Bittorrent pirates shut down, will Joost get a boost?

September 25, 2007 | Chris Morrison | Comments |

demonoid.jpgWithin the past week, three of the most popular sites for peer-to-peer sharing have either turned off or banned users from the United States. Most recent is Demonoid, the second most popular sharing site; it appears to have been cut off by its internet service provider due to the efforts of a Canadian agency called the CRIA, according to TorrentFreaks.

P2P sharing, a method by which files can be shared through a distributed network of users rather than sent out from a single server, has a spotted reputation in the United States. It is associated with illegal downloading of movies, music and other copyrighted material, a trend that began with early P2P networks like Napster and Kazaa, and led up to today’s Bittorrent standard.

Despite the distributed nature of P2P sharing, Bittorrent files are tracked through specialized servers that help to keep user’s downloading orchestrated, so turning off the server is regarded as the coup de grace against file sharing. The rapid-fire closure of several websites, if only in the US, could mean that the tide is turning in a protracted legal fight against the sites that most often assist in illegal P2P file sharing.

Demonoid had based its servers in Canada after a Dutch anti-piracy group called BREIN filed a subpoena against their ISP in the Netherlands. A similar scenario now appears to have played out with Canadian authorities, limiting the service’s options for further relocation.

Another highly popular site, Isohunt, stopped tracking users based in the United States earlier this week, saying on its homepage that the move was “due to the US’s hostility towards P2P technologies.” Isohunt runs several of the most popular trackers, including TorrentBox, and also provides a centralized search service for files; the company claims that it regularly cooperates in removing copyrighted material.

TorrentSpy, the first of the trio to block US users from its service, did so a month ago.

Although other Bittorrent sites have been closed in the past, the loss of three of the most popular in such short order threatens to disrupt the grassroots community that has grown up in the US around sharing. If more closures or blocks follow — especially if that were to include The Pirate’s Bay, the de facto community leader — illegal P2P sharing could lose much of its steam.

That could in turn drive more business from casual downloaders to legitimate companies. BitTorrent, for instance, a company started by the same people who invented the protocol that legitimized itself earlier this year, sells movies, music, and other media.

Another company that uses P2P for legitimate file sharing is Joost, which we reported on earlier this year when both it and BitTorrent were looking for sharing deals.

The fight is far from over, though. Last week, emails from an anti-piracy company called MediaDefender were leaked onto the internet, revealing that the company’s strategies included creating a Bittorrent tracker to entrap people who used it for illegal downloads, and seeding other networks with corrupt files. The company’s actions could expose it to legal retaliation.

And the legal tactics used by the RIAA, an organization backed by major media companies, also appear to be backfiring. The company, which focuses on suing individuals it accuses of file sharing, has met with a string of setbacks in court. As PPInternational puts it, “Some lawsuits have proven ridiculous from the outset, targeting computer-illiterates and dead people, or accusing grandmothers of downloading gangsta rap. Others have been dismissed for a lack of evidence against the purported file-sharers. Nearly every standard weapon in the recording industry’s legal arsenal has been proven ineffectual at best, and unconstitutional at worst.”

Update: BitTorrent’s Ashwin Navin had the following comment on this story:

“No amount of litigation will eliminate online piracy. Piracy will only be mitigated when media companies acknowledge piracy as a competitor. To compete with piracy, we have to offer consumers more reasonable prices, get DRM out of the way, and offer as much media as possible for free, supported by sponsorships. That way the experience for legal content is dramatically better, and the consumer value proposition for piracy is reduced.”

For further discussion, see the comments below.

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About the Author, Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.

  • dan
    There is some debate now on the whole thing, we got tipped that the news from torrent freak is in question, and showed an IRC chat, which could be true or false, http://www.thecircuitbox.com/demonoid/

    But it does make an interesting counter point on the article, however, most things with bittorrent are agenda laden, it is very hard to tell the truth from the invented.
  • Chris Morrison
    Interesting -- thanks, Dan. I'll keep an eye out and update if it turns out TorrentFreak was a little too free with their interpretation of events.
  • Matt
    Havnt seen the press release for this yet
    "Another company that uses P2P for legitimate file sharing is Joost, which also has a sharing deal with BitTorrent."

    would you like to cite your sources ;)
  • Matt: Whoops. Misread something from VentureBeat on that, ironically. Corrected, thanks.
  • Seeing P2P sharing sites turned off or banned is the kind of action against illegal Bittorrent activity we've anticipated for some time.

    The more difficult issue will be for Bittorrent systems trying to go legitimate to distance themselves from such sites.

    That's because they share a common open source protocol with illegal sites which are increasingly being filtered by ISPs, as VentureBeat points out.

    ISPs need to conserve precious upstream bandwidth that is becoming congested.

    Itiva is a hybrid CDN with an optimal P2P component that does not allow file sharing. Nor are we subject to ISP filtering.

    In fact, we're seen as method friendly by ISPs. We reduce load on the network rather than stress and burden it.

    If you want to drill down more, just call me at 650.330.1300, ext. 202 about this critical business topic.

    Best regards,
    Jay Mejia
    VP of Business Development
    Itiva Networks
    jaymejia@itiva.com
  • to suggest that a private bittorent site going down, or even a few popular bittorent sites going down, would give joost an advantage shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the power of these p2p networks and how difficult (impossible) they are to shut down. Joost has to stand or fall on their own merit. They will get no "boost" from individual BitTorrent trackers going down. Others will immediately rise up to take their place.
  • Michael: Yes, I know about the "hydra" effect of the Bittorrent system.

    That's great, but kicking all the legs from beneath a table at once (or cutting all the heads off a hydra) will still cause it to collapse. The system, as a whole, tends to revolve around a few more popular sites.

    Will the system recover? Sure, eventually, but in the process, a lot of the fringe users who don't immediately know the next portal to go to will wander off. In the process, more of the larger sites might decide that it'd be a good idea for them to block US traffic, too.
  • I'd have to agree with the comment by Michael Arrington, to think that taking down a few servers is going to permanently disrupt the network shows a complete lack of understanding of this community. It's like squeezing that little doll, you squeeze it in the middle, his eyes pop out, squeeze it's head, the feet get big.
  • Matt
    Chris Joost has to compeate with "piracy" just and offer a product that make acess to content easier to get and more convenient.

    At the moment piracy is winning in the convemince and ease of use areas compared to Joost gets to the level of having all content availible globally and easy to find .

    At the momnet Joost has most of its content geo restricted becuse international distribution agreements lock up content for years ,the shows are hard to find and not ordered becuse of lack of metadata from content owners .

    Bittorent users have created thier own standard when it comes to expianing then the show was aired

    Example

    Bittoret

    Survivor : S015E01
    http://sharetv.org/shows/survivor

    Joost
    Survivor: China - A Chicken's A Little Bit Smarter
    (Joost removed the show last night but it was only found by search and wasnt in the CBS channel )

    And your comments about indexing sites being closed down is already being solved with Tribler a Open Source Distributed Bittorent trackers with Triber a open source distributed social Bittorent client .

    https://www.tribler.org/
  • Dale: Point taken, and I think that may be a better metaphor than the hydra.

    Still, what I suggested was that sharing might temporarily lose some steam, and thus lose a lot of fringe users who visit these sites because they're convenient. That's likely to be a temporary effect, yes. But I'll stand by my opinion -- that the massive sharing community that currently exists may indestructible to an extent, but could be reduced in size.
  • Will N.
    "thus lose a lot of fringe users who visit these sites because they’re convenient. "

    I think what you're missing here is that BitTorrennt networks aren't just data networks, but social networks. the "fringe" or more appropriately, "casual" user almost always is mentored into bittorrenting via a more core user.

    Almost every core BT user I know has 6-12 casual users that turn to him for recommendations for replacements when a major tracker goes down and they are, overwhelmingly, sharing even more after such an event, many becoming "core" users themselves. At least, this has been the experience of myself and other core BT users I know.