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Resurrecting a dead torrent tracker and finding 3M peers

(kianbradley.com)
655 points k-ian | 5 comments | 17 Jun 25 17:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.735s | source
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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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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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1. 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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2. 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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3. 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.

4. dahrkael ◴[18 Jun 25 06:14 UTC] No.44307081[source]▶
I would argue the pirate bay was an index apart from a tracker, and indexes is what gets you in trouble mostly
5. geon ◴[18 Jun 25 13:02 UTC] No.44309535[source]▶
Torrent sites also keep metadata. Often detailed, telling exactly what media is getting its copyright infringed.