Part 4 (2/2)

Features to Look For.

First, browse the site's index. An index is a searchable list of .torrent files available for download. Sites index torrents uploaded by members or find torrents by using Google-style web crawlers. Some sites have specialized indexes for anime, live music, or nonpirated media. A site's chief benchmarks are its number of active users and daily number of new torrents indexed (and dead or fake torrents removed). The best sites provide timely, quality torrents and keep out spam, malware, and fakes by letting their users partic.i.p.ate. Look for these features: Users can comment on or upvote/downvote torrents (crucial) Site operators or privileged users verify torrents as safe Frequent uploaders and release groups are rated by points-based or operator-validated reputation systems Private messaging, help chat, or user forums Few ads (use the Adblock and Flashblock browser extensions).

Metasearch Sites.

A metasearch site doesn't compile its own index but searches other sites and aggregates the results. A Torrentz search, for example, returns a list of links to other BitTorrent search engines.

Private Sites The BitTorrent sites in this chapter are public sites, meaning that anyone anytime can jump on, download, and then jump off - no registration required. Private sites, in contrast, have a limited number of members.h.i.+ps available during rare open-registration periods or via invitations from current members. These sites run their own trackers to better control content and keep out the riff-raff.

Private sites monitor each member's share ratio, which is the amount of data uploaded divided by the amount of data downloaded. Generous members have ratios greater than one, meaning that they've sent more data to other peers than they've received. Greedy, low-ratio members and bandwidth cheats can be booted off the site, members.h.i.+ps revoked. Thus, fear breeds long-lived torrents and high-speed downloads. Private sites are some of the best places to pirate and invitations can be hard to come by.

Private sites usually stonewall you with a login screen but Demonoid lets anyone, member or not, browse its torrents (though only members can actually download).

Google and Brethren Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and other general search engines can find torrents. Type the name of what you're looking for followed by the word torrent. So common are pirate searches that often ”torrent” is autosuggested as you type (Google no longer suggests piracy-related words in the US). The top results usually link to the dedicated BitTorrent sites listed earlier in this chapter.

Links to Torrents Parties on all sides throw around terms like ”BitTorrent website” and ”linking” without defining them precisely. Copyright holders and their minions use these terms in the broadest sense, where simply linking to torrents is no different from providing copyrighted material. But most of the sites mentioned in this chapter are search engines that don't host their own tracker and consequently don't provide pirated content. Their search results are no different from Google's except that they're restricted to torrents. Lawyers go after small fish because that's who they can shut down. They haven't sued Google because presumably even American courts wouldn't hold Google (or Bing or Yahoo) criminally liable for every search result.

In the US, Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has, by using fatuous legal arguments at the behest of private interests, seized the domain names (web addresses) of several BitTorrent search engines that don't host content. These seizures won't affect piracy but they will skunk the .com top-level domain. BitTorrent search engines and other fringe businesses will migrate to domains perceived to be outside of US control. Demonoid.com, for example, is now Demonoid.me (the ”me” stands for Montenegro).

Chapter 8 Finding Torrents.

To find a torrent, go to a BitTorrent search engine (Chapter 7), type a search phrase in the Search box, and then press Enter. Search results are sorted by relevance and popularity (swarm size). Usually, one of the first few matches in the results list is the torrent you're looking for.

Search Tips.

General search tips follow. For help with specific categories of torrents (movies, books, applications, and so on), refer to later chapters.

To determine whether a torrent is relevant, Search compares the keywords in your search phrase to the name of the .torrent file, the names of the shared (content) files, and any t.i.tle or description that the original seeder added. Words in filenames can be separated by s.p.a.ces, dots, or hyphens; search engines treat them in the same way.

Search boxes often have nearby filtering controls that can narrow a search or sort the results. Google-style operators can further narrow a search. To find an exact phrase, for example, enclose it in quotes (”empire strikes back”). Search engines vary in their support for search operators. For help, look for an Advanced Search, FAQ, or Help link on the site's home page.

Click Browse to see all of a site's torrents, sorted by category or popularity.

Click Recent (or Latest) to see a site's newest torrents, sorted by age or popularity.

In any columnar list of torrents, click a column heading to sort by name, category, file size, age, swarm size, or a different measure. To reverse the sort, click the heading again.

Some sites display a search cloud of the keywords used in that day's most-popular searches. In some clouds, the font size of keywords corresponds to the frequency of the search. Click any keyword to replicate the search.

Most sites have RSS feeds, which let you subscribe to a continually updated list of new torrents. Feeds can list all new torrents (like drinking from a firehose) or only certain categories of new torrents. RSS feeds are marked by orange icons on the webpage or in the browser's address bar. To subscribe to a feed, click its icon. For details, search for rss in your browser's help system.

Some torrents will appear as dead (no seeders) but it's possible the search engine isn't taking trackerless torrents into account. Trackerless torrents use the DHT (Distributed Hash Tracking) and PEX (Peer Exchange) protocols to dilute the need for a central tracker. Open a dead torrent and within minutes you may find peers via DHT or PEX. In uTorrent, DHT and PEX are turned on by default. To view or change these settings in Windows, choose Options > Preferences (Ctrl+P) > BitTorrent (in the left pane). In OS X, choose uTorrent > Preferences (Command+,) > BitTorrent.

uTorrent, Vuze, and other BitTorrent clients have built-in Search that you can configure to work with your favorite search engines. In uTorrent for Windows, choose Options > Preferences (Ctrl+P) > Advanced (in the left pane) > UI Extras.

BitTorrent search engines aren't the only places to get torrents. You can send or receive .torrent files via email or chat or download them via blog links.

Spotting Fakes.

Antipiracy groups, scammers, and malware writers plant fake torrents, which can be downloads that never finish, unplayable videos, mislabeled files, or virus-carrying executables. Some fake-spotting tips: Delete any movie that requires you to download and install a rogue media player, like the trojan-laden 3wPlayer, DomPlayer, or x3 player. Be wary of videos that won't play in VLC media player. For details, see ”Media Players” in Chapter 11.

Delete any torrent that makes you visit a website to get a pa.s.sword, install a codec, or ”activate” something.

Don't download movie, music, picture, book or other media files packaged as or with executable (.exe) files.

Suspect .rar and .zip archives (see Chapter 5) and .url files (see ”Malicious Links” in Chapter 4). Many legitimate torrents have these files, but be vigilant nonetheless.

Scan the torrent's user comments. Look for ”Fake!” or queries about pa.s.swords or special media players. For popular torrents, comments like ”Contains a trojan” can mostly be ignored as false positives from rookie pirates.

Beware of heavily seeded torrents with few user comments. If a two-year-old movie has twenty thousand seeders, it's a fake.

Avoid too-good-to-be-true torrents, like a DVD or Blu-ray copy of a movie seeded just as it premiers in theaters.

Favor torrents released by organized piracy groups. Group aliases (MAXSPEED, aXXo, or EZTV, for example) are part of torrent names. Some sites flag trusted groups with special icons, foiling scammers who forge group names on fake torrents. VCDQ lists and rates group releases.

Compare the size of the torrent to its description. The size of a two-hour .avi movie should between about 700 MB and 1.5 GB.

Look for torrents that are verified as safe or high-quality by site operators or privileged users, or are heavily upvoted by ordinary users. Sites that verify torrents flag them with special icons.

Some BitTorrent clients carry malware and are banned by various BitTorrent sites. Use one of the clients listed in Chapter 6.

Download torrents from private sites, if possible, or popular public sites (Chapter 7) where fakes are more likely to be quickly spotted and removed.

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