Bittorrent Analysis - Suprnova Shutdown

[Unknown Soldier]

Hardy news site, The Register, recently published a detailed analysis of the file sharing protocol Bit Torrent. Bit Torrent has received attention in the main stream news after reports that it was carrying as much as 50% of all peer 2 peer (p2p) traffic, which in tern amounted to a massive 30% of all the traffic on the internet. The paper, by Dr. Johan Pouwelse, examines the protocol and looks especially at one of the largest bit-torrent hubs, Suprnova.org. He examines how just 20 moderators solve the problem of fake files, something that plagues the traditional file sharing networks like Kazaa.

Dr Powelse notes that the major problems facing hubs like suprnova are fakes and maintaining hub availability. The availability of files on bit torrent is based on a centralised system; without it, the network fails as users cannot access the trackers. Decentralising bit torrent has already begun - Suprnova have started a project called "Exeem" which apparently has 5,000 beta testers trialling it, and has an ultimate aim of taking the best of Kazaa (a decentralised network) and merging it with Bit Torrent. Decentralisation removes the issue of poor availability at the tracker end, yet0 it also provides more scope for fake files and a reduction in data integrity at the user end.

The paper concludes that bit-torrent needs to evolve to create incentives to users to seed files. Bit-torrent as a protocol is a system that’s here to stay; it enjoys more and more usage from more main stream content providers. Yes, there is a lot of illegitimate use of the protocol, but unlike Kazaa, these users should not be allowed to over shadow the usefulness to legitimate users of the bit torrent protocol.

[Update] Since this article was published, Suprnova has shutdown as a hub for torrents. Although this cannot be confirmed, the shutdown is very likely related to legal action from the Hollywood against tracker websites; earlier in the week many other sites were taken down. The effectiveness of the takedowns could be massive; the paper below notes that when on the Suprnova mirrors went offline during their monitoring period, they saw a massive reduction in the number of users downloading files through the site.

News Source: http://www.neowin.net
The Register - Bittorrent Analysis

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SuprNova.org has been Shutdown

Suprnova.org has 2 domains:

http://www.suprnova.org

http://suprnova.org

For me, the first gives this response:

"As you have probably noticed, we have often had downtimes. This was because it was so hard to keep this site up!
But now we are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it.
We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links.
We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything.

Thank you all that helped us, by donating mirrors or something else, by uploading and seeding files, by helping people out on IRC and on forum, by spreading the word about SuprNova.org.
It is a sad day for all of us!

Please visit SuprNova.org every once in a while to get the latest news on what is happening and if there is anything new to report on.

As we wish to maintain the nice comunity that we created, we are keppig forums and irc servers open.

Thank you all and Goodbye!
sloncek & the rest of the SuprNova Team"

 

[CI]

Things aren't lookin good...
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5885.cfm

 

[digitalwanderer]

I will miss Suprnova, it's the end of an era.

 

[silence]

well....there is always DC++

 

[Guden Oden]

Dissen berry berry bad.

Copyright-gestapo is really getting in gear now. Soon I guess we need to insert coins and turn a handle to watch our own DVDs. They want to try divx again, mark my words.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Dissen berry berry bad.

Copyright-gestapo is really getting in gear now. Soon I guess we need to insert coins and turn a handle to watch our own DVDs. They want to try divx again, mark my words.

I don't think shutting down one of the biggest publically accessed pirating sites is exactly akin to "copyright-gestapo", and I'm a big fan of Suprnova.

On the brighside it appears that they've only taken down the front-end and the database is still there and being updated. 8)

 

[Guden Oden]

I don't think shutting down one of the biggest publically accessed pirating sites is exactly akin to "copyright-gestapo"

They're not ONLY shutting down P2P sites, they're suing people left and right, trying to push through various pieces of legislation, and Sony Music is even introducing a new form of CD copy protection while Sony Electronics are launching harddrive-based portable music players!

I guess they want to sell us our music twice; once in uncopyable CD form, and once more through an online store to put on our portable devices. It fits perfectly with their unlimited and unrestricted greed.

 

[Blade]

Well, I got some good life out of Suprnova. It doesn't mean the end of BitTorrent, of course.. thank God.

 

[loekf2]

I don't think shutting down one of the biggest publically accessed pirating sites is exactly akin to "copyright-gestapo"

They're not ONLY shutting down P2P sites, they're suing people left and right, trying to push through various pieces of legislation, and Sony Music is even introducing a new form of CD copy protection while Sony Electronics are launching harddrive-based portable music players!

I guess they want to sell us our music twice; once in uncopyable CD form, and once more through an online store to put on our portable devices. It fits perfectly with their unlimited and unrestricted greed.

Exactly... here in Holland the latest U2 CD via iTunes would cost me 9.99 euro's, while in the shops they still charge you 21 euro's.

Please.. record companies out there why I would have to pay 11 euro's for a piece of coated plastic, some printed paper and a plastic casing ?

 

[Ninjagnu]

Exactly the reason why I do not, and will not, in any of the forseeable future, buy music or movies, or in other ways unneededly give that mafia-like industry any of my money.

Sadly though, here in denmark we have a 'tax' on things like blank cd's and other stuff which goes to an organisation for 'loses' related to people coping music and movies, but yet that organisation finicially support lawsuits (with som wild 'damage' claim) agianst people for the same reason (causing them losses).

I find that highly immoral, though sadly, its what the world turned into

 

[loekf2]

Exactly the reason why I do not, and will not, in any of the forseeable future, buy music or movies, or in other ways unneededly give that mafia-like industry any of my money.

Sadly though, here in denmark we have a 'tax' on things like blank cd's and other stuff which goes to an organisation for 'loses' related to people coping music and movies, but yet that organisation finicially support lawsuits (with som wild 'damage' claim) agianst people for the same reason (causing them losses).

I find that highly immoral, though sadly, its what the world turned into

Well... DVDs I still buy. Funny thing is even that DVDs cost LESS these days than CDs. New DVDs go for < 15-20 euro's, CDs mostly go for > 20 euros.

But, like you, I gave up on buying CDs. I think the pricing is ridiculous.

 

[thop]

I couldn't care less about any of the big torrents sites, but it appears that tvtorrents is also down and that other tv site hasn't updated for 3 days. I guess they scared them pretty good. Didn't even know TV episodes are illegal.

 

[RussSchultz]

Here's a good rule of thumb: if it's copyrighted, sharing it en masse is breaking that copyright. Assume all commercial media is copyrighted.

 

[hey69]

newsservers anyone? fast, cheap

 

[T2k]

I don't think shutting down one of the biggest publically accessed pirating sites is exactly akin to "copyright-gestapo"

They're not ONLY shutting down P2P sites, they're suing people left and right, trying to push through various pieces of legislation, and Sony Music is even introducing a new form of CD copy protection while Sony Electronics are launching harddrive-based portable music players!

I guess they want to sell us our music twice; once in uncopyable CD form, and once more through an online store to put on our portable devices. It fits perfectly with their unlimited and unrestricted greed.

Exactly... here in Holland the latest U2 CD via iTunes would cost me 9.99 euro's, while in the shops they still charge you 21 euro's.

Please.. record companies out there why I would have to pay 11 euro's for a piece of coated plastic, some printed paper and a plastic casing

That's VERY expensive.

Why don't use http://www.allofmp3.com instead? I love it: dirt cheap, has plenty of formats and you set up the encoding online, including its rate format everything.

 

[Guden Oden]

I'd never pay for anything that comes pre-compressed in a lossy format, no way. I want to be able to re-encode my stuff when improved compression schemes appear.

 

[no_way]

Have you guys seen this ?
http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/
especially the classic
http://static.thepiratebay.org/dreamworks_response.txt

 

[digitalwanderer]

Have you guys seen this ?
http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/
especially the classic
http://static.thepiratebay.org/dreamworks_response.txt

That gives me a fatty-grin, more power to 'em! 8)

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

II. Suprnova - a site which acted as a kind of torrent aggregator, at least, when it was up long enough to aggregate torrents - is apparently down for the count. Given its past performance, you may not know right away. Eventually you will come to crave some vulgar new pop single and you will have to go without. That is, until you go to another site which aggregates torrents and your larcenous rampage continues unabated, and perhaps even intensifies because you have gone without for a brief period and have begun to "feen" in earnest.

Let us turn to Bop-A-Mole as a means of exploring this problem. The moles come up, and then the moles are struck with mallets. In this case, the people striking the moles have hired teams of people to suppress these creatures, and they have even invented an unwieldy "Meta-mallet" that can bop even theoretical moles. It is their firm belief in this and other matters that bopping is the mathematically optimal response. Diverging from the metaphor somewhat, as a practical matter these "moles" have become ever more sophisticated and clandestine as a response. This would have happened anyway of course, but just as the injudicious use of antibiotics creates devastating and unstoppable pathogens these applications will reach a true apex of distributed power, jamming a spigot into the very heart of pay media.

There are conversations to be had about the morality of file sharing, but until those stern words are able to project a "morality field" that causes those in their radius to behave honorably such dialogues fall into the "adorable but irrelevant" category. The muscular responses to the phenomenon have made it worse, and greater consumer throughput has put movies and television on the menu. The Internet represents a user definable broadcast spectrum that makes the notion of a "television network" almost incoherent. That is the actual issue obscured by this site going down or that service going under: the ice age has arrived for massive conglomerates. They can adapt to this shift, or they can become museum exhibits. Up to them.

 

[RussSchultz]

That's VERY expensive.

Why don't use http://www.allofmp3.com instead? I love it: dirt cheap, has plenty of formats and you set up the encoding online, including its rate format everything.

And that place isn't much more legal than P2P.