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Resurrecting a dead torrent tracker and finding 3M peers

(kianbradley.com)
655 points k-ian | 13 comments | 17 Jun 25 17:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.943s | source | bottom
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diggan ◴[17 Jun 25 18:17 UTC] No.44302108[source]▶
> Is this legal?

Why wouldn't it be? You're not actually hosting a tracker in this case, only looking at incoming connections. And even if you do run a tracker, hard to make the case that the tracker itself is illega. Hosting something like opentrackr is like hosting a search engine, how they respond to legal takedown requests is where the crux is at, and whatever infra sits around the tracker, so police and courts can see/assume the intent. But trackers are pretty stupid coordination server software, would be crazy if they became illegal.

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1. jedberg ◴[17 Jun 25 18:20 UTC] No.44302134[source]▶
Do you think the police understand this nuance? Especially since most of the traffic that will go through there is probably copyright infringement?

They'll just see tracker and assume it's illegal.

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2. hungryhobbit ◴[17 Jun 25 18:30 UTC] No.44302254[source]▶
Do you think the police are actually policing the internet?

Even if you didn't mean your local police, and meant a national body like the FBI, the truth is they focus on other crimes (eg. child abuse), and even then they are woefully unable to handle even most of those crimes.

The vast, vast majority of copyright enforcement comes from copyright holders ... not the internet copyright police.

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3. jedberg ◴[17 Jun 25 18:34 UTC] No.44302296[source]▶
Of course not. But first a copyright holder tells the police, and then the police enforce it.

The police rarely find crimes on their own -- they are almost always acting on a request from someone else.

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4. SXX ◴[17 Jun 25 19:13 UTC] No.44302766[source]▶
> Especially since most of the traffic that will go through there is probably copyright infringement?

Copyright infinging materials dont go "though" trackers. Trackers only keep torrent hashes and lists of peers.

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5. jeroenhd ◴[17 Jun 25 21:35 UTC] No.44304213[source]▶
So do torrent websites like the pirate bay. That doesn't protect pirates from getting sued to hell and back or even receiving prison sentences from the court.
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6. jedberg ◴[17 Jun 25 21:54 UTC] No.44304377[source]▶
I'm well aware of how trackers and torrents work. But again, do you think law enforcement understands the nuance of that?

Also the government and private companies have argued in the past that the hashes and lists of peers is inducement and enablement for copyright infringement.

7. Qwertious ◴[18 Jun 25 03:32 UTC] No.44306436[source]▶
Tell them it's for training a corporate AI model, then.
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8. dahrkael ◴[18 Jun 25 06:14 UTC] No.44307081{3}[source]▶
I would argue the pirate bay was an index apart from a tracker, and indexes is what gets you in trouble mostly
9. vintermann ◴[18 Jun 25 07:24 UTC] No.44307437[source]▶
Traffic doesn't "go through there", that's the whole point of P2P. All a tracker does is let people find each other.
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10. jedberg ◴[18 Jun 25 08:09 UTC] No.44307714[source]▶
Traffic still goes through it. A seeder attaches and says "I am here and have these hashes". The a leecher connects and says "who has these hashes".

So yes, data "goes through it". Do you think law enforcement understands the nuance of metadata vs actual data?

11. bmacho ◴[18 Jun 25 09:21 UTC] No.44308141[source]▶
It's okay to watch pirated movies if you sell fanart based on them later
12. swat535 ◴[18 Jun 25 12:31 UTC] No.44309301{3}[source]▶
Nitpick but police follow the courts, not the copyright holders.
13. geon ◴[18 Jun 25 13:02 UTC] No.44309535{3}[source]▶
Torrent sites also keep metadata. Often detailed, telling exactly what media is getting its copyright infringed.