5 ms·

There is many search engine that use the DHT to retrieve the metadata and share torrent via the magnet. The main issue here is not the tech, it's the trust and

by maeln 3y ago

There is many search engine that use the DHT to retrieve the metadata and share torrent via the magnet. The main issue here is not the tech, it's the trust and discoverability/curating and also not spreading the seeding capabilities. When downloading from "reputable torrent tracker XYZ" you can trust the quality of the torrent, that it is virus free, etc ... It is also usually make searching for particular torrent easier (less like searching for a nail in a hay stack) and you avoid spreading the seeding potential to hundreds of similar torrents. As a extreme example, BakaBT (a private torrent for anime/manga related torrent) has a strict "no duplicate torrent" policy. This means that if you are searching for the OST of a specific show, you will have usually only one result and it's the most up-to-date, highest quality version. Since it is the only option, everyone seed this one. It really diminish the issue of abandoned torrents. To "replace" and existing torrent, you have to provide a strictly better version. A decentralized torrent search engine could not do that. The real value of torrent tracker are the community. That is also why decentralized software like eMule/eDonkey lost a lot of popularity to torrent tracker: Lots of duplication, very dodgy download, no curation, virus, ....

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
SergeAx 3y ago
> reputable torrent tracker I once visited RarBG with uBlock Origin turned off by accident. The intensity of the shitstorm of fake links, transparent GIFs on top of the content and other stuff like that was overwhelming. I believe that it is universally stupid to trust torrent sites with anything.
Solvency 3y ago
This makes sense but...I'm being fully serious and earnest here and revealing my own naïveté: Couldn't some form of blockchain work here? Like couldn't some form of distributed/democratized community curation and moderation happen by using the blockchain to manage the arbitration of new torrents (and their successors, like when the community decides New Random Anime X encoding to be a superior copy)? Plus you have proof of stake or whatever the leading mechanism is to help combat and filter out fakes/illegal activity (etc)? Then you'd have blockchain managing the trackers and torrents managing the file sharing.
- Xen9 3y ago
  Freenet works this way. I would replace all torrents with Freenet(s) but the technology seems to be too obscure to be comfortable for large audiences.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    It's also not capable of handling this kind of volume. IPFS might be a more modern alternative but it has similar issues. It's used for fairly small files such as books (libgen) but not really for movies. Edit: Or do you man the torrent files only? That might work but they really are just links, it might be a bit overkill for them.
  - BlueTemplar 3y ago
    Not just the technology, if Freenet is still like it was when I tried it years ago (?), the "front page" is full of sites clearly being for pedophiles and fascists. Kind of tends to put you off, you know ?
- nopcode 3y ago
  This happened in the dutch usenet piracy community. Downloading happened over usenet, but curation and discussion on a centralised website. The site got seized and the community moved to a new forum that runs on usenet itself. Blockchain is overkill here - don't need a coin or stake or whatever
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    > Downloading happened over usenet, but curation and discussion on a centralised website. The site got seized and the community moved to a new forum that runs on usenet itself. True, it worked really well for a while but lately it's been pretty terrible due to local copyright representatives suing major uploaders and others stopping because they just got old. Also the notice & takedown has really killed usenet a bit. Private trackers are hard to get into just like with torrents.
- 6510 3y ago
  It's therapeutic, people use whatever is available to them. Having a struggle at the edge allows people to do the busy work they bill for while not accomplishing anything meaningful. Technical folk will find new ways to keep their thing going. If to many websites are gone people will move to a new formula (new to them) The network of sharing software and movies is much older than the internet. Eventually you just purchase a preloaded data carrier from your local pot dealer. The drives are so large, the formula would go dramatically faster than BitTorrent. Shipping [say] 10 kg worth of data carriers is amazingly cheap. Looking at some random portable drive 10 kg box / 0.265 kg = 37 drives and 37 * 5 TB = 185 TB ? Something like 100 000 to 400 000 hours of film. Good for a maximum fine in "lost revenue" of $ 1 000 000 000 000 for the single box. There is a lengthy therapeutic treatment program between that stage and the torrent websites. Eventually some bean counter will discover crowd sourcing Police Academy 8 and people will just give them money provided they desire to see it. Star citizen raised over $569 million. On the most profitable movies list nr 191 is Fifty Shades of Grey with $569 million from a budget of 40 million. I can see the problem, with crowd sourcing it would be like normal work. That extra 500 million would be unlikely. They would have to make 10 movies.

by maeln 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

SergeAx 3y ago

> reputable torrent tracker I once visited RarBG with uBlock Origin turned off by accident. The intensity of the shitstorm of fake links, transparent GIFs on top of the content and other stuff like that was overwhelming. I believe that it is universally stupid to trust torrent sites with anything.

Solvency 3y ago

This makes sense but...I'm being fully serious and earnest here and revealing my own naïveté: Couldn't some form of blockchain work here? Like couldn't some form of distributed/democratized community curation and moderation happen by using the blockchain to manage the arbitration of new torrents (and their successors, like when the community decides New Random Anime X encoding to be a superior copy)? Plus you have proof of stake or whatever the leading mechanism is to help combat and filter out fakes/illegal activity (etc)? Then you'd have blockchain managing the trackers and torrents managing the file sharing.

Xen9 3y ago
Freenet works this way. I would replace all torrents with Freenet(s) but the technology seems to be too obscure to be comfortable for large audiences.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  It's also not capable of handling this kind of volume. IPFS might be a more modern alternative but it has similar issues. It's used for fairly small files such as books (libgen) but not really for movies. Edit: Or do you man the torrent files only? That might work but they really are just links, it might be a bit overkill for them.
- BlueTemplar 3y ago
  Not just the technology, if Freenet is still like it was when I tried it years ago (?), the "front page" is full of sites clearly being for pedophiles and fascists. Kind of tends to put you off, you know ?
nopcode 3y ago
This happened in the dutch usenet piracy community. Downloading happened over usenet, but curation and discussion on a centralised website. The site got seized and the community moved to a new forum that runs on usenet itself. Blockchain is overkill here - don't need a coin or stake or whatever
- wkat4242 3y ago
  > Downloading happened over usenet, but curation and discussion on a centralised website. The site got seized and the community moved to a new forum that runs on usenet itself. True, it worked really well for a while but lately it's been pretty terrible due to local copyright representatives suing major uploaders and others stopping because they just got old. Also the notice & takedown has really killed usenet a bit. Private trackers are hard to get into just like with torrents.
6510 3y ago
It's therapeutic, people use whatever is available to them. Having a struggle at the edge allows people to do the busy work they bill for while not accomplishing anything meaningful. Technical folk will find new ways to keep their thing going. If to many websites are gone people will move to a new formula (new to them) The network of sharing software and movies is much older than the internet. Eventually you just purchase a preloaded data carrier from your local pot dealer. The drives are so large, the formula would go dramatically faster than BitTorrent. Shipping [say] 10 kg worth of data carriers is amazingly cheap. Looking at some random portable drive 10 kg box / 0.265 kg = 37 drives and 37 * 5 TB = 185 TB ? Something like 100 000 to 400 000 hours of film. Good for a maximum fine in "lost revenue" of $ 1 000 000 000 000 for the single box. There is a lengthy therapeutic treatment program between that stage and the torrent websites. Eventually some bean counter will discover crowd sourcing Police Academy 8 and people will just give them money provided they desire to see it. Star citizen raised over $569 million. On the most profitable movies list nr 191 is Fifty Shades of Grey with $569 million from a budget of 40 million. I can see the problem, with crowd sourcing it would be like normal work. That extra 500 million would be unlikely. They would have to make 10 movies.