to remove any passkeys etc from the announce URL in the torrent. If your BitTorrent client doesn’t allow you to edit or add trackers manually, this can be achieved by using another online service, TorrentEditor.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Yes, all those nay-sayers and early fans that have populated the comment sections of our previous stories on Gazelle can finally prove the exploits and bad coding that they’ve been claiming, as the first public release candidate of the script is now available for download.

Reactions from those that have given the site a try, have been mostly positive. The main negative comments stem from the fact it’s not an intuitive install. Part of that comes from the memory caching software , memcached , which gives the project its ‘blazing speed’. Also, right now the system uses XBTT as a tracker, but we’re told that it will have its own (multithreaded) tracker ready for later versions, codenamed ‘Ocelot’.

Also, as things stand, while they hoped for around a doubling of capacity over the older TBsource script, in practice it’s become more like double that, meaning a 10,000 user site under TBSource can probably handle 40,000 without any major difference in site response or system load. Project head WhatMan told TorrentFreak: “We out-shot our initial projections by a very wide margin.”

Interest in Project Gazelle has been fairly strong, and at least half a dozen sites are now running the new script. Perhaps more interestingly, though, is that Gazelle isn’t JUST a torrent site. Due to its modular nature, it can be used for regular sites as well. It’s a bit like a content management system in that respect, and perhaps our earlier comparison to Diferior wasn’t all that far from the mark.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on the Gazelle code, then just head over to the project site and follow the instructions. The whole kit-and-caboodle is released under a modified version of the GPL, so have fun.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“Lately we received more complaints from anti-piracy organizations on behalf of major companies, because some of our members post our torrents on your indexer. I take the freedom of you ask whether it is possible to remove all torrents related to my tracker, and not to accept new ones in the future.”

The administrator had already asked the members of his tracker not to post their torrents elsewhere, but this didn’t work out, as he writes: “We already put announcements on the tracker, but our +120,000 are not very co-operative.”

Most BitTorrent sites owners are more than familiar with handling takedown requests, however, these usually come from copyright holders or anti-piracy organizations, not fellow site admins.

Other than that, it is of course impossible to prevent torrents from being shared, since it is the whole purpose of filesharing. The only option to prevent people from spreading ELiTE-TEAM torrents is to take down the tracker.

ELiTE-TEAM, on the other hand, is simply trying to stay out the firing range of anti-piracy organization by showing that they are willing to cooperate with content owners. They even posted the takedown requests and removal logs on their disclaimer page. However, I doubt that sending takedown request to torrent indexers is the optimal solution.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Adding new servers is not the only reason for the move of course. The new datacenter has better routers which handle their requirements better. It allows TPB to install better protection against DDoS attacks and nullrouting the spam-nets from anti-piracy organizations.

However, a complete overhaul of the current tracker system is needed to ensure the future effectiveness of the tracker and to ensure protection against spammers and fake torrents. According to the tracker design page, this new tracker will be capable of blocking and/or logging known p2p vandals such as MediaDefender, BayTSP, MediaSentry and EZ2net. The new tracker will ensure the privacy of its users and is designed to be as efficient as possible, meaning more peers with less bandwidth.

TiAMO, one of the developers of the new tracker system told TorrentFreak that they are still looking for skilled coders who want to join the Open Source project and help the BitTorrent community. If you think you are the guy, let him know. The current source code can be downloaded over here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“CLOSED BY JUDICIAL ORDER”

According to the Police, todotorrente.com was responsible for more than 500,000 € in losses to copyright holders, while the site itself made more than 30,000 € in profits. Numbers that can’t be backed up by any evidence of course, but we’re used to that.

Todotorrente.com was not the only site affected by the raids. In addition, the police took down trackertdt.com, a sister site of todotorrente.com. Gamesfive.net, another sister site, now redirects to blackdivx.org.

This is not the first time that Spanish authorities take action against BitTorrent sites. Last year, 15 administrators of BitTorrent and eDonkey sites were arrested, in the largest P2P raid in Spanish history. Most of the sites that were shut down last year (17 in total) remain unavailable up until today, however, pctorrent.com now redirects to newpct.com, one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Spain.

A bittersweet week for Spanish pirates.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In a response to the BitTorrent protocol encryption that is now supported by many BitTorrent clients, companies like Ipoque that provide bandwidth management hardware, claim that they found a way to detect and block these encrypted (obfuscated) transfers. Ipoque doesn’t provide any details on how they are able to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic, and it is doubtful whether they can be sure that the traffic they block is indeed generated by BitTorrent.

In addition to the ability to throttle encrypted BitTorrent transfers, Ipoque’s bandwidth managing devices now also support the use of BitTorrent tracker whitelists. “Desired legal trackers such as tracker.opensuse.org can be registered in a whitelist so that their BitTorrent traffic is accepted. All other BitTorrent traffic can be blocked.”, says Ipoque in a press release.

Lately, more and more companies claim that they have found a way to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic. The fact is however that none of these companies actually provides data on the effectiveness of these systems. Until they open up their methods I seriously doubt the effectiveness of these devices.

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, Canadian ISP Rogers even decided to throttle all encrypted traffic (not only BitTorrent). Apparently Rogers doesn’t need a device that is able to detect encrypted BitTorrent traffic on their network, they simply throttle everyone who is using encrypted transfers.

The cat-and-mouse game continues.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.