For example, the mother of all search engines has a special search command that allows you to find torrent files scattered across the Internet.

Google’s custom search also allows everyone to create their own torrent search engine, and Google’s App Engine enables users to start a free torrent search engine for free by using Google’s servers.

It is quite clear that there are several ways to find torrents through Google. However, just finding torrents is not enough. In order to download content through BitTorrent successfully, one also needs a working tracker in order to locate those all-important peers. Luckily Google can help here too.

By using Google’s App Engine, everyone can run a tracker without having to invest a single dime in hardware or bandwidth. The only problem is making the tracker compatible with the App Engine, but thanks to the newly released Atrack software it is a piece of cake to set one up.

The Atrack Bittorrent tracker is designed to run on Google App Engine and its main goals are a minimal memory use, speed, low bandwidth usage and efficient CPU use. On top of this the tracker wont store any data at all, making it as secure as possible for its users.

“Atrack also aims to respect your privacy: other than what is needed for the most basic tracking, Atrack gathers no information whatsoever. Beyond that no aggregate statistics are kept of anything, and nothing is stored permanently anywhere, not even hashes and ip/ports,” the Atrack team writes.

So now everyone can set up a standalone BitTorrent tracker at no cost aside from the the time it takes to set things up. The Atrack software is released into the public domain, and a test tracker is up and running on Google’s App Engine.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

There are thousands of open BitTorrent trackers on the Internet, and most of these don’t actually host all the files on their website. However, since they are open, anyone can add the tracker to their torrent file. The tracker owner has no knowledge of the files being spread via his or her tracker. Recently the popular Internet TV network Revision3 was attacked by MediaDefender because they were running an open tracker, and they are not alone.

This week, ‘Open Source Torrents‘ had to deal with some remarkable consequences of hosting an open BitTorrent tracker. The tracker, dedicated to sharing Open Source Software through BitTorrent, was taken offline because it allegedly infringed the copyright of the game ‘Command&Conquer Red Alert 3′. There was never a .torrent file for this material stored on the server though, only hashes of data.

The webhost, Liandra Tech, took the tracker offline after it received a copyright infringement notice from ESA. “We have to terminate your webhosting account with us, due to complaint about copyright material infringement on ostorr.org,” they wrote to the founder of the site, as they forwarded the email they got from ESA.

Akash, the founder of the tracker was very surprised by the decision of his webhosting company, to shut down his site without even consulting him first. “These folks shut me down for “Command and Conquer” supposedly going through my tracker. I’ve never even played the game,” Akash told TorrentFreak. “We did host some actual files, but only mirrors of the open source software we track, which is definitely perfectly legal.”

Although OStorr.org is a relatively small tracker, it has helped to spread more than 50,000 copies of The Open CD, and thousands of copies of other free and Open Source software. So, the only torrent files listed on his website were of Open Source website. The tracker was also open to anyone else, like many others, but Akash has no way of telling what files are tracked.

Akash is forced to find a more understanding host now, but he assured us that the tracker will return. “Open source software is about as legal as it gets. Apparently not. Time to find a new host,” he said.

Update: Looks like the webhost made the right decision after all, Akash just wrote us: “After a lengthy apology from Liandra due to a misunderstanding that I had uploaded the C&C torrent (I’m told C&C is actually a pretty dodgy game…), I’ve been offered three months of free hosting. The site’s up and running and I’m going to block all non-authorised torrents.”

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

This turned out to be a false sense of security though, as the sysop explained. “Two days ago we discovered that an external disk was suddenly mounted on our box (in a quite clumsy way, I might add) 24/7 support didn’t know shit about it, until 2 hours ago when a senior admin confirmed that this disk was attached by their legal department and out of their hands.”

The sysop discovered that there was something wrong, because the server load was extremely high. At first, the support department couldn’t really figure out what was wrong, but after a few messages back and forth, they got this worrying explanation.

Hi,

After investigation on your server, we found that your server is involve with an abuse case on copyright/torrent. Your server was accessed by our local legal party for investigation. This is a sudden action by them, and we not informed earlier. Due to legal party we have no choice but to comply. Kindly contact to our abuse department for further information. Thank you.

Paul C.
Level 2 Support

So, it turns out that – without notification – Shinjiru started to copy data from the BitTorrent tracker for investigation, whatever that may be. It is unsure at this point whether the ISP will hand over the data to authorities, and whether they are doing it with other trackers, but it’s not looking good.

“This is important to get out as they are most probably doing this to every site they know about, and users are being recorded,” the sysop said. “We have destroyed the data on their USB connected disk, destroyed our site backups on it and truncated and deleted all tables, to ensure the protection of our users. As I have stated it was done with out warning nor consent.”

It looks like Shinjiru might have been pressured by the Malaysian government again. However, even then it is still a strange move to copy data from one of their clients, without notice. The sites that are still hosted there need to be aware of this, and take appropriate action. To be continued.

update: Shinjiru confirmed to TorrentFreak that there was indeed an external drive connected to the server, and that “authority on copyright infringement” attempted to copy the data.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.