“Peer to Peer Revisited…”

My first of two follow papers for MSC 760

By Tanner Dabel

March 7^th, 2007

As with the prehistoric age of the dinosaurs; traditional peer to peer (P2P) computing is no more. The idea of having a one to one connection is outdated and is quickly being replaced by a more clever way of accomplishing the same thing. This new way is a protocol called BitTorrent. Its inception was just a few years ago, but like that of the mythical asteroid that caused mass extinction for dinosaurs; BitTorrent’s impact has been profound.

The protocol is fairly simple; it replies torrent clients and torrent files. Someone wanting to use BitTorrent technology needs to have a torrent client. This can easily be found at any of the torrent websites out on the net. Once this client is downloaded, one can use the client to create torrent files. These torrent files contain meta data about the file to be shared or available to others on the same network. The information on the torrent files usually consists of a URL that directs a torrent trackers (part of the torrent client) to other trackers (other clients) that host the actual file on their computer. Torrent files also have hash code tables and checksum code to help trackers determine how to cut up and distribute the file wanting to be shared. Now the nifty thing about BitTorrent is it prides itself on a one to many type connection. When someone goes to find an archive of torrent files, they select the file they are looking for, the tracker of the torrent file goes out to the network and looks to see who all has a copy of the file one is looking to download. Once it’s been determined who has it, the hash tables are used to start randomly pulling pieces of the file in 64 kb to 1 mb sizes, slowly constructing the file. Say 20 people on the network have the same copy of a specific file you’re looking to download, when you execute the torrent file associated with file you want, chances are you’ll start getting pieces from those 20 computers out there on the network.

There are many pros and cons to using a system like this. Beginning first with the pros, the over overwhelmingly obvious pro is that of speed. Through the means of being able to pull down multiple pieces of the file all at the same time, you’ve now increased the amount of data flowing into one’s computer. The speed at which the data is flowing in is unaffected and going at the same speed as it always has been, but the amount of points (or entry ways via “pipes”) has been increased to be more than the traditional one point/pipe. Underlying pros to using BitTorrent also include redundancy checks so that no only is the file as a whole checked for errors, but each incoming piece of the whole is also checked for errors. Another benefit to using BitTorrent is alleviating some of the distribution costs and responsibility on the original source of the data. As soon as more than one copy of a file is available on the network, distribution of that file is a shared process, rather then an individual process. This cuts down on bandwidth issues, hardware wear and tear and in some cases hosting costs. This also removes dependency issues on the original person who has the copy of the file one is looking for. In the traditional peer to peer (P2P) computing one was dependent on the source they were downloading from. With a one to one connection, as soon as the distributor of a file went off line, the file was no longer available and a dependency block occurred. With BitTorrent, if one person goes off line, as long as other copies are on the network, requests to fill those pieces of the whole can be answered by other computers.

Quickly discussing the ideal venues in which BitTorrent can be used would be any in which the license of the content can legally be secured, or instances in which the license either is not enforced or is open to the public. Good examples of this would be Open Source Software projects (Linux is currently using this to push versions of Linux OS and patches), independent musical bands that want their music in the hands of as many people as possible, or companies like BitTorrent, inc. or Sub Pop records who deal solely in the distribution of legally bought and licensed material. Another area greatly affected by the technology is the digital multi media industry. On a corporate level, BitTorrent technology would be ideal for them considering the vase amounts of data that is moved around and stored by these companies.

Moving on to discuss the cons, the primary issue at the present time deals with the unintended uses of BitTorrent. Specifically speaking, the moving around and sharing of files that are in direct conflict with the copyrights attached to them. Because BitTorrent allows the moving around and sharing of any type of computer file, this includes, but is not limited to movies, games, applications and music. All of these types of files usually have specific copyrights on them and licenses agreements. However, with the lack of enforcement mechanism on most torrent sites, there are not controls in place to restrict the sharing of illegal content.

Briefly diving into the legal issues that have arisen from BitTorrent, though the inception of it was only a few years ago, BitTorrent’s rap sheet is a mile long. The key players in this are the MPAA (movie industry) and the RIAA (music industry). Over the last three years they’ve come at entities insisting on abusing the BitTorrent technology. Supernova.org whom use to be the popular torrent hub on the internet was quickly and abruptly shutdown in December of 2004. This marked the beginning of the end for BitTorrent abuse. Soon LokiTorrent look the helm of being the popular torrent hub, 3 months after Supernova bit the dust, LokiTorrent was next. They hit finical troubles and quickly became controlled by those who were hunting it; the MPAA. Later that year, EliteTorrent was raided and shutdown by the FBI. In November of 2005 BitTorrent.com made an announcement that all content linked to the torrent files they archived would be legal and legitimate files not infringing upon copyright laws. This was a bold move for the BitTorrent arena as one of the “members” of the community was now showing that it was possible to enforce copyrights on the material that was being accessed through the torrent files hosted at these sites. Popularity of BitTorrent.com quickly fell. Since then a company has risen by the name Pirate Bay. They have been raided in the past, their site has gone down from time to time, but thus far they continue to prevail. Given enough time however, the MPAA and RIAA will catch up to them legally speaking. Until then, Pirate Bay is working desperately to secure an island in international waters that they can claim as their own, not under the protection of copy right laws. If this actually occurs, they will have created a first; a digital nation which is centrally located on the islands servers, but citizenship would be decentralized globally around the world.

Other cons that go against the BitTorrent technology are minor security issues and some networking limitations, but currently the largest barrier for BitTorrent is the legal issues that have given it a black eye in the few years of being around. I think as soon as the abuse of the BitTorrent technology goes down and no longer is in the limelight, the real power of BitTorrent will finally come to light and be used to revolutionize how we move and share information on the global level.