←back to thread

Resurrecting a dead torrent tracker and finding 3M peers

(kianbradley.com)
655 points k-ian | 8 comments | 17 Jun 25 17:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.891s | source | bottom
Show context
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.

replies(8): >>44302128 #>>44302134 #>>44302420 #>>44302712 #>>44303308 #>>44303436 #>>44305263 #>>44310124 #
jekwoooooe ◴[17 Jun 25 18:19 UTC] No.44302128[source]▶
Is this legal isn’t a useful question. The better question is how likely are you to get sued? With civil lawsuits it doesn’t matter if it’s legal you can be sued and harassed by lawyers if you get on their radar.
replies(4): >>44302154 #>>44303299 #>>44307025 #>>44308001 #
1. legohead ◴[17 Jun 25 18:22 UTC] No.44302154[source]▶
No need to sue. Send a cease and desist and your average hacker like OP will take it down in a hurry...
replies(3): >>44304740 #>>44307500 #>>44311195 #
2. daneel_w ◴[17 Jun 25 22:37 UTC] No.44304740[source]▶
In this case not even a cease-and-desist was needed. Just seeing 1.7M peers crying out in the void for company was enough. Living in a country overly friendly with Hollywood and its money, I do understand him.
replies(1): >>44307507 #
3. account42 ◴[18 Jun 25 07:36 UTC] No.44307500[source]▶
I think the point is that you can't count on that and need to assume that you are going to attract actual lawsuits. DMCA provides easier take down options for copyright owners but AFAIK does not compel them to make use of those options before going to court.
replies(1): >>44308010 #
4. account42 ◴[18 Jun 25 07:37 UTC] No.44307507[source]▶
Yes, prime example of a chilling effect where the fear of a lawsuit stops people from engaging in perfectly legal activities. It's unfortunate that copyright law does not concern itself with collateral damage like this.
replies(1): >>44309315 #
5. GTP ◴[18 Jun 25 08:56 UTC] No.44308010[source]▶
I think companies will try with a strongly worded letter first, as this would save them money over straight going to court. But I get that the risk may not be worth it for many people, I myself would be very scared if I received a letter threatening a lawsuit for a ridiculous amount of money, even knowing that they are exaggerating the scale of damages just to scare me.
6. Suzuran ◴[18 Jun 25 12:33 UTC] No.44309315{3}[source]▶
This is not collateral damage, this is the intended effect - decreasing their competition, legal or otherwise.
7. driverdan ◴[18 Jun 25 16:21 UTC] No.44311195[source]▶
Unfortunately what they will do is file a DMCA with the hosting provider. Most will immediately shut you down, none of them defend their customers.
replies(1): >>44312581 #
8. autoexec ◴[18 Jun 25 19:19 UTC] No.44312581[source]▶
Considering the obscene fines courts have granted the media industry who claim losses with zero basis in reality it's only to be expected. Would you be willing/able to defend your customers when faced with billions in fines and a court system that has been aggressively favoring your opponent?