If you’ve followed our beginner and intermediate guides but your BitTorrent download speeds are still less than stellar, there’s a chance your ISP may be throttling your BitTorrent traffic. The Wired How To Wiki details several ways to get around ISP traffic shaping, from encrypting your traffic and changing your default port number to reducing or hiding your transfers. Following these methods won’t guarantee faster traffic (in fact, encryption could end up slowing you down), but if you think your ISP is behind your disappointing speeds, it won’t hurt to try.
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Tag: torrent
From loathing and resisting BitTorrent and the illegal distribution of their shows to encouraging downloading and leaking pilots, TV studios have a come a long way. The creator of ‘Weeds’ is stoked that someone pirated her show.
An unusually large number of pre-air TV shows have been appearing on BitTorrent sites months and, in some cases, several months before their scheduled air dates. Many of those leaks appear to be inside jobs, and TV executives are starting to realise that leaking shows to BitTorrent can help promote them.
In a recent interview for the Seattle Post, I speculated that it seemed likely that TV executives and writers were purposefully leaking their yet-to-air shows to BitTorrent to build up hype and an audience. It looks like I wasn’t too far off.
An anonymous Warner Brothers Television executive has admitted he helped leak the pilot of “Pushing Daisies“, an upcoming TV show. His reason? He wanted to make sure the show “got out there,†and wanted to “help the cause.†The executive didn’t upload it himself; he got his neighbour’s kid to do it. And the kid was delighted to, because it pushed up his ratio on some private network. continue reading…
It’s been argued before that the RIAA’s claim of $750 per song shared in damages — a standard figure used in all filesharing cases within the US — may be unconstitutional. According to Ray Beckerman of Recording Industry vs. The People, the defendant in Atlantic vs. Boggs has not only challenged the constitutionality of the claim, but has entered a counterclaim based on the challenge. That means we’re playing for real dollars and the RIAA isn’t impressed.
The RIAA moved to dismiss the counterclaim and, in a somewhat unusual action, the US Department of Justice filed a motion with the court asking for a 60 day stay in which it will decide whether or not to intervene.
If the RIAA’s constitutionality claims can be set aside, it will take serious muscle out of the spamigation being perpetuated, and could force an extreme change of strategy.
µTorrent was written with efficiency in mind. Unlike many torrent clients, it does not hog valuable system resources – typically using less than 6MB of memory, allowing you to use the computer as if it weren’t there at all. Additionally, the program itself is contained within a single executable less than 170 KB in size.
Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Additionally, µTorrent supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification (compatible with Azureus 2.4.0.0 and above, BitComet 0.63 and above) and peer exchange.
eDonkey and BitTorrent users caught up in the latest Logistep anti-piracy sweep haven’t got much to smile about, facing threats, legal action and for many, accusations that are simply untrue. For those who would prefer not to have their privacy invaded by Logistep in the future, this anti-piracy cloud has a silver lining. Indications are, this system can be defeated.
Ever since the initial assault on UK file-sharers, questions have been asked about the functioning of the Logistep ‘File-Sharing Monitor’ snooping software. Many people simply do not wish to allow their file-sharing software to connect to this system, preferring to maintaintheir privacy. But how can this be achieved?
The secret lies in Logistep’s own description of how their system operates;
The “File Sharing Monitor” program version 1.3 is a modified version of the client of the eDonkey and Gnutella networks of the program “Shareaza” version 2.1.0. All program functions responsible for communication with the servers and the clients are identical with those in the original version.
The Shareaza client Logistep are using doesn’t support a feature built into eMule (ver 0.47b onwards) known as ‘protocol obfuscation’ (PO) or Protocol encryption (PE) in BitTorrent clients like uTorrent and Azureus. From the eMule-Project introduction; continue reading…
Two Pittsburgh-based researchers have released code that they say can increase peer-to-peer download speeds by up to 500%, although actual tests have shown more modest speed boosts of 30 to 70%.
The software, called Similarity-Enhanced transfer works like BitTorrent, allowing users to download a file from multiple sources at the same time. But instead of looking for identical bits of information, the software looks for similar pieces.
In other words, if you’re using BitTorrent to download a movie that’s been dubbed into German, you’ll probably only be downloading from German sources. But if you use Similarity-Enhanced transfer, you could download the video file from sources throughout the world, and just download the audio from German users. With more download sources to choose from, your download speed should be significantly enhanced. continue reading…
BitTorrent Inc. is experimenting with alternatives to paid downloads on their Entertainment Network, and is now experimenting with advertising supported downloads. Instead of paying for a download, BitTorrent’s customers now see ads before and after watching an episode.
The ad-supported model is currently being tested on episodes by the video gamers network G4, but is likely to be tested on episodes from other publishers in the future.
The video ads are short video clips delivered by YuMe Networks, a company that is specialized in IP based video ads. YuMe CEO Jayant Kadambi said that the company expects to deliver more user targeted video ads as soon as BitTorrent Inc. signs more deals with publishers that want to experiment with ad-supported downloads.
Two weeks ago BitTorrent Inc. announced that it will launch an ad-supported TV-network by the end of this year. This advertising supported TV-model is likely to be supported by YuMe Networks as well.
DRM-free and ad supported downloads are the future, and one of the only business models that will be able to compete with pirated content. It’s good to see that BitTorrent Inc. is realizing this, they are moving in the right direction.
*This is a mass email to All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students
*This was sent March 31, 2007 at 1:07 AM
As you may have read in the popular press, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) among others are increasing their copyright enforcement activities. As part of this increased effort, the RIAA has begun to target college students specifically, which means that students who engage in unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing are more likely than ever to be identified and sued by the RIAA.
We think that these increased enforcement activities warrant taking a moment to discuss the relevant policies and practices at the Urbana- Champaign campus of the University of Illinois.
The University does not condone the use of peer-to-peer software for illegal file sharing. Those who engage in it violate U.S. Copyright laws as well as the campus’s own policies, including the Student Code and Policy on the Appropriate Use of the Computer Network. Additionally the University bears significant costs associated with responding to DMCA violation notices and the network capacity absorbed by file sharing reduces its availability for general research, teaching, and administrative purposes. For additional information of University related copyright issues, see continue reading…
May 2006 saw the admin of one of Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent trackers arrested by the police, accused of putting links to over 20 million copyright works on the internet. Despite the fact he has been released, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry has now ordered all ISP’s to block access to the torrent site.
Eliyan Geshev was the administrator of Arenabg.com, Bulgaria’s largest BitTorrent site, which is among the 10 most visited websites in the country. He was originally arrested in late May 2006 and although it is unclear if he was released on bail in the meantime, it is now being reported that he has been released. By order of the Sophia Town Court, Geshev was freed due to “lack of grounds for his arrestâ€. As he tried to leave the courtroom, security guards struck journalists trying to interview him. The journalists say they intend to complain. continue reading…