Exeem "Successor" to Suprnova Announced

After the demise of Suprnova, hype has risen over Exeem, the supposed heir apparent to the popular BitTorrent index. Today on Novastream, Sloncek announced it officially, but to me his announcement raised more questions than it did answers. Since the official exeem.com website still isn't up, I've got a few notes below. Thanks to several users on irc.suprnova.org, and Sloncek himself for answering my questions.

First, Exeem really isn't an extension of Suprnova as the hype might have you believe: the connection between the two seems more marketing than anything else. Sloncek has been hired to promote their product as the heir apparent to his popular website, but his involvement really seems to be almost entirely PR. It'll work obviously: my headline on this story mentions Suprnova, and so will hundreds of websites around the world in the coming days. "Yet another p2p app" would not create anywhere near the waves that "Successor to Suprnova Announced" will. I hope that people judge exeem by its own merits and not by its (clever) marketing.

Second, Exeem is pretty much what was rumored earlier: a blending of the tracker, the BitTorrent client, and decentralized indexing. It's Windows only. It's in beta now, and will be out at some indeterminate date in the future. It also has a rating and commenting system which appears to be somewhat rudimentary. It's unclear to me if the rating system will be as useless as other attempts, and I think this is the critical thing: Suprnova succeeded because the content available on it was verified and trustworthy. Suprnova was as much the work of a few dozen editors as it was a list of torrent URLs. So far no other p2p system has achieved that level of accuracy. Exeem supports magnet sites which is a start, but not exactly p2p either. And did I mention that it's adware?

Third, there's a mystery company. Someone is paying Sloncek. He won't say who, but there's a history in the p2p world of secretive development. Since Exeem is to be adware, someday it will have a billing address, which means the legal issues faced by predecessors like Napster and Kazaa will be forthcoming, which is of course why we have a mystery company that Sloncek won't talk about in the first place. We definitely haven't heard the last of this.

Personally I was hoping for more: source code and cross platform compatibility never hurts. These are the things that made BitTorrent a huge success. I guess I was hoping for a new protocol instead of just another Kazaa. I guess I was hoping for a monumental leap, and instead Exeem to be a more incremental step. I'm sure we'll learn more in the coming weeks.

Interview MP3

[Z303]

Link to a torrent [torrentspy.com] of interview as an MP3.

PirateBay.org!!

[Anonymous Coward]

eXeem is just going to be horrible and to me the obvious successor to Suprnova is ThePirateBay.org. It's hosted in Sweden so it'll never get shut down, spread the word. Please mod up! http://www.piratebay.org/ [piratebay.org]

Anonymous bittorrent already exists

[Anonymous Coward]

With all due respect to the Freenet team, they have done a lot of good work, but the network isn't designed for things like bittorrent. What you need is a low-latency network like TOR or i2p. With that said, anonymous Bittorrent already exists, its available to work on the i2p anonymous network. Just go to the i2p website, , install the software and then click on this: There are already bittorrent trackers on the i2p network. Why this hasn't been on slashdot is beyond me.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Anonymous bittorrent already exists

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn does the markup suck on slashdot. Anyway, here are the URLS:

http://www.i2p.net [i2p.net]

And once you have i2p running, then you want to go to this i2p site:

http://duck.i2p/i2p-bt/ [duck.i2p]

beta download

[Anonymous Coward]

http://p2p.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000703025392 [weblogsinc.com] :)

Re:MP3 of the interview with Sloncek

[mlinksva]

http://83.149.90.123.nyud.net:8090/interview_with_ slon.mp3 [nyud.net]

Re:I dont understand

[jacen_sunstrider]

You don't lose the appeal of BitTorrent. The tracker/website approach the SN uses was the downside. The thing that truly makes BT great is the way that it shares, not in how the trackers are shared :P

Re:ironic

[imsabbel]

I didnt get a serial, so i could only play with the app, and its HORRIBLE.
Like kazaa meets winamp3... Horrible gui with little pauses and laggy feeling when navigating, ugly blue-blob buttons, a new .torrent/exeem:// duality (why not only use one if its completely propritary instead of faking being a bittorrent client?)

Anonymous BitTorrent is already available.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen /.'ers suggesting freenet as possible {il,}legal content distribution method. I'd like to disagree with this methodology.

There is already a working way to have anonymous BitTorrent - using Onion Routing [eff.org] protocol. It's great for privacy concerned netizens and if more people set up Tor Servers, Tor would gain critical mass needed to support both tracker AND data connections for BT.

Most of torrent clients supports Tor out-of-the-box, as tor is nothing but socks proxy for your programs. Torifying [noreply.org] various applications is really a snap and there is a detailed guide [sourceforge.net] on how to make Azureus BT client [sourceforge.net] work flawlessly with Tor (see section 2.2 Totally Anonymous BitTorrent).

Currently, the only concern for the Tor authors is the fact, that the Tor network may not be able to handle the amounts of traffic, bittorent is able to generate.
However, if each one of you would set up a server with couple of kbps spare bandwidth, the tor network would immediately start scaling up.

Since BT relies on multiple (slow) transmissions occuring at the same time to create the "torrent effect", even if all the transmissions pick different routes trough tor network (taking slight performance hit), the overall performance of BT would remain unchanged.

There is also a very important aspect of tor. It allows you to create hidden services. Basically they are accesible via bogus URLs (like LKbalkbsflKflasbd.onion). The anonymity of the server is assured. More about hidden services at this address [eff.org].

So, before you let the *oids start reinventing the wheel (and charge an arm and a leg for it), do your bloody homework and use what's already there :)

PS. tor is free software.

Re:ironic

[beeman_q]

there is no add/spywere to remove ;) also all the "cracked" versions ive come accross still dont let you connect to the network.

Here's a link to the beta....

[mcknation]

But it won't work without a key. It can't join the network. Gives you a chance to check it out the interface spyware/adware free I guess. I don't think I'll be using it. I too was looking for a larger leap...not so much of a baby step.

http://82.149.22.18/eXeem%20BETA%200.16.zip

/-McK

Lokitorrent and Anonymity

[dshaw858]

I honestly don't think this [the exeem client] is totally necessary, depending on the outcome of the Lokitorrent legal case. Exeem seems as if it will make .torrent files much harder to find, which in turn creates problems. The http section of the web is a lot easier to navigate than an adware-filled, bulky client.

Of course, even if it is legal for sites on the web to host the .torrent files, they are so easily tracked by anyone who cares! If Exeem could possibly get a better degree of anonymity, then it could perhaps boost p2p to an unbeatable level- forcing the MPAA and RIAA to actually work with the file sharers, rather than attack them.

Lastly, and on a bit of an off-topic note, if one is sharing only one part of a file, but not the full thing (or if the file being shares is obfuscated, but easily returnable), can they be prosecuted of illegal copyright violations? Is every single part of a film copyrighted individually? I've always wondered, so pegging it to the end of this post seemed as good a time as any to ask.

- dshaw

Re:Torrent trackers on Freenet?

[STrinity]

Do you surf the web? Do you use IRC or any chat service? What exactly does bittorrent, a web or IRC server or client do to make sure that no one is using it to distribute child porn?

Strawman.

The problem with Freenet isn't that it's a channel for kiddie porn, but that anyone who uses it could potentially be charged with distributing child pornography. You don't run that risk when you log onto an IRC or Usenet server.

Re:Lokitorrent and Anonymity

[tepples]

Is every single part of a film copyrighted individually?

Under United States law, reproducing and distributing a "substantial" portion of a copyrighted motion picture is usually infringement. An excerpt usually has to be really short for the third fair use factor [bitlaw.com] to kick in.

For more information, go ask your own lawyer.

EXEEM SUCKS (READ)

[Space_Soldier]

eXeem is a piece of shit. Not only that it will have adaware and spyware, it is also a "lock-in". You will only be able to use it on SuprNova. They have modified the torrent file. It is missing a lot of dictionaries ("key -> value"), and dictionaries that should have been subdictionaries start directly in the file. For example "files" is not in "info" it starts with it directly. This torrent changes were unnecessary. Also, the "announce" and "announce-list" are missing. eXeem has a hardcoded url of a tracker of all the peers on eXeem. The original seeder of a torrent acts as a tracker (so SuprNova won't have to host torrents), but eXeem is in no way decentralized because of the tracker that keeps in contact all the eXeem users (it does not care about torrents, just eXeem users). So, all you have to do is to kill the main server, and all the users of exeem will be disconnected (this happened when suprnova died). THIS IS WORSE THAN THE WAY TORRENTS ACT NOW. EXEEM IS HYPE AND A WAY TO MAKE MONEY. IT SUCKS! I think the best way to decentralized BitTorrent, is to have trackers that are decentralized IRC server style. If you people want something decentralized and a little bit of BitTorrent, get G2 (Gnutella2) and add BitTorrent's tit-for-tat to it.

Re:He sold out. (Also: Beta Download)

[webbjaus]

actually, i reckon the company behind it is called 'Swarm Systems Inc'...
Why?
- Becuase the whois on exeem.org shows "Registrant Email:[e-mail]"
- Because i cant find any info about them on the web.
- Because 'swarm' is a term used in the BT protocol/community...

Im guessing whoever is behind all this bought all the main domain names and are keeping quite until the launch.

Registrant ID:GODA-08316761
Registrant Name:Systems Inc. Swarm
Registrant Organization:Swarm Systems Inc.
Registrant Street1:Suite 4 Tample Building, Main
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Charlestown
Registrant State/Province:Not Applicable
Registrant Postal Code:1000
Registrant Country:KN
Registrant Phone:[phone]
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[e-mail]

Re:Torrent trackers on Freenet?

[Anonymous Coward]

which is why Freenet has been received with cold reviews in the past here.

No, you moron. It has received "cold reviews" because it's slow as hell.

I have used freenet and I did not see any kiddie porn. Of course I wasn't searching for it...

You paranoid SOBs should just start a government sanctioned P2P system where everything is completely legal. Have fun. And leave the rest of us alone. Jesus.

Re:What someone needs to do...

[mecredis]

There are such sites:

Filerush.com [filerush.com]: The purpose of this site is to serve Bit Torrent files for recently released game demos, updates, and movie trailers of games.

and

BitTorrent Files for Slashdot Effect Victims. [scarywater.net]

and

Run But Cant Hide [runbutcanthide.com]: Legal, Free BitTorrent Downloads

Between these three you can usually find most legal files that are in high demand.

Good luck and long live the bt!

-Fred

Re:Lokitorrent and Anonymity

[mikiN]

How small? Would, say, 128kB, 256kB be small enough? These are quite regular p2p chunk sizes.
Now if only someone could start up an (open-source, of course) automated review/critique/derived art/whatever blurb-per-chunk generator, we could all be within the fair-use portion of the law.

Who's behind

[Alarash]

A quick WHOIS gives us the adress of the registrant for the Exeem.com domain: Swarm Systems Inc. Goggle couldn't find anything interresting about it. Might be some kind of a screening company?

Usenet (was Re:Torrent trackers on Freenet?

[ion++]

Why not just use usenet to distribute the Torrent trackers? On usenet one can post anonymously, and they are automatically distributed to other usenet servers.

Re:Usenet (was Re:Torrent trackers on Freenet?

[brainburger]

There is already a usenet group for .torrent files: alt.binaries.torrents
However, the trackers for those torrents still have to be centralised under the current BT system.
alt.binaries.torrents actually has a full dump of the last day of suprnova in it currently, but how many of the trackers are still up is anybody's guess.

Re:Ethics

[Anonymous Coward]

"Have you tried living for 6 months without seeing a new movie?"

Man are you in for a nasty shock when you have kids.