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OpenTrackr Orders New Server to Keep Millions of Torrent Transfers GoingErnesto Van der Sar, 03 Apr 10:16 PM Every day, millions of people from all

OpenTrackr Orders New Server to Keep Millions of Torrent Transfers Going Ernesto Van der Sar, 03 Apr 10:16 PM Every day, millions of people from all around the world use BitTorrent to download and share files. Most of these transfers are facilitated by third-party torrent trackers, which help file-sharers to connect to each other. When someone asks for information referenced by a specific torrent hash, the tracker will respond with a list of peers, if available. This is a pretty straightforward but resource-intensive process. While there are serverless technologies such as DHT and PEX, trackers remain a central part of most people's torrent transfers. Despite this rather crucial role, the top trackers are mostly run by volunteers and hobbyists. OpenTrackr's Rise This is also the case for OpenTrackr, which coordinates the transfers of close to 10 million torrents. The tracker's operator Bart launched Opentrackr in 2015 because there was a lack of reliable alternatives at the time. His goal was to start a content-neutral tracker that would adhere to the law, which turned out to be a great success. At the time of writing, the tracker handles roughly 200,000 connections per second. This adds up to roughly six terabytes of bandwidth every day, which merely comes from passing on requests from file-sharers. The actual files that are transferred never touch the server. Hardware Bottleneck Thus far, OpenTrackr has managed to keep things afloat on an outdated server. The tracker is currently hosted on a 10-year-old Dell R410, which is running two Intel L5640 CPUs with four DDR3-1066 ECC 16GB memory modules. This setup is now experiencing bottlenecks. "The current server is strongly bottlenecked," Bart tells us, mentioning that both the CPU and memory bandwidth are not cutting it anymore. "We currently use DDR3 ECC memory, ECC memory has bad timings that give it a much lower throughput. This results in the CPU having to wait longer for it to receive data from memory, while it's already getting overloaded with requests." In recent months, the urge to update the server became stronger and stronger. While that might be a logical step for a commercial operation, for a 'hobby' project it's a different decision. Nonetheless, Bart decided to take the leap. New Gear After considering various options he settled for an AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 3900 CPU with 2x DDR4-3200 memory. The memory doesn't support error correction code, but that shouldn't be a problem. In addition, the new server will use a 10Gbps fibre network card, which will help the tracker to grow in the future. "The parts have been ordered, I hope to have the server ready and active next month if everything goes to plan," Bart says. Needless to say, this hardware doesn't come cheap. And while the tracker accepts donations through Patreon, that doesn't cover all costs. "The new server is partly coming out of my own pockets. I don't really mind, the tracker has always been a fun project and I'm happy to continue with it for many years. The new server will cost a total of about €1200, the old server should go for at least €150 so it's costing about €1000 or so," Bart tells us. Transparency It's refreshing to see a service at the core of the BitTorrent ecosystem being quite open about its financials. At the moment, OpenTrackr is receiving €61 per month from 15 supporters, which helps to pay the running costs. The transparency doesn't stop there either. Through Patreon, OpenTrackr regularly shares detailed bandwidth statistics too. And there are financial updates to show where the money is being spent. Even takedown notices are processed in the open. It is safe to say that OpenTrackr has succeeded in its plan to become a stable and content-neutral torrent tracker. The public doesn't always notice, but it plays a bigger role than most people assume. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Pirate Bay: Law Firm Wins Prestigious Industry Award For Dynamic Blocking Injunction Andy Maxwell, 03 Apr 11:52 AM Having largely given up on tackling individual file-sharers with direct legal action, the mainstream movie, TV, and music companies have been taking a different approach. The theory is that if pirates can't easily reach torrent and streaming platforms using their regular Internet connections, then that will eventually result in more sales from legal platforms. Rightsholders try to achieve this goal by taking internet service providers to court and attempting to convince a judge that they should block access to infringing sites to avoid liability. The practice is underway in several regions, including in Europe, where thousands of sites are blocked by ISPs. In Sweden, the first big win came in 2017 when the Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and the Swedish film industry, ordering local ISP Bredbandsbolaget to block access to The Pirate Bay. But of course, this was just the beginning. Legal Action To Force Telia To Block The Pirate Bay In 2018, following legal action by the Swedish Film Industry, Nordisk Film, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox, ISP Telia was ordered to block subscriber access to several 'pirate' sites – The Pirate Bay and streaming platforms Fmovies, Dreamfilm and NyaFilmer. The case was struck down on appeal but the matter was far from over. Following a second bite at the cherry, the Patent and Market Court ordered Telia to block access to the four pirate sites. Perhaps more importantly, however, the Court also responded favorably to a call to issue a flexible or 'dynamic' injunction. Instead of chasing pirate sites to new domains, proxies, mirrors, and IP addresses, new locations could be added to otherwise static injunctions, without the need for a new process. Telia didn't like the outcome of that case and filed an appeal, arguing that website blockades are easy to circumvent and therefore ineffective. However, in the summer of 2020 the Court found that blocking efforts are effective enough to deter some people from piracy and any risk of over-blocking (i.e blocking non-infringing sites) is minimal. At that point, Sweden was given it very first dynamic blocking injunction. Law Firm Behind The Win Handed Prestigious Industry Award Earlier this week, Synch – the law firm that fought the case against Telia on behalf of more than a dozen film companies – was recognized by its industry peers for its achievements in Sweden. During a virtual ceremony in London for the Managing IP Awards 2021, the company was handed the Impact Case Award for the most significant case of the year. "In the case, Synch successfully represented a total of 16 Nordic and American film companies/studios against Telia where the court judged that the internet provider has participated in copyright infringement by providing internet connection to its subscribers who gained access to films and TV series that were illegally made available to the public by The Pirate Bay and three other services," a statement from Synch reads. Synch notes that the Patent and Market Court of Appeal had to weigh the film companies' interests in preventing copyright infringement against the costs of blocking for Telia, and the freedom of Internet users to freely impart and access information. Ultimately, the Court found that the rights of the film companies come first, partly because of the illegal nature of The Pirate Bay and the named streaming sites. "It's fun and honoring that Synch won this prestigious award last night," said lawyer Sara Sparring who together with lawyer My Byström and lawyer Jim Runsten ran the case at Synch. "The case has received a lot of attention because it is the first time in Sweden a court has issued a dynamic injunction." The rest of this year's award winners can be found here. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2021 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company