Will BitTorrent Sites Become Obsolete?
Written by Ernesto on May 31, 2008Researchers from several Universities are currently working on a search technology that could make BitTorrent sites obsolete. While the idea of a completely decentralized filesharing network is not new, there are some downsides that are often overlooked.
BitTorrent may be decentralized, but a large part of the BitTorrent community still relies on centralized websites and trackers. These trackers and torrent sites are considered to be the Achilles heel of the BitTorrent hydra.
At the moment, the top three BitTorrent sites host are handling the majority of all BitTorrent users, and even worse, The Pirate Bay tracks well over 50% of all public torrent files. BitTorrent has welcomed many new users over the past three years, and we are now in the uncomfortable situation where the downtime of one of the larger sites may cause problem for the others, simply because they can’t handle the traffic.
This is exactly what happened last month when Mininova was offline for a day due to a hardware problem. Mininova has well over three million visitors a day, these people went to other sites while Mininova was down, and this increase in traffic got some sites in serious trouble. The question is: Is there an alternative?
The answer to this question is yes and no. A solution to the tracker problem that works pretty well is DHT, or “trackerless torrents”. With DHT you can still connect to other people who are downloading the same file, even when the tracker for that torent is not working properly. Thanks to DHT, people were able to download torrents that were tracked by Demonoid.com, up to six months after the tracker went down. The downside of DHT (the mainline version) is that not all clients support it, and that it is maintained by one company, BitTorrent Inc.
Replacing BitTorrent sites is even more complex. How do you find torrents when there are no BitTorrent search engines that store them? A possible solution to this problem comes from researchers of Cornell University, who developed an Azureus plugin named Cubit. The Cubit plugin allows you to find torrents, and doesn’t require a centralized server as BitTorrent sites do. You basically search for torrent files among other peers, similar to Kazaa and Limewire. An interesting concept, but unfortunately, this also has a lot of downsides.
Cubit opens the gates for floods of spam, because it misses one key feature: moderation. Since BitTorrent has become so popular, anti-piracy organizations like MediaDefender and BayTSP are constantly uploading fake files, and scammers are uploading malware and spyware, often wrapped in fake media players.
To most people is goes unnoticed, but sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay have a dedicated team of moderators that remove hundreds of fake and scammy torrents a day. Together these moderators remove more than a thousand torrents per site, day in and day out. In addition, most BitTorrent sites also use IP-filters to prevent known scammers and anti-piracy outfits from uploading their content again.
So, for now, Cubit is not yet going to replace BitTorrent sites, as they need to address the lack of moderation first. Tribler, another application that is developing a BitTorrent site replacement that seems to be far ahead of Cubit, already implemented such moderation features and spam filtering. Branded as the “social” BitTorrent client, is also has community features that many people appreciate.
In sum, I think it is safe to conclude that BitTorrent as it is has some weak spots that could cause problems in the future. The Pirate Bay, Mininova and isoHunt - the top three BitTorrent sites - are all involved in a court case. Depending on the outcome of these cases, the need for alternative search technologies may become more apparent. For now, however, we need BitTorrent sites, and in particular their moderators.
Previously: OiNK Investigation: Police Start Making Arrests
Next: The Pirate Bay: Two Years After the Raid
72 Responses
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Mininova should have their own tracker.
I dont care about the tracker as much as technology that cant protect identities in a swarm. THAT is BT’s main problem not trackers.
Anyone that downloads alot and isnt a total nooblit isnt on TPB or other public sites anyways.
Interesting concepts, always appreciate new ideas.
Is this some sort of fore-warning, “cushion” article? Are you getting bad news from one of the top sites?
In before the “Thats why you use private trackers!” comment.
How often are they going to reinvent Gnutella instead of improving it?
Was this written for a school assignment or something?
I can see MediaDefender rubbing their hands together with glee already. ;D
Somebody resuscitate eXeem.
…
#1, agreed, but that’d threaten their business model now, wouldn’t it? :p
#4, I’d say it’s probably wise to look further than your nose if you have an interest in survival.
I don’t wish to be a doomsayer but, based on recent history (napster-present), the trend has shown that it’s not so much a matter of if, but when, the systems will be forced to shut down. It’s all just a technological arms race, IMO. The game will be over if developers ever stop developing (disobedient systems).
We need to do more to teach children that file-sharers are doing nothing wrong. The RIAA etc. are getting too much influence, that they are able to carry out a campaign in schools across the U.S. that file-sharers are criminals. We need to do something about this.
BT IS FUN!
@11
Agreed.
It is completely disturbing how there is only one popular news blog/website like this.
I’m all for innovation, but I think it’d be even better for the laws to change, not P2P.
a wise man once said, a law in which the people to not agree with should be abolished, as it is a government voted in by the people for he people
Indeed, we need to start a campaign to change the laws.
‫‬â€â€®â€ªâ€«â€¬â€â€® Ò‰
Nothing wrong with BT
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What is really wrong is the DMCA. This law needs to be repealed, and we should also add an exemption from copyright for non-commercial activity.
Realistically true anonymity just isn’t going to happen, and it probably isn’t what we should go after anyway. IMO better to take the risk, and try to honestly normalize piracy, never mind the appearance real anonymity would have for legitmat use.
Honestly I see the solution to replacing the sites being something something along the lines of cubit, with auto updating blocklists sent to peers. Ideally it should be an open standard to alow true standarization as well; as things stand Cubit only works on one client, and tribler is its own client, neither of which will get the kind of adoption rates the BT stnadard itself found.
simple
its called usenet
its been there since the beggining of the interwebs
@20
Or how about change the laws.
Simple
Changing the laws may be a difficult thing, but it is more worth it in the end.
15 Jun 01, 2008 at 03:13 by wise man
“a wise man once said, a law in which the people to not agree with should be abolished, as it is a government voted in by the people for [t]he people”
All laws should be voted on by the public, but those in office feel that the public can’t be relied on to decide such important matters, and therefore appoint an elite group of their peers to do it. These decide what’s in the best interests of all from their point of view and from tradition, but which have no valid basis such as the Bible, which they use for swearing oaths by.
They make sure that any laws will not adversely affect the wealthy, and they often favour them. If not, they are designed to be so ambiguous and incomprehensible that the presiding judge must go to great pains to translate and decipher according to what he believes is the intent.
For example, in a case I know of, a judge deliberated over many days on the meaning and intent of the term “acceptable risk”, as when does a risk become acceptable, and who is to decide? He felt that any risk could never be acceptable.
‘Acceptable’ conveys a positive or good connotation, so we might say “a good risk”, which has the opposite meaning to what is intended. So here we are with the highly intelligent steel trap brain squirming uncomfortably, trying to come to terms with just one 2-word term in his own law book.
In case legislations like ACTA are implemented and enforced, it’d sure spell trouble for BT sites having an effect on all torrent sites and trackers depending upon their location and within whose jurisdiction they fall.
But in the end there are still other ways to circumvent such legislations, the important part is that we should start to ready ourselves for when that happens.
It is more important to campaign against and repeal legislation than to get around them. The point is that the legislation sends a symbolic message that such activity is “illegal and therefore something one should not do.”
@23
The fact is that the judges also look at LAWS. If it were legal, then there would be no trouble, period. But also, there would be no social trouble, because reputation is also based on legality. Reputation and public respect is just as important. Both are impossible when activities are illegal.
Legislators favor the opinion of those that voted them in. They vote according to how they will get votes on their re-election campaign. If people care enough, the legislators will surely go against copyright as it is, or they will be voted out.
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