Magnetico: A Personal Torrent Search Engine That Can’t Be Shut Down

[jerrysmatrix]

I have to read up (a lot more) on this topic, but it seems to me that, with the whole essence of DHT, that a lot of the functionality is already there. We would just need to extend it with a term search, rather than a hash search.

[dueda]

... We would just need to extend it with a term search, rather than a hash search.

In order to avoid sending a list of available torrents, a node could just answer "I don't know" and forward the query, or reply "Matches (title & hash list)".
Don't know if a BEP for that already exists but it is similar to what qBitTorrent does, without involving tracker/index sites.

[jerrysmatrix]

Well, I'm still not entirely sure broadcasting a list of torrents is a bad idea. If you know a hash of an illegal torrent, then you can already find out who has that torrent. I'm sure I'm missing something, but all I see is a lot of wasted potential. There should be a query search that gives a list on terms, and a full index list for scrapers. Otherwise if you receive a full list with every search, you may as well just scrape it all.

Again though, we would all have to rely heavily on VPNs, which would turn them into our weakest link.

[dueda]

Magnetico is just a prototype, showcase. The idea is to make the DHT network autonomous, needing only clients themselves.
That way, no need for torrent sites or other services (besides VPNs). That or smart developers wait until the next escalation in the copywrights war.

[Sid]

The DHT network is already autonomous, needing only clients.

[Moe]

Magnetico is just a prototype, showcase. The idea is to make the DHT network autonomous, needing only clients themselves.
That way, no need for torrent sites or other services (besides VPNs). That or smart developers wait until the next escalation in the copywrights war.

This has nothing to do (directly) with DHT.

This project demonstrates functionality of the magnet protocol (hence the name) which is an entirely separate extension to bittorrent.

DHT is the decentralized version of the traditional tracker.

The magnet protocol is an alternative to the torrent file. Magnetico travels DHT to find clients to get metadata from.


It is not something that can be incorporated into a bittorrent client.

[dueda]

The DHT network is already autonomous, needing only clients.

Forgive my ignorance, but without any torrent file or magnet link, what can DHT and a client do for me do for me,
(besides creating a new torrent nobody will know of)? If I understand correctly, there's an announcement system BEP but no client displays new entries.

Magnetico is just a prototype, showcase. The idea is to make the DHT network autonomous, needing only clients themselves.
That way, no need for torrent sites or other services (besides VPNs). That or smart developers wait until the next escalation in the copywrights war.

This has nothing to do (directly) with DHT.
This project demonstrates functionality of the magnet protocol (hence the name) which is an entirely separate extension to bittorrent.
DHT is the decentralized version of the traditional tracker.
The magnet protocol is an alternative to the torrent file.  Magnetico travels DHT to find clients to get metadata from.
It is not something that can be incorporated into a bittorrent client.

Ok, got it. Magnet <> DHT so I mistook DHT-network for BT-network.  What I make out of this:

- a mag-link just reports a hash (and optionally a tracker list) and the client will send requests for it thru the BT-network, thus being a "torrent seeker".
- magnetico uses the DHT services to search for available hashes and requests their meta-data, thus being a "torrent collector".

- it may be unneeded or counter-productive, but I fail to see why it can't be added to a client. 

.... If a magnet is searched thru the network, then many; the only problem I see is privacy as clients will answer with a torrent list to any requesting entity, but having torrent files doesn't means distributing those files, and MP/RIAA can hunt individuals (IPs) by title, one by one. So the consequences would be:

........ The scraping proccess would be very slow, as the hash search would be toned down to avoi network overload;
........ The MP/RIAA and others would have a tool to locate offenders (IPs) and their presumed (very probable) collections, a statistic/behavioral relevant information;

This can be undone by changing the torrent network (and/or) client use characteristics and not much more useful than what they already know, imo.
For example, Tixati currently has a torrent publication service built in; although I consider it inefficient in current form, it includes a subtle "elusion" method.

[Moe]

- it may be unneeded or counter-productive, but I fail to see why it can't be added to a client. 

Because either you haven't actually read previous posts in the thread, or you can't remember what we have talked about already.

Adding magnetico's functionality into a client would require each and every client to individually crawl and download metadata for every hash it finds, resulting in each and every client storing multiple GB of metadata just to be able to search it locally. In other words, a pointless waste of disk space and bandwidth.

Everything else you are talking about is above and beyond the magnet protocol's specifications. It is simply a metadata exchange, not a search.

If you want to invent new features, that's fine. But it is beyond the scope of this thread.

[jerrysmatrix]

I'm backing out of this. I can see how magnetico would be useful for a startup tracker, and even a torrent search engine, but I was under the impression that this thread was talking about new protocol functionality, to eliminate the need for a centralized trackers and torrent search engines.

Which I cannot express enough, how harmful that would eventually be for our VPNs.

[dueda]

- it may be unneeded or counter-productive, but I fail to see why it can't be added to a client. 

Because either you haven't actually read previous posts in the thread, or you can't remember what we have talked about already.

Adding magnetico's functionality into a client would require each and every client to individually crawl and download metadata for every hash it finds, resulting in each and every client storing multiple GB of metadata just to be able to search it locally.  In other words, a pointless waste of disk space and bandwidth.

Everything else you are talking about is above and beyond the magnet protocol's specifications.  It is simply a metadata exchange, not a search.

If you want to invent new features, that's fine.  But it is beyond the scope of this thread.

Yes, of course; that functionality should be optional, and a network (swarm) search would be better. In other words, adding search to metadata exchange. But no long discussions out of the topic here, just thanks for being instructive.

I'm backing out of this. I can see how magnetico would be useful for a startup tracker, and even a torrent search engine, but I was under the impression that this thread was talking about new protocol functionality, to eliminate the need for a centralized trackers and torrent search engines.

Which I cannot express enough, how harmful that would eventually be for our VPNs.

No new protocol features, just a tool I believe could replace trackers and become the future search engine; sorry for any misunderstanding.

Roger and out!