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What do you guys think of P2P torrent search engines, such as tribler? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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I think we are playing a very long hide and seek game with torrent being so reliant on trackers and web indexers/communities, they close some, others pop up, and the users are dispersed, and younger generations never learn how to pirate. In the long run we are losing.

I think we really need a fully peer-to-peer search mechanism, integrated to torrent client, and despite the difficulties, I think it is possible to have something that is permissionless, yet safe, based on a distributed, Sybil resistant, reputation system.

I think tribler search feature is a good start, but its tor-like privacy features makes it too slow, preventing its widespread adoption (and given the search is basically trusting the peers, it would be overwhelmed with garbage if it became mainstream).

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[–] 13 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

I didn't know this existed but I don't think being reliant on a few indexers is that much of a problem.

I see a bigger problem in torrenting being reliant on trusted VPN providers and their legal status.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

    Then tribler is made for you, because it comes bundled with a TOR-like anonymizing network. Theoretically, you don't need a VPN with it, just run and download/upload. But you'll see the speed sucks, probably because the network is still very small.

    But I don't think this a problem faced by most people in the world, outside of the developed countries where torrenting can get you in legal trouble. Reliable access to the content, preferably just using a phone, is the major problem.

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  • [–] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 child)

    If it's tor like, then it'll be slow in the same way tor is slow, not due to the small network but due to the anonymisation logic, the multi hop obfuscation, that is inherintly slow.

    I feel the issue with a multi location search function being built into a client makes said client a defacto pirating tool, this a target for take down orders, whereas a torrential client without that feature can be used for genuine uses and thus can't be subject to take downs in the same way.

    Years ago I used a client that had the search in, but it disappeared long ago... Talking 15+ years ago though

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 8 hours ago

    The multi-hops incurred by Tor increases the latency, but not necessarily the throughput. Tor is slow because there are too many users leeching from a small set of altruistic relays.

    Tribler is better because every user becomes a relay. It is still constrained by exit nodes (not enabled but default), which is needed to talk with non-tribler clients, but that is not a problem if the majority of peers are using tribler, and traffic is mostly in-network.

    About becoming a target, I have the same worry, but I don't think that was what happened with file-sharing with search features. The problem is that search was unreliable, full of malware and spam. I think that can be solved with a Sybil resistant reputation system (the hardest part of the problem).

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