Trading BitTorrent Tracker Invites – Commodity or Curse?
Written by Ben Jones on January 15, 2008In recent months, many private trackers have moved to an invite-based system in an attempt to try and weed out so-called ‘bad peers’. They do this through a chain of trust. Many users, though, are attempting to use invites for their own profit, putting themselves and others into the firing line.
When private torrent sites first started, they were little known, and small. To join, you had to know about the site, and if you were lucky enough to find a slot you could join (most sites were small, with 10,000 members max). Most private sites were (and are) perceived as exclusive communities. Members who do get in often share more, not only because it is required, but also because they want to be a good member of the community.
As time went on, torrents became more popular and the membership of private BitTorrent trackers increased. Part of it was speed – such sites tend to have better ratios of seeds to peers. Other factors are the absence of garbage and the fact that duplicates are kept to a minimum. However, such factors made them also prime targets for the anti-piracy groups. After the joint ICE and FBI raids against the US-based BitTorrent tracker, EliteTorrents, in 2005, even though it became clear that such investigators were members of such sites, invites became popular.
The theory behind invite-sharing is simple: Someone you know, who happens to be a member of a site invites you to join. You are known to them, and it should restrict the ability of people with bad intentions to join. “good members” invite their friends, who become good members, and are likely to be ’safe peers’. In time, these new members would get/earn invites of their own, and they invite people they trust.
The problem is, many of these sites have members that promote their favorite site as ‘the best’, ‘the fastest’, ‘the safest’, or some other praise. Best is subjective, fastest often depends on luck and timing as much as anything else, and I discussed safety almost a year ago. Regardless of the truth of these statements, many sites have a cult following, and demand for invites to private trackers skyrocketed. People started to beg and plead for invites, and to trade them, or even worse, sell them. This is where things get problematic.
The invite system was based on a chain of trust. Yet now, a lot of people trade invites with strangers. They often know nothing about the other except that they’re a member of one site wanting another’s invite, and their email address. The chain of trust is often broken on large trackers, and the entire system is circumvented. Some consider this to be a problem, others believe it doesn’t really matter in most cases, because most people who do get in have to obey the rules anyhow.
There are some negative side effects of the scarcity of invites. Some users have started selling invites on ebay (such as for what.cd or waffles.fm), and trading sites have also popped up, some of which are attempting to profit from invites.
Of course, the final word comes from the admins of the private torrent sites themselves. Every one TorrentFreak spoke to reiterated that if you are found to have sold invites, your account will be deleted, as will the invited account. Still, people will be greedy, and try to profit from their invites. The most important message seems to be, sharing invites is a good thing, but watch out who you’re sharing with.
What do you think?
Previously: MediaDefender Hacker Speaks Out
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76 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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Just a comment, when you say “There are some negative side effects of the scarcity of invites. Some people have started selling invites on ebay (such as for what.cd or waffles.fm)” it sounds like you are insinuating that the staff of what and waffles are selling the invites, not the users. Which is not the case, so that should be cleared up before the IFPI think they can get another site down….
2
Hate invite people who I think I can trust and then they cheat. Ban all cheaters!
In all fairness, when you give someone access to something super-exclusive and they’ve never had that before it’s to be expected that they’d abuse it.
http://paidandpopular.com
[quote comment="264073"]Just a comment, when you say “There are some negative side effects of the scarcity of invites. Some people have started selling invites on ebay (such as for what.cd or waffles.fm)” it sounds like you are insinuating that the staff of what and waffles are selling the invites, not the users. Which is not the case, so that should be cleared up before the IFPI think they can get another site down….[/quote]
Changed people to users, should be clear now ;)
Invites are a good idea but I Totally agree that they shouldn’t be sold and should be gained through a trusted friend!
As much as all this makes sense, it would be stupid to think investigators couldn’t find a way in.. i mean really.. this is the internet.
So really, this means nothing. People need to stop thinking there is a safe haven, your only safety is that you will be hidden in the huge sea of peers around you. Join private sites for the benefits, not the safety.
Here’s an idea for improving the security and quality of users. This applies to sites with user-supplied (i.e., mainly not scene) content, the way OiNK was.
When a new user is invited and signs up, give only limited access to the site. The rules, FAQ, PMs to/from their inviter and staff only, the upload form, and a limited search page that only displays a list without details or the torrents themselves (for avoiding uploading dupes).
The new user has a limited time to upload two good torrents, which are only shown to mods and the user’s inviter, not to the whole site. Once both torrents are verified by a mod as good, they go live on the site, and the user gets full access.
Yeah thats how you loose all your users with silly hoops like that.
Invites are the worst thing to happen to internet file sharing. Some people don’t seed, some people over seed. It evens out if were all sensible, good natured pirates.
i can haz torrentfreak invite pleez?
XD
I remember that message on Demonoid (RIP), that if the invite for newcomer was sold, they will return him money. Actually, I can’t imagine selling out invites on waffles, because they open sporadically, very inconvenient for cheaters. Buyer can wait for ages, even considering himself scammed.
I like invitation-based sites in theory, but it sucks when you’re on the outside looking in with no connections. I have a positive ratio on every torrent site I’ve ever been a member of.. but I don’t know people so I’ll never be invited anywhere.
#13, Find some IRC channels to lurk in, spend a bit of time in them and you may get offered an invite. Don’t ask though, most channels dont like that.
I don’t think invites are the answer to recent security concerns. I think we need to go in the other direction and try to create more anonymity.
What a lame article. You said nothing new.
I think invites tend to be counterproductive.
Global as the internet is, personal contacts concerning p2p are rare. Most contacts with persons sharing the interest in p2p are taking place online and they are anonymous contacts from forums, irc or similar. So invites are either mostly given to strangers (hoping they are the good guys) or not given at all (probably more often!).
Therefor invites help to keep user communities closed, but they first of all keep out good and fair normal users as well!
That might be hailed by some l33t wannabies that in return tend to fervently glorify their small little world and pride themselves on beeing insiders where others can’t get in -
but I think this will in fact damage and shatter the p2p world on the long run.
Trackers that promote a closed clique and are eager to keep exclusive material they want to withhold from others are deeply going against the idea of (file-)sharing and free flow and access to information an digital content.
The best policy for tracker sites in my opinion would be to provide scarse but regular (and announced) opportunities to join the crowd and to enforce a rigid ratio policy that purges cheaters quickly.
Breeding snobby groups of self-centered bootlickers might be the aim (and sought pay-off for their work?) for some tracker-admins, but it definetly keeps the more normal and open minded people (declined access) out as well - and that serves no one on the long run.
I really miss demonoid! ;)
And I’m definetly not willing to spend hours and weeks kissing asses, looking for invites and trying to join groups of people, whoes first interest is to keep others out just to feel more l33t and foster their snobbyness …
Then bittorent can die!
@ 17 - Hear hear.
Fuck closed trackers. That is all.
[quote comment="264171"]What a lame article. You said nothing new.[/quote]
Hey man, if you don’t like the article, GO ELSEWHERE, start your own news-blog and write what you want to write.
Quit complaining.
I think someone should send me an invite. I had a 5.0 ratio on demonoid. I haven’t joined another site since due to the fact I CANT GET IN. I upload all day and all night night. I only do it because In demonoid it made me proud to have a high ratio among my friends and other members of the community. Now i just hit and run everything due to the fact my uploading counts toward nothing and can get me caught.
geeky4life1 [at] gmail (dot) com
[quote comment="264222"]Fuck closed trackers. That is all.[/quote]
Go the thepiratebay then.
The only reason that we have private trackers is that:
a) All users have an account there; if they’re bad, they’re banned.
b) It’s a better community when you can actually contact the person
c) Public sites have so many hit and runners. Only private sites, that isn’t an issue. I have never seen a private site have people with bad ratios. All the users appreciate the site, so they seed for as long as possible, which results in better speeds for everyone.
So go back to Mexico, Quesadilla. :)
Yes that maybe true but as mentioned above I have a good upload ratio too and cant get in. That’s pretty lame right? The point is that private sites are good for the upload ratio but people who want share too have to beg to be a part of it.
All my friends use bittorrent but none of them is already invited to whaffles or what.cd and I dont want to ask someone else for an invite.
I dislike thepiratebay too for there dead torrents altghough they are great for standing up for leechers and have a fantastic view of how everything should, I give them al the credit for that. Still that doesn’t mean I don’t miss Demonoid they everything to share I ever dreamed of. Nowadays I don’t seem to find what I am looking for. This is making me feel more and more depressed. Ofcourse I buy cd’s sometimes but that’s only when I have listened an album over and over again. That wouldn’t have happened if I couldn’t downloaded it first. That the authorities are trying to make a criminal out of me is making me angry, they should protect the people who voted for them against the big companies, not vice versa. How about that for making terrorists out of anyone? Damm I wish I could tell a coherent story.
Happy sharing. Cheers
No matter what you might think or say, there is no excuse for not seeding at least 1:1. If you can download that amount, you can upload that amount and be fair!!
Commodity or Curse?
curse like a motherfucker
mpaa gets on the site, starts logging ips of all the new movies.xvid torrents, and tons of people in the US (including me) are fucked. Hell even if they only sent letters to uni accounts they would still be a ton of fuxored people.
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