New Auto-Seeding Torrent Server Released

ludwigvan968 writes "The University of Texas New Media Initiative in association with Google's Summer of Code program have been working on a project to make sharing files over the internet easier than ever before. Summer of Code intern Evan Wilson just released Project Snakebite, the first fully automatic BitTorrent server. Just as with a normal webserver, you drop files in a folder to share them. Snakebite takes care of generating torrent files and running a tracker and a seeder for each file. Additionally, it builds a user-customizable link page with all of your files. It will even register your Snakebite server with an easy to remember URL for people that can't remember their IP. Snakebite is free and open software and is currently released for Debian. It's fully portable to both Windows and OS X and the developers just need some help packaging it."

OK, but is it anonymous?

Sharing files is almost a capitcal crime in the U.S.A.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

You can have my warez when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Actually, Guantanamo is soooo passé these days in the intelligence world. It's the detention facility for TOURISTS. There are dozens of much better, more secretive facilities to send them to now where the New York Times and Supreme Court will never find them. Only poseur intelligence agencies still disappear their detainees to Guantanamo.

-Eric

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

BitTorrent as a basic client will never be truely anonymous by virtue of the technology involved. Only by using private VPNs (like The pirate party one [relakks.com] or by using additional software higher up the network stack like Tor [eff.org] can basic anonymity be enabled.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Only by using private VPNs . . . or by using additional software higher up the network stack like Tor can basic anonymity be enabled.

Or lower down the network stack if you are not standing on your head

Actually, since VPNs are in the Network layer (packet-level) and Tor falls somewhere between the Session and Presentation layers (stream-level), Tor is higher in the stack than VPNs:

• Application Layer (top) [HTTP, FTP, Telnet]
• Presentation Layer [SSL, TLS]
• Session Layer [TCP]
• Transport Layer [TCP, UDP]
• Network Layer [IP, ICMP, IPsec]
• Data Link Layer [Ethernet, 802.11, PPP]
• Physical Layer (bottom) [10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 802.11b/g, DSL]

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Actually, enabling people to easily share their own torrents could help promote legitimate use of BT.

I've been personally involved in several situations where large, legal files needed to be distributed among a small group of people--unfortunately several didn't have the know-how to set up a tracker, and others simply didn't have the time to figure it out. A tool like this could enable every one of us to start it up on our own.

The one thing that I think it needs to also have is at least minimal security against discoverability--a password on the torrent listing page, for example. Would also be cool if you could control who was using the server, but I gather BT isn't too well-adapted to that requirement? Not sure.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Illegally doing anything is illegal. If it's not illegal, and you do it, you're not illegally doing it. Duh.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Actually, obtaining files that are copyrighted isn't a crime anywhere (that I know of) even the US. It's reproducing (ie: uploading) that's illegal, not the downloading.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

The person who owns the original media is the one whose generating the copy. The downloader is receiving it. An analagous situation: a guy is selling ripped-off copies of DVDs from a market store. Someone buys a copy. It's the seller (the distributor, the one who reproduced it) that gets busted, not the buyer.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Who are you? Me?

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

So the MPAA/RIAA are only going after file sharing people? Not leeches.

Yep

So you would be totally safe if you only download stuff and never upload?
I think you have to assume they could know everything you do online.

It's easy to find the distributors - their IP has to be advertised in order for them to distribute stuff. It's harder to find just the leechers. Of course, in a swarming application like BitTorrent, everyone is an uploader as well as a downloader, so it's easy to get peer IPs once you connect to the swarm.

However, I believe it's currently only illegal to upload - after all, you can hardly be charged distributing X-Men 3 if you never actually had a copy of X-Men 3. Copyright is a prohibition against distributing, not copying - it was originally setup for the protection of publishing houses, so that if they bought the rights to a novel, a rival publishing house couldn't just run off it's own copies without the expense of buying the rights. In those days, publishing was a large and expensive business, and it wasn't really conceivable that the laws be used against individuals; individuals had no way practical ways to publish. In the mdoern era, however, individual publishing has become dead easy.

Copyright does include copying

Copyright is a prohibition against distributing, not copying

In the US, copyright is a limited monopoly over reproduction, distribution, public performance, public display, and the preparation of derivative works (17 USC 106). Reproduction is controlled for the same reason you claim it isn't: when it was inefficient and expensive, personal copying was virtually unthinkable.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Yeah, it breaks down like this: okay, it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it and, if you're the proprietor of a music or video store, it's legal to sell it. It's illegal to seed it, but, but - but that doesn't matter 'cause -- get a load of this, alright -- if you get stopped by a lawsuit, you can just claim it was someone else using your IP address.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

You didn't get it from me.

*whistles and walks away*

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Oh, and where did the new copy came from? It was copied from the original. Where is the original? In the uploader's possession. Who duplicated the item? The uploader. Who sent the duplicate? The uploader. Who received the duplicate? The downloader. Which is illegal, duplicating and distributing a copyrighted work, or receiving it? Duplicating and distributing.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

No, I'm arguing that the person culpable (not necessarily the same as responsible) is the person who is offering the item for download. When you download something, your computer sends a request for data. The remote computer is the one that locates that data, and sends a duplicate down the wire to you. At the moment, asking someone for a illegal copy isn't illegal. Giving someone a copy is. That isn't to say it'll be that way forever; I expect the laws will be changed as soon as someone can be bothered prosecuting a downloader. For the most part, it's more efficient to sue and take down the uploaders - take the uploaders out of the picture and file-sharing dies. They're far fewer than the downloaders, it's easier to track them, and easier to prosecute them.

Re:OK, but is it anonymous?

Actually, obtaining files that are copyrighted isn't a crime anywhere (that I know of) even the US. It's reproducing (ie: uploading) that's illegal, not the downloading.

Better read up again, the Napster case is a good example. Uploading violates the "distribution" right - like sending your own pirate radio broadcast (ignoring FCC and other issues). Downloading, i.e. taking that transient stream and making a permanent copy is a violation of the "reproduction" right. It is not fair use like your VCR because it's a copy of an illegal stream, and the taint follows the copy. You could argue you had good faith reason to believe that it was a legal stream you were copying, but I doubt it'll fly and in any case "good faith" copyright infringement also makes you liable.

Automatic + Open = Garbage in?

With an unattended, fully automatic, open torrent server, how are you going to stop it from being filled with trash (ie. pr0n, infected files, illegal material) etc?

Re:Automatic + Open = Garbage in?

Who said other users are going to be able to upload files to share? I think allowing all users to add files would be something that you would have to specifically set up in your own configuration if you wanted it. This is just an easier way for a user to share files on their own website using a torrent.

Re:Automatic + Open = Garbage in?

Exactly right. As opposed to maintaining a tracker on a server, and then separately seeding the files, this solves the problem for you, assuming you have sufficient bandwidth and disk space. This essentially combines the best of direct downloading and distributed downloading; ensuring content is always available, while minimizing the bandwidth used to distribute the content.

Source

For those wondering where the source code is (the website isnt really your typical open source project breed), this app is written in Python. Something quite interesting the article failed to mention.

Re:Source

Python is interpreted, not compiled. When you distribute a python app, you are distributing its source.

Actually, it's possible to compile Python into Java-style bytecode or native binary. See Psyco [sourceforge.net] for example.

While it's true that Python is mostly used as an interpreted language, it's not a part of the language definition. Conversely, there are interpreters for languages like C++, I've used one as a part of the ROOT [root.cern.ch] system. ROOT users often compile into native binaries when their code is getting into production level. The same goes for Matlab, for example.

On the other hand, I believe that distributing software as source is much better than the binary, even if you don't have a GPL-like permission to modify/distribute it further. I believe one reason why the www got mainstream is that pages were distributed as source, so people could learn HTML from each other.

I guess

I guess this might be good for people who want to distribute legal products through a torrent. I've used bit torrent, but only for leeching. It just doesn't seem like enough people are setting up their own torrent servers to make this software that worth while.

Great automatic folder sharing

How long until people start seeding "Inbox.dbx" or "Outlook.pst" and other fun files we all remember from p2p days?

Look out Google

Next case: RIAA versus Google; Google is accused of funding piracy
Next case: Google versus the United Kingdom; Google is accused of funding the manufacture of items useful to terrorism (as the Federation Against Copyright Theft tells us, piracy funds terrorism)
Next case: RIAA versus Canonical; Canonical is accused of supplying Azureus, a piracy tool, to people
Next case: RIAA versus GNOME Foundation; the GNOME Foundation is accused of supplying a GUI library to piracy tools

WHEN DOES IT END?

Google and Piracy

I might be eligable for a tinfoil hat at this point, but I wonder how big Google's interest in piracy is. Yes, I know, BT is has legal uses, but they're sure not taking any steps to make the illegal sharing of information harder.
Piracy is a tough enemy for companies who make money off there software, and seeing how Google does not fall into this category, raising the ease of piracy-related actions might be a way to fight their opponents on a level they themselves can't be fought at...

Re:Google and Piracy

Piracy is a tough enemy for companies who make money off there software,

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Incorrect. Piracy is irrelevant for the majority of companies that make money from software. (Most software written is single use, business logic type custom apps).

and seeing how Google does not fall into this category,

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Incorrect again. Google makes a hell of a lot of money off their software - just not by selling it.

selection

And the selection is going to be about nothing until somebody makes an entirely user friendly Windows client. I'll stick to my current methods.

Anti-Slashdot Effect for large content?

Despite the posts trying to paint this into the next Napster/Limewire/P2P, I think it would be great for distributing large files that might get slashdotted/dug/whatever. I think it's a good way to have a sudden rush of trafic pay for it's own bandwidth. Sure, not everyone is at risk of a slashdotting, but it makes a good precaution. Since it's just some Python, I bet there wouldn't be too much trouble getting it up in a hury as the server starts to get hit (if you're lucky enough to notice). A bonus of planning ahead is that there's always at least one seed (the server) transferring at about the same rate a normal download would have for a single user in the first place. Scalable content rather than scalable servers. Interesting...

More and more like Gnutella

The more Bittorrent adds features, the more it becomes like gnutella. Fortunately, I have been able to just use Gnutella for the last couple of years ;-)

Bittorrent is great for very large, very popular files, but when you start dealing with small or unpopular files, I've never found an example where BT got me what I needed faster. Searching Gnutella takes longer than searching for a torrent on the Web, of course, but in the end, download times on very large files that aren't well seeded is radically different, mostly because of the larger chunk size and contingous second-block fetch in Gnutella.

Great idea for legal torrents!

I will definitely use this myself. I have some large video files that I want to occasionally want to backup from one computer to another. Home movies and stuff like that. Between the problems in filesystems (what filesystem has full read/write support on Linux, Win2K, and OS X?) and size, this is the best way for me to transfer files.

Though a nice tutorial on setting up a vpn among computers with dynamic IP addresses (I don't have a static IP) would be appreciated.

One small step for Bram

This is a cool bundle of torrent utilities but it's really not anything groundbreaking. Azureus has had the ability to automatically start downloading when .torrent files are in a specified directory for some time now. Still, every increment of functionality means that many more people sharing their content so that's nice for everyone!

Great for Home Videos?

I've been thinking about setting up my own tracker to allow my family to download home videos from me...

I know that sites like YouTube are popular right now... but I really don't like the quality restrictions... and would rather family members could just download a nice sized full copy themselves so they could burn it to DVD if they like or whatever.

Bittorrent would be ideal for doing this... and this software sounds like just the ticket. All I would have to do is point my family at the page it generates... and when I finish editing a home movie drop it in the "upload" folder and wham... it goes out to everyone.

All it needs now is an "auto client" that you just give it the URL of the automatically created website and it will automatically download anything new that arrives (that's a lot of "auto" going on ;-) That way I could go around to all of my families computers and set them up with the software and then just leave it alone. Every once in a while they can look in the "Home Videos" folder for new videos....

I think it's funny that people around here always cry "Bittorrent doesn't have to be for illegal purposes" and then any time a bittorrent story comes up all they can do is argue the finer points of what would/wouldn't be illegal/enforceable if you use the new tech... sigh.

Friedmud

Debian package doesn't work with Sarge/Stable

While it's great that the authors created an apt-get repository for easy Debian installs, be warned that the packages don't work with Debian Sarge/Stable. (The packages conflict with Debian Sarge/Stable's Python packages.)

The .deb doesn't work on Debian

Oops! Another case of not testing your software before you release it.

# dpkg -i snakebite-rc3.deb
Selecting previously deselected package snakebite.
(Reading database ... 100410 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking snakebite (from snakebite-rc3.deb) ...
Setting up snakebite (1.1) ...
Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/snakebite ...
/etc/rc0.d/K20snakebite -> ../init.d/snakebite
...
aphrodite:/tmp# /etc/init.d/snakebite start
Starting Snakebite...Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/snakebite", line 16, in ?
from BitTorrent.defaultargs import get_defaults
ImportError: No module named defaultargs
.

Really Cool

This is really cool and will be helpful for podcasters.

Ah, this will return the internet to its glory...

The days of free-flowing porn, put up by bunches of amateurs with no web design experience, and not a pay site in sight!

Nice

How about that [slashdot.org] :)

Second?

The first fully automatic BitTorrent server.

I thought he.net had the first fully automatic [he.net] BitTorrent server [slashdot.org]
.

My main concern...

...would be that with a locally hosted web page which says which files you are tracking, it will suddenly be very easy for the people that want to prosecute file sharers to link individual sharers to a specific torrent.

Another Idea

I would eventually like to see something similar to All Seeing Eye incorporated into a BT client. Files with the same exact name and/or cross-indexed with a hash check would be grouped as one entity across many trackers. I think this would be cool.

Been there, done that

I wrote something like that a year ago: here [xs4all.nl]. Took about week in the evenings. Why all the fuzz?

Apache module?

Very interesting idea. I was wondering if it might be possible to write something like this as an apache module and if it is possible, has it already been done?

Something like a directive in the Apache configuration file, where you define everything uploaded into a certain directory to automaticly create a .torrent in the same (or another) directory that will then get seeded?

I'm seriously very interested in any thoughts on this, since I might look into trying to code something like that...

Thanks!

Re:Python's don't bite

Actually i've noticed alot of OEM Compaq's here in the UK have Python runtimes preinstalled on arrival...I suspect some of their help and support software is written in it but I never bothered to invenstigate

Re:sharing and shaving

I assumed he was talking about his wife's cat. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen a sheep with a pet cat though.

caveat emptor

FYI: [e-mail] is a test. If you fail, the men in white coats will come and get you.

Re:reply

Not sure about the US, but over here the police aren't "obliged" to go after anyone. It's entirely down to internal policy whether or not they go after anyone (some forces seem to prosecute everyone, others only go after speeders at certain times or on certain roads, or only if they exceed the limit by X MPH).

Even more so for the likes of RIAA/MPAA - since they aren't even legal bodies enforcing laws, they're wholly private entities bringing civil law suits against users. They can happily pick and choose who they want to sue. The "protection" offered is that of safety in numbers - they RIAA/MPAA can't sue everyone, so if you throw enough users into the mix the proportion who do get sued is statistically tiny. It's a bit like little fish staying in huge groups so that the sharks make less of an impact.

Re:Windows?

According to the summary, the Windows version isn't finished yet. They need help in packaging the files into a handy .exe installer.

Re:Python's don't bite

The original bittorrent client is written in python and lots more are as well.

There is no way in hell this is off-topic. Especially since the article implies the original Bittorrent client is included with (and presumably used by) Snakebite, the torrent server we were discussing in the first place.