BitTorrent (protocol) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

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BitTorrent (protocol)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large
amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring File sharing
large files, and it has been estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55%
Timeline of file sharing
of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February
2009.[1] Concepts:

Anonymous P2P
Programmer Bram Cohen designed the protocol in April 2001 and released a Friend-to-friend
first implementation on 2 July 2001.[2] It is now maintained by Cohen's company Darknet
BitTorrent, Inc. There are numerous BitTorrent clients available for a variety of Private P2P
computing platforms. Networks and services:

Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2)

FastTrack, Kazaa
eDonkey
Contents BitTorrent, Mininova,
isoHunt, The Pirate Bay
1 Description Other:
2 Operation
2.1 Creating and publishing torrents File sharing in Canada
2.2 Downloading torrents and sharing files
3 Adoption
3.1 Film, video and music
3.2 Broadcasters
3.3 Personal material
3.4 Software
4 Network impact
5 Indexing
6 Limitations
6.1 Content unavailability
6.2 Lack of anonymity
6.3 The leech problem
6.4 The cheater problem
6.5 Speed
7 Technologies built on BitTorrent
7.1 Distributed trackers
7.2 Web seeding
7.3 RSS feeds
7.4 Throttling and encryption
7.5 Multitracker
7.6 Decentralized keyword search
7.7 GitTorrent
8 Implementations
9 Development

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10 Legal issues
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links

Description
BitTorrent protocol allows users to distribute large amounts of data without the heavy demands on their
computers that would be needed for standard Internet hosting. A standard host's servers can easily be brought to
a halt if high levels of simultaneous data flow are reached. The protocol works as an alternative data distribution
method that makes even small computers (e.g. mobile phones) with low bandwidth capable of participating in
large data transfers.

First, a user playing the role of file-provider makes a file available to the network. This first user's file is called a
seed and its availability on the network allows other users, called peers, to connect and begin to download the
seed file. As new peers connect to the network and request the same file, their computer receives a different
piece of the data from the seed. Once multiple peers have multiple pieces of the seed, BitTorrent allows each to
become a source for that portion of the file. The effect of this is to take on a small part of the task and relieve
the initial user, distributing the file download task among the seed and many peers. With BitTorrent, no one
computer needs to supply data in quantities which could jeopardize the task by overwhelming all resources, yet
the same final result—each peer eventually receiving the entire file—is still reached.

After the file is successfully and completely downloaded by a given peer, the peer is able to shift roles and
become an additional seed, helping the remaining peers to receive the entire file. This eventual shift from peers
to seeders determines the overall 'health' of the file (as determined by the number of times a file is available in
its complete form).

This distributed nature of BitTorrent leads to a flood like spreading of a file throughout peers. As more peers
join the swarm, the likelihood of a successful download increases. Relative to standard Internet hosting, this
provides a significant reduction in the original distributor's hardware and bandwidth resource costs. It also
provides redundancy against system problems, reduces dependence on the original distributor and provides a
source for the file which is generally temporary and therefore harder to trace than when provided by the
enduring availability of a host in standard file distribution techniques.

Operation

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A BitTorrent client is any program that implements

the BitTorrent protocol. Each client is capable of
preparing, requesting, and transmitting any type of
computer file over a network, using the protocol. A
peer is any computer running an instance of a
client.

To share a file or group of files, a peer first creates

a small file called a "torrent" (e.g. MyFile.torrent).
This file contains metadata about the files to be
shared and about the tracker, the computer that
coordinates the file distribution. Peers that want to
download the file must first obtain a torrent file for
it, and connect to the specified tracker, which tells
them from which other peers to download the
pieces of the file.

Though both ultimately transfer files over a

network, a BitTorrent download differs from a
In this animation, the colored bars beneath all of the 7 clients in
classic download (as is typical with an HTTP or the upper region above represent individual pieces of the file.
FTP request, for example) in several fundamental After the initial pieces transfer from the seed (large system at
ways: the bottom), the pieces are individually transferred from client
to client. The original seeder only needs to send out one copy of
BitTorrent makes many small data requests the file for all the clients to receive a copy.
over different TCP connections to different
machines, while classic downloading is typically made via a single TCP connection to a single machine.
BitTorrent downloads in a random or in a "rarest-first"[3] approach that ensures high availability, while
classic downloads are sequential.

Taken together, these differences allow BitTorrent to achieve much lower cost to the content provider, much
higher redundancy, and much greater resistance to abuse or to "flash crowds" than regular server software.
However, this protection, theoretically, comes at a cost: downloads can take time to rise to full speed because it
may take time for enough peer connections to be established, and it may take time for a node to receive
sufficient data to become an effective uploader. This contrasts with regular downloads (such as from an HTTP
server, for example) that, while more vulnerable to overload and abuse, rise to full speed very quickly and
maintain this speed throughout.

In general, BitTorrent's non-contiguous download methods have prevented it from supporting "progressive
downloads" or "streaming playback". However, comments made by Bram Cohen in January 2007
(http://torrentfreak.com/interview-with-bram-cohen-the-inventor-of-bittorrent) suggest that streaming torrent
downloads will soon be commonplace and ad supported streaming (http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-launches-
ad-supported-streaming-071218) appears to be the result of those comments.

Creating and publishing torrents

The peer distributing a data file treats the file as a number of identically sized pieces, typically between 32 KB
and 4 MB each. The peer creates a checksum for each piece, using the SHA1 hashing algorithm, and records it
in the torrent file. Pieces with sizes greater than 512 KB will reduce the size of a torrent file for a very large
payload, but is claimed to reduce the efficiency of the protocol.[4] When another peer later receives a particular
piece, the checksum of the piece is compared to the recorded checksum to test that the piece is error-free.[5]

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Peers that provide a complete file are called seeders, and the peer providing the initial copy is called the initial
seeder.

The exact information contained in the torrent file depends on the version of the BitTorrent protocol. By
convention, the name of a torrent file has the suffix .torrent. Torrent files have an "announce" section,
which specifies the URL of the tracker, and an "info" section, containing (suggested) names for the files, their
lengths, the piece length used, and a SHA-1 hash code for each piece, all of which are used by clients to verify
the integrity of the data they receive.

Torrent files are typically published on websites or elsewhere, and registered with at least one tracker. The
tracker maintains lists of the clients currently participating in the torrent.[5] Alternatively, in a trackerless
system (decentralized tracking) every peer acts as a tracker. Azureus was the first[citation needed] BitTorrent
client to implement such a system through the distributed hash table (DHT) method. An alternative and
incompatible DHT system, known as Mainline DHT, was later developed and adopted by the BitTorrent
(Mainline), µTorrent, Transmission, rTorrent, KTorrent, BitComet, and Deluge clients.

After the DHT was adopted, a "private" flag—analogous to the broadcast flag—was unofficially introduced,
telling clients to restrict the use of decentralized tracking regardless of the user's desires.[6] The flag is
intentionally placed in the info section of the torrent so that it cannot be disabled or removed without changing
the identity of the torrent. The purpose of the flag is to prevent torrents from being shared with clients that do
not have access to the tracker. The flag was requested for inclusion in the official specification in August, 2008,
but has not been accepted.[7] Clients that have ignored the private flag were banned by many trackers,
discouraging the practice.[8]

Downloading torrents and sharing files

Users browse the web to find a torrent of interest, download it, and open it with a BitTorrent client. The client
connects to the tracker(s) specified in the torrent file, from which it receives a list of peers currently transferring
pieces of the file(s) specified in the torrent. The client connects to those peers to obtain the various pieces. If the
swarm contains only the initial seeder, the client connects directly to it and begins to request pieces.

Clients incorporate mechanisms to optimize their download and upload rates; for example they download pieces
in a random order to increase the opportunity to exchange data, which is only possible if two peers have
different pieces of the file.

The effectiveness of this data exchange depends largely on the policies that clients use to determine to whom to
send data. Clients may prefer to send data to peers that send data back to them (a tit for tat scheme), which
encourages fair trading. But strict policies often result in suboptimal situations, such as when newly joined peers
are unable to receive any data because they don't have any pieces yet to trade themselves or when two peers
with a good connection between them do not exchange data simply because neither of them takes the initiative.
To counter these effects, the official BitTorrent client program uses a mechanism called “optimistic unchoking”,
whereby the client reserves a portion of its available bandwidth for sending pieces to random peers (not
necessarily known good partners, so called preferred peers) in hopes of discovering even better partners and to
ensure that newcomers get a chance to join the swarm.[9]

The community of BitTorrent users frowns upon the practice of disconnecting from the network immediately
upon success of a file download, and encourages remaining as another seed for as long as practical, which may
be days - especially when there are a lot of downloading peers and when the ratio of seeders to downloading
peers is low.

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Adoption
A growing number of individuals and organizations are using BitTorrent to distribute their own or licensed
material. Independent adopters report[10] that without using BitTorrent technology and its dramatically reduced
demands on their private networking hardware and bandwidth, they could not afford to distribute their files.

Film, video and music

BitTorrent Inc. has amassed a number of licenses from Hollywood studios for distributing popular content
from their websites.
Sub Pop Records releases tracks and videos via BitTorrent Inc.[11] to distribute its 1000+ albums. The
band Ween uses the website Browntracker.net[12] to distribute free audio and video recordings of live
shows. Furthermore, Babyshambles and The Libertines (both bands associated with Pete Doherty) have
extensively used torrents to distribute hundreds of demos and live videos. US industrial rock band Nine
Inch Nails frequently distributes albums via BitTorrent.
Podcasting software is starting to integrate BitTorrent to help podcasters deal with the download demands
of their MP3 "radio" programs. Specifically, Juice and Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player)
support automatic processing of .torrent files from RSS feeds. Similarly, some BitTorrent clients, such as
µTorrent, are able to process web feeds and automatically download content found within them.
DGM Live! purchases are provided via BitTorrent.[13]

Broadcasters

In 2008, the CBC became the first public broadcaster in North America to make a full show (Canada's
Next Great Prime Minister) available for download using BitTorrent.[14]
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has since March 2008 experimented with bittorrent
distribution, available here (http://nrkbeta.no/bittorrent/) . Only selected material in which NRK owns all
royalties are published. Responses have been very positive, and NRK is planning to offer more content.
The Dutch VPRO broadcasting organization released three documentaries under a Creative Commons
license using the content distribution feature of the Mininova tracker.

Personal material

The Amazon S3 "Simple Storage Service" is a scalable Internet-based storage service with a simple web
service interface, equipped with built-in BitTorrent support.
Blog Torrent offers a simplified BitTorrent tracker to enable bloggers and non-technical users to host a
tracker on their site. Blog Torrent also allows visitors to download a "stub" loader, which acts as a
BitTorrent client to download the desired file, allowing users without BitTorrent software to use the
protocol.[15] This is similar to the concept of a self-extracting archive.

Software
Blizzard Entertainment uses BitTorrent (via a proprietary client called the "Blizzard Downloader") to
distribute most content for World of Warcraft, including the game itself.[16]
Many software games, especially those whose large size makes them difficult to host due to bandwidth
limits, extremely frequent downloads, and unpredictable changes in network traffic, will distribute instead
a specialized, stripped down bittorrent client with enough functionality to download the game from the
other running clients and the primary server (which is maintained in case not enough peers are available).

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Many major open source and free software projects encourage BitTorrent as well as conventional
downloads of their products (via HTTP, FTP etc) to increase availability and to reduce load on their own
servers, especially when dealing with larger files.[17]
Entropia Universe also begun distributing the client file(s) through BitTorrent.

Network impact
CableLabs, the research organization of the North American cable industry, estimates that BitTorrent represents
18% of all broadband traffic.[18] In 2004, CacheLogic put that number at roughly 35% of all traffic on the
Internet.[19] The discrepancies in these numbers are caused by differences in the method used to measure P2P
traffic on the Internet.[20]

Routers that use NAT, Network address translation, must maintain tables of source and destination IP addresses
and ports. Typical home routers are limited to about 2000 table entries while some more expensive routers have
larger table capacities. BitTorrent frequently contacts 300-500 servers per second rapidly filling the NAT tables.
This is a common cause of home routers locking up.[21]

Indexing
The BitTorrent protocol provides no way to index torrent files. As a result, a comparatively small number of
websites have hosted a large majority of torrents, many linking to copyrighted material, rendering those sites
especially vulnerable to lawsuits.[22] Several types of websites support the discovery and distribution of data on
the BitTorrent network.

Public torrent hosting sites such as The Pirate Bay allow users to search and download from their collection of
torrent files. Users can typically also upload torrent files for content they wish to distribute. Often, these sites
also run BitTorrent trackers for their hosted torrent files, but these two functions are not mutually dependent: a
torrent file could be hosted on one site and tracked by another, unrelated site.

Private host/tracker sites such as Demonoid operate like public ones except that they restrict access to
registered users and keep track of the amount of data each user uploads and downloads, in an attempt to reduce
leeching.

Search engines allow the discovery of torrent files that are hosted and tracked on other sites; examples include
Mininova, BTJunkie, Torrentz, The Pirate Bay, Eztorrent and isoHunt. These sites allow the user to ask for
content meeting specific criteria (such as containing a given word or phrase) and retrieve a list of links to torrent
files matching those criteria. This list can often be sorted with respect to several criteria, being relevance
(seeders-leechers ratio) one of the most popular and useful (due to the way the protocol behaves, the download
bandwidth achievable is very sensitive to this value). Bram Cohen launched a BitTorrent search engine on
http://search.bittorrent.com that co-mingles licensed content with search results.[23] Metasearch engines allow
one to search several BitTorrent indices and search engines at once.

Limitations
Content unavailability

Although swarming scales well to tolerate flash crowds for popular content, it is less useful for unpopular

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content. Peers arriving after the initial rush might find the content unavailable and need to wait for the arrival of
a seed in order to complete their downloads. The seed arrival, in turn, may take long to happen, since
maintaining seeds for unpopular content entails high bandwidth and administrative costs, which runs counter to
the goals of publishers that value BitTorrent as a cheap alternative to a client-server approach. A strategy
adopted by many publishers which significantly increases availability of unpopular content consists of bundling
multiple files in a single swarm. [24]

Lack of anonymity

BitTorrent does not offer its users anonymity. It is possible to obtain the IP addresses of all current, and possibly
previous, participants in a swarm from the tracker. This may expose users with insecure systems to attacks.[9] It
may also expose users to the risk of being sued, if they are distributing files without permission from the
copyright holder(s). However, there are ways to promote anonymity; for example, the OneSwarm project layers
privacy-preserving sharing mechanisms on top of the original BitTorrent protocol.

The leech problem

A BitTorrent user may often choose to leave the swarm as soon as they have a complete copy of the file they
are downloading, freeing up their outbound bandwidth for other uses. If enough users follow this pattern, torrent
swarms gradually die out, meaning a lower possibility of obtaining older torrents (see content unavailability
above). Some BitTorrent websites have attempted to address this by recording each user's download and upload
ratio for all or just the user to see, as well as the provision of access to newer torrent files to people with better
ratios. Users who have low upload ratios may see slower download speeds until they upload more. This prevents
(statistical) leeching, since after a while they become unable to download at even a fraction of the theoretical
bandwidth of their connection. Some trackers exempt dial-up users from this policy, because their uploading
capabilities are limited. The BitTorrent protocol also attempts to minimize the damages of leeches by using only
a portion of their bandwidth for one-directional trades and using the majority for two-directional trades that tend
to help the swarm as a whole.

The cheater problem

There are "cheating" clients like BitThief which claim to be able to download without uploading. Such
exploitation negatively affects the cooperative nature of the BitTorrent protocol, although it might prove useful
for people in countries where uploading copyrighted material is illegal, but downloading is not.

Speed

Average BitTorrent download speed is usually the sum of that peer's upload speed and a fair share of the total
upload of all the "seeders in the swarm" (peers logged with the tracker that have a complete copy of the file).
The 'tit-for-tat' style file sharing of downloading peers is responsible for the portion of the available download
that's the same as the peer's upload. The seeders attempt to provide fair shares by scattering pieces to a wide
selection of the best performing peers.

ISPs often provide asymmetrical Internet connections, with much higher download than upload speeds. Since a
peer can only download data that's been uploaded by another peer this asymmetry is suboptimal for the
bittorrent protocol. This performance issue is most obvious during the early life of a swarm when there is only
one peer that is seeding (has a complete copy of the file) and all the other peers have exactly the same portion
of the file as each other. When you initially join such a swarm you will get very high download speeds as every
other peer optimistically sends you pieces in the hope that you have something to send them. This will probably

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continue until the time your peer catches up with the rest of the swarm when your average download speed
drops to exactly the same as the upload speed of the seeder. The data is uploaded by the seeder to one peer and
that peer passes it on down the line to the next in the swarm and so forth to everyone in the swarm.

If all peers in the swarm have symmetrical connections the swarm becomes far more stable. During the initial
startup the swarm will be less able to draw new arrivals to the current maximum level of the swarm so the
"everybody becomes a seeder" threshold is much less of an instant switch and more of a controlled cascade.
The balance between the upload and the download also means that the majority of a peer's download is as a
result of the 'tit-for-tat' file sharing which reduces the cost of seeding to a swarm by forcing the natural ratio of a
peer closer to the overall 1:1 requirement of the swarm as a whole. If this reduction in 'seeder cost' were to
happen in the wild it would probably result in much longer lived swarms too.

As symmetrical connections are uncommon swarms are normally in the "seeder starved" state where there is
very little seeder upload bandwidth available and each peer gets about the same download as it's upload.
Additional upload bandwidth can be made available to a swarm through the use of "seed boxes" and "http
seeds" but this is quite rare with public torrents.

Technologies built on BitTorrent

The BitTorrent protocol is still under development and therefore may still acquire new features and other
enhancements such as improved efficiency.

Distributed trackers

On May 2, 2005, Azureus 2.3.0.0 (now known as Vuze) was released,[25] introducing support for "trackerless"
torrents through a system called the "distributed database." This system is a DHT implementation which allows
the client to use torrents that do not have a working BitTorrent tracker. The following month, BitTorrent, Inc.
released version 4.2.0 of the Mainline BitTorrent client, which supported an alternative DHT implementation
(popularly known as "Mainline DHT") that is incompatible with that of Azureus. Current versions of the official
BitTorrent client, µTorrent, BitComet, and BitSpirit all share compatibility with Mainline DHT. Both DHT
implementations are based on Kademlia.[26] As of version 3.0.5.0, Azureus also supports Mainline DHT in
addition to its own distributed database through use of an optional application plugin.[27] This potentially allows
the Azureus client to reach a bigger swarm.

Another idea that has surfaced in Vuze is that of virtual torrents. This idea is based on the distributed tracker
approach and is used to describe some web resource. Currently, it is used for instant messaging. It is
implemented using a special messaging protocol and requires an appropriate plugin. Anatomic P2P is another
approach, which uses a decentralized network of nodes that route traffic to dynamic trackers.

Most BitTorrent clients also use Peer exchange (PEX) to gather peers in addition to trackers and DHT. Peer
exchange checks with known peers to see if they know of any other peers. With the 3.0.5.0 release of Vuze, all
major BitTorrent clients now have compatible peer exchange.

Web seeding

Web seeding was implemented in 2006 as the ability of BitTorrent clients to download torrent pieces from an
HTTP source in addition to the swarm. The advantage of this feature is that a site may distribute a torrent for a
particular file or batch of files and make those files available for download from that same web server; this can
simplify long term seeding and load balancing through the use of existing, cheap, web hosting setups. In theory,

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this would make using BitTorrent almost as easy for a web publisher as creating a direct http download, in
addition it would allow the 'web seed' to be disabled if the swarm becomes too popular while still allowing the
file to be readily available. This feature was created by John "TheSHAD0W" Hoffman, who created
BitTornado.[28] From version 5.0 onward the Mainline BitTorrent client also supports web seeds and the
BitTorrent web site had[29] a simple publishing tool that creates web seeded torrents.[30] µTorrent added
support for web seeds in version 1.7. BitComet added support for web seeds in version 1.14.

RSS feeds

A technique called Broadcatching combines RSS with the BitTorrent protocol to create a content delivery
system, further simplifying and automating content distribution. Steve Gillmor explained the concept in a
column for Ziff-Davis in December, 2003.[31] The discussion spread quickly among bloggers (Ernest Miller,[32]
Chris Pirillo, etc.). In an article entitled Broadcatching with BitTorrent, Scott Raymond explained:

I want RSS feeds of BitTorrent files. A script would periodically check the feed for new items, and use
them to start the download. Then, I could find a trusted publisher of an Alias RSS feed, and 'subscribe' to
all new episodes of the show, which would then start downloading automatically — like the 'season pass'
feature of the TiVo.
—Scott Raymond, scottraymond.net[33]

The RSS feed will track the content, while BitTorrent ensures content integrity with cryptographic hashing of all
data, so feed subscribers will receive uncorrupted content.

One of the first and popular software clients (free and open source) for broadcatching is Miro. Other free
software clients such as PenguinTV and KatchTV are also now supporting broadcatching.

The BitTorrent web-service MoveDigital has the ability to make torrents available to any web application
capable of parsing XML through its standard REST-based interface.[34] Additionally, Torrenthut is developing a
similar torrent API that will provide the same features, as well as further intuition to help bring the torrent
community to Web 2.0 standards. Alongside this release is a first PHP application built using the API called
PEP, which will parse any Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0) feed and automatically create and seed a torrent
for each enclosure found in that feed.[35]

Throttling and encryption

Main article: BitTorrent protocol encryption

Since BitTorrent makes up a large proportion of total traffic, some ISPs have chosen to throttle (slow down)
BitTorrent transfers to ensure network capacity remains available for other uses. For this reason, methods have
been developed to disguise BitTorrent traffic in an attempt to thwart these efforts.[36]

Protocol header encrypt (PHE) and Message stream encryption/Protocol encryption (MSE/PE) are features of
some BitTorrent clients that attempt to make BitTorrent hard to detect and throttle. At the moment Vuze,
Bitcomet, KTorrent, Transmission, Deluge, µTorrent, MooPolice, Halite, rTorrent and the latest official
BitTorrent client (v6) support MSE/PE encryption.

In September 2006 it was reported that some software could detect and throttle BitTorrent traffic masquerading
as HTTP traffic.[37]

Reports in August 2007 indicated that Comcast was preventing BitTorrent seeding by monitoring and interfering

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with the communication between peers. Protection against these efforts is provided by proxying the client-
tracker traffic via an encrypted tunnel to a point outside of the Comcast network.[38] Comcast has more
recently called a 'truce' with BitTorrent, Inc. with the intention of shaping traffic in a protocol-agnostic
manner.[39] Questions about the ethics and legality of Comcast's behavior have led to renewed debate about Net
neutrality in the United States.[40]

In general, although encryption can make it difficult to determine what is being shared, BitTorrent is vulnerable
to traffic analysis. Thus even with MSE/PE, it may be possible for an ISP to recognize BitTorrent and also to
determine that a system is no longer downloading but only uploading data, and terminate its connection by
injecting TCP RST (reset flag) packets.

The Sandvine traffic shaping hardware / software system is able (via a man-in-the-middle attack) to send IP
hangup packets to the sender and receiver—allowing BitTorrent to be completely throttled. It must be pointed
out that BitTorrent protocol behavior is easily spotted by this and other traffic shaping packages, as BitTorrent
protocol setup is very dependent on a few very predictable signalling behaviors.[41]

Multitracker

Another unofficial feature is an extension to the BitTorrent metadata format proposed by John Hoffman[42] and
implemented by several indexing websites. It allows the use of multiple trackers per file, so if one tracker fails,
others can continue supporting file transfer. It is implemented in several clients, such as BitComet, BitTornado,
BitTorrent, KTorrent, Transmission, Deluge, µTorrent, rtorrent and Vuze. Trackers are placed in groups, or
tiers, with a tracker randomly chosen from the top tier and tried, moving to the next tier if all the trackers in the
top tier fail.

Torrents with multiple trackers[43] can decrease the time it takes to download a file, but also has a few
consequences:

Poorly implemented[44] clients may contact multiple trackers, leading to more overhead-traffic.
Torrents from closed trackers suddenly become downloadable by non-members, as they can connect to a
seed via an open tracker.

Decentralized keyword search

Even with distributed trackers, a third party is still required to find a specific torrent. This is usually done in the
form of a hyperlink from the website of the content owner or through indexing websites like The Pirate Bay or
Torrentz.

The Tribler BitTorrent client is the first to incorporate decentralized search capabilities. With Tribler, users can
find .torrent files that are hosted among other peers, instead of on a centralized index sites. It adds such an
ability to the BitTorrent protocol using a gossip protocol, somewhat similar to the eXeem network which was
shut down in 2005. The software includes the ability to recommend content as well. After a dozen downloads
the Tribler software can roughly estimate the download taste of the user and recommend additional content.[45]

In May 2007 Cornell University published a paper proposing a new approach to searching a peer-to-peer
network for inexact strings,[46] which could replace the functionality of a central indexing site. A year later, the
same team implemented the system as a plugin for Vuze called Cubit[47] and published a follow-up paper
reporting its success.[48]

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A somewhat similar facility but with a slightly different approach is provided by the BitComet client through its
"Torrent Exchange"[49] feature. Whenever two peers using BitComet (with Torrent Exchange enabled) connect
to each other they exchange lists of all the torrents (name and info-hash) they have in the Torrent Share storage
(torrent files which were previously downloaded and for which the user chose to enable sharing by Torrent
Exchange).

Thus each client builds up a list of all the torrents shared by the peers it connected to in the current session (or it
can even maintain the list between sessions if instructed). At any time the user can search into that Torrent
Collection list for a certain torrent and sort the list by categories. When the user chooses to download a torrent
from that list, the .torrent file is automatically searched for (by info-hash value) in the DHT Network and when
found it is downloaded by the querying client which can after that create and initiate a downloading task.

GitTorrent

The GitTorrent Protocol (GTP)[50] is, as of 2008, an alpha-version of a protocol designed for collaborative git
repository distribution across the Internet.

Implementations
Main article: Comparison of BitTorrent clients

Clients: the BitTorrent specification is free to use and many clients are open source, so BitTorrent clients
have been created for all common operating systems using a variety of programming languages. The
official BitTorrent client, uTorrent, Vuze, Transmission, and BitComet are some of the most popular
clients.[citation needed]

Servers: Some BitTorrent implementations such as MLDonkey and Torrentflux are designed to run as
servers. For example, this can be used to centralize file sharing on a single dedicated server which users
share access to on the network. [51]

Hosted: Server-oriented BitTorrent implementations can also be hosted by hosting providers at co-located
facilities with high bandwidth Internet connectivity (e.g., a datacenter) which can provide dramatic speed
benefits over using BitTorrent from a regular home broadband connection.

Web services: Services such as ImageShack can download files on BitTorrent for the user, allowing them
to download the entire file by HTTP once it is finished.

In-browser: The Opera web browser supports BitTorrent,[52] as does Wyzo. BitLet allows users to
download Torrents directly from their browser using a Java applet.

Hardware devices: An increasing number of hardware devices are being made to support BitTorrent.
These include routers and NAS devices that use BitTorrent-capable firmware like OpenWrt.

Proprietary versions: Proprietary versions of the protocol which implement DRM, encryption, and
authentication are found within managed clients such as Pando.

Development
An as-yet (2 February 2008) unimplemented unofficial feature is Similarity Enhanced Transfer (SET), a

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technique for improving the speed at which peer-to-peer file sharing and content distribution systems can share
data. SET, proposed by researchers Pucha, Andersen, and Kaminsky, works by spotting chunks of identical data
in files that are an exact or near match to the one needed and transferring these data to the client if the 'exact'
data are not present. Their experiments suggested that SET will help greatly with less popular files, but not as
much for popular data, where many peers are already downloading it.[53] Andersen believes that this technique
could be immediately used by developers with the BitTorrent file sharing system.[54]

As of December 2008, BitTorrent, Inc. is working with Oversi on new Policy Discover Protocols that query the
ISP for capabilities and network architecture information. Oversi's ISP hosted NetEnhancer box is designed to
"improve peer selection" by helping peers find local nodes, improving download speeds while reducing the loads
into and out of the ISP's network.[55]

Legal issues
Main article: Legal issues with BitTorrent

There has been much controversy over the use of BitTorrent trackers. BitTorrent metafiles themselves do not
store copyrighted data. Whether the publishers of BitTorrent metafiles violate copyrights by linking to
copyrighted material is controversial.

Various jurisdictions have pursued legal action against websites that host BitTorrent trackers. High-profile
examples include the closing of Suprnova.org, Torrentspy, LokiTorrent, Demonoid, Mininova and OiNK.cd.
The Pirate Bay torrent website, formed by a Swedish group, is noted for the "legal" section of its website in
which letters and replies on the subject of alleged copyright infringements are publicly displayed. On 31 May
2006, The Pirate Bay's servers in Sweden were raided by Swedish police on allegations by the MPAA of
copyright infringement;[56] however, the tracker was up and running again three days later.

HBO, in an effort to combat the distribution of its programming on BitTorrent networks, has sent cease and
desist letters to the Internet Service Providers of BitTorrent users. Many users have reported receiving letters
from their ISPs that threatened to cut off their Internet service if the alleged infringement continues.[57] HBO,
unlike the RIAA, has not been reported to have filed suit against anyone for sharing files as of April 2007. In
2005 HBO began "poisoning" torrents of its show Rome, by providing bad chunks of data to clients.[58]
BitTorrent clients will eventually realize that the data is corrupted, but this does make it take longer to
download.

On 23 November 2005, the movie industry and BitTorrent Inc. CEO Bram Cohen, signed a deal they hoped
would reduce the number of unlicensed copies available through bittorrent.com's search engine, run by
BitTorrent, Inc. It meant BitTorrent.com had to remove any links to unlicensed copies of films made by seven
of Hollywood's major movie studios.

More recently, the BitTorrent network has been subject to scrutiny by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
There are suggestions that they are using the network to obtain the IP addresses of those currently connected to
the tracker. The information is then used to contact the ISP of each downloader so that notifications can be
made (this was given sizeable coverage in the UK press with regard to Virgin Media sending letters out to
customers suspected of using P2P networks).

There are two major differences between BitTorrent and many other peer-to-peer file-trading systems, which
advocates suggest make it less useful to those sharing copyrighted material without authorization. First,
BitTorrent itself does not offer a search facility to find files by name. A user must find the initial torrent file by

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other means, such as a web search. Second, BitTorrent makes no attempt to conceal the host ultimately
responsible for facilitating the sharing: a person who wishes to make a file available must run a tracker on a
specific host or hosts and distribute the tracker address(es) in the .torrent file. Because it is possible to
operate a tracker on a server that is located in a jurisdiction where the copyright holder cannot take legal action,
the protocol does offer some vulnerability that other protocols lack. It is far easier to request that the server's
ISP shut down the site than it is to find and identify every user sharing a file on a peer-to-peer network.
However, with the use of a distributed hash table (DHT), trackers are no longer required, though often used for
client software that does not support DHT to connect to the stream.

See also
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
BitTorrent tracker software
Bencode
Comparison of BitTorrent clients
Comparison of BitTorrent sites
FastTrack
Kazaa
Magnet URI scheme
Segmented downloading
Similarity Enhanced Transfer
Simple file verification
Super-seeding
Terminology of BitTorrent
Torrent file
UDP Torrent Protocol

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Further reading
Pouwelse, Johan; et al. (2005). "The Bittorrent P2P File-Sharing System: Measurements and Analysis".
Peer-to-Peer Systems IV. Berlin: Springer. pp. 205–216. doi:10.1007/11558989_19 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1007%2F11558989_19) . ISBN 9783540290681.

External links
Official BitTorrent Website (http://www.bittorrent.com/)
Official BitTorrent Specification (http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html)
BitTorrent (http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/File_Sharing/BitTorrent/) at the Open Directory
Project
Interview with chief executive Ashwin Navin (http://streaming.scmp.com/podcasting/upload
/News_BitTorrent_june15.mp3)
Unofficial BitTorrent Protocol Specification v1.0 (http://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification) at
wiki.theory.org
Unofficial BitTorrent Location-aware Protocol 1.0 Specification (http://wiki.theory.org
/BitTorrent_Location-aware_Protocol_1.0_Specification) at wiki.theory.org

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)"

Categories: Application layer protocols | BitTorrent | Computer file formats | File sharing networks

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