Attention, law-abiding citizens! If you believe in BitTorrent as a means of distribution for large files, but you're concerned about the claims of piracy that are often associated with it, you should take a look at YouTorrent. Despite having to shut down for a while because of legal issues, YouTorrent is back in operation, with a reported 67,170 torrents that are all legal to share.
YouTorrent is a meta-search that can find verified torrents across a number of popular torrent sites, including Jamendo, Vuze, BitTorrent, Legaltorrents, Legittorrents, Gameupdates, Wortharchiving, BT.etree and Mininova's featured torrents section. With all those sites combined, you can use YouTorrent to search over 6TB of data. This is a very good thing for the torrent community in general, as it shows how widely BitTorrent is used for non-piracy purposes.
More and more TV shows are finding their way online in the form of torrent files. The question is how do you find them? And once you do, how do you keep downloading them? That's where torrent episode downloader, TED for short, comes in.
TED isn't another bit-torrent application. Actually you can't even download a single show with TED. Think of TED as the go to guy between you and your torrent software. You tell TED what shows you want to download and TED will scour the Internet for it and will pass on this information to your torrent application to do the rest of the work.
In addition to single downloads, you can also configure TED to download complete seasons so that once you have determined what show you want downloaded, TED will keep a look out for new episodes.
For the bandwidth conscious crowd TED will also give a brief synopsis of the show so you can determine if its worth the download or not.
Granted there are torrent applications available that have features similar to TED built in, but if you favorite torrent application lacks this then you might want to consider using TED as well.
*Disclaimer: you shouldn't download copyrighted material unless you have permission from the copyright holder to do so.
Kevin Kowalewski of Seneca College wanted to build something for the summer. Instead of the usual tree house or go kart he decided to build a BitTorrent client, in a browser.
Torrent Relay's interface is pretty easy to figure out and works with all the mainstream browsers including those found on the PS3, Wii or iPhone. Either upload or paste the url of the torrent file and let the site do its thing. After a bit, you're taken to another page to initiate the download.
Keep in mind that this is a summer project so don't be surprise if you get a lot of "server busy" messages and are asked to donate or click an ad. Currently downloads over 400MB are not permitted, so no Kubuntu downloads for you.
We can see the value of a service like this once cloud computing really takes off and everything lives in the clouds. This way we're still able to get our weekly fix of Bleach.
The closure of Demonoid, one of the most popular torrent trackers online, spread unrest and despair both far and wide. Entire forum topics were set aside for Demonoid refugees, users who had come to rely on Demonoid for its exhaustive torrent listings and wealth of harder-to-find music, programs, and more.
Take heart, you refugeees, and let your weeping turn to rejoicing: it looks as if Demonoid might live again.
The administrator of Demonoid, Deimos, has turned over control of Demonoid to a new admin, a personal friend whom he trusts implicitly. This new admin is charged with the responsibility of bringing Demonoid back online. And, unfortunately, that's all we know for now.
While there might be a lot of speculation as to what the new Demonoid will look like, or how it will avoid being shutdown by the threat of lawsuits again, it looks like we'll just have to wait and see.
Downloading torrent files with ImageShack will essentially be a two-step process: one, you download the torrent files onto the ImageShack server; two, when the download is complete, ImageShack gives you a simple http link to the file, so you can download it to your local machine.
ImageShack is hoping that users will benefit from the use of their servers, especially the users that have experienced ISP limiting of torrent traffic.
It certainly looks as if users are excited. Because of the overwhelming response to their new torrent service, ImageShack has taken the "public" off of the "public beta," meaning the torrent service is not available to new users at this time.
Mac users who like Transmission for their bittorrent-ing may have been jealous of uTorrent users for being able to control their transfers via a web browser. However, Clutch offers a web interface for Transmission so you can leave your Mac torrents active and control them from anywhere.
Clutch runs in your menubar on whatever port you choose in the settings (this port will need to be opened on your router/firewall of course). You can enable authentication so some wayward soul can't stop your download of "So You Think You Can Dance?" When you visit your Clutch URL (in the form of http://your-ip-address:port), you'll see a familiar interface that looks identical to the Transmission GUI.
Clutch lets you upload torrents remotely to your Mac, and you get most of the same functionality of Transmission via the web browser (stop torrents, pause torrents, view the inspector, etc.). It also supports SSL.
BitTorrent is coming to mobile phones, so get ready to download on the go. uTorrent mUI is a new web user interface that can remotely control torrent downloads.
Slyck has a first look at the application which they installed and ran on a Palm TX Handheld. The uTorrent mUI has a basic feature set that can control and monitor your µTorrent application including pausing, stopping, starting and killing an idle download.
uTorrent mUI is an open source application that is still in its infancy, and can be downloaded at utorrentmui.com.
Your favorites are all there, Azeurus, uTorrent, and all the rest. Also among them are neat-o picks like WizBit -- for S60 smartphones.. who needs BitTorrent on a smartphone? --, and Burst -- a torrent client that even runs on Windows 98.
We'll remind you once again, torrent responsibly and don't go breaking anyones copyright.
With all the talk about BitTorrent going legit by partnering with the major studios to sell TV shows and movies, it's easy to forget that there are plenty of free and legal torrent sites out there.
NewTeeVee has gone and compiled a great list of 10 sites that offer free BitTorrent downloads. Some of the sites are music only, and focus on live concerts from bands that encourage their audiences to share recordings.
But there's also a fair bit of freely available video content. For example, last year the documentary The Corporation was released by its makers as a free download. You can download a torrent for the movie from Torrentfreak.
Public Domain Torrents is another great site, featuring films that are no longer bound by copyright laws. There are a lot of movies here you've never heard of, but you can also get some classics like the originalLittle Shop of Horrors.
TorrentFreak is reporting that three top BitTorrent tracker sites--The Pirate Bay, mininova, and Torrentspy--have accomplished the inevitable and entered the Alexa 200, the top 200 most-trafficked sites on the web acccording to Alexa. Torrentspy has the highest rank at 153, followed by mininova at 165, and The Pirate Bay barely squeezing in at 198. While nobody argues that Alexa's rankings are the picture of accuracy, it does give a pretty good indication of web trends, and this seems like a pretty big trend. TorrentFreak speculates that it was IsoHunt's recent (temporary) shutdown that bumped these sites into the top 200 (with its spillover traffic going to them), and the Alexa chart would seem to confirm that. Now that IsoHunt is back up, I wonder if it will gain back that traffic, knocking the other sites down a notch.
Azureus, makers of the open source, cross-platform BitTorrent client of the same name, have launched Zudeo, a new video sharing site in the YouTube mold, but based on BitTorrent technology. That fact could either be its success or its downfall. Its downfall because BitTorrent does not lend itself to streaming, so a video must be downloaded in its entirety before being viewed. Its success because it allows them to serve videos of much higher quality without spending a fortune on bandwidth. Unlike most video-sharing sites, when you click on a video download link in Zudeo, you're prompted to install a special Zudeo version of the Azureus client, and then whenever you want to watch a video on Zudeo, the link will open in the client and begin downloading. Within the client you can browse and search the entire site as well as upload your own videos.
In its current form, Zudeo is not awe-inspiring. The interface is slick and polished, far moreso than I expected, but having to install a desktop client, though made supremely easy, is still a bit jarring. And even though all of my downloaded videos are conveniently kept in my Library, it still launches an external video player whenever I want to watch one of them. Downloads are blazing fast, however, and for those looking to share videos with a little more resolution might be attracted to Zudeo. According to TechCrunch, Azureus has signed deals with "20 major TV and film studios" to provide free programming, and the company also just got $12 million in funding from Redpoint Ventures and BV Capital, which TechCrunch's Natali Del Conte points out is more than it took to originally finance YouTube.
Awhile back the brilliant folks behind uTorrent made it known that they were working on bringing a web-based interface to the free, lightweight Windows BitTorrent client. This week they released a new beta version of uTorrent that includes the new WebUI, and I am happy to report that it's fantastic. So, what use is a web-based interface for a desktop program? Well, the WebUI allows you to access most of uTorrent's from anywhere in the world, whether it be another computer on your home network or on another continent. Now, I've seen desktop programs with auxiliary web-based interfaces before, and while useful, they're not always pretty. That is not the case with uTorrent's WebUI. The WebUI looks and acts like a desktop application. It's snappy and responsive and looks great. It doesn't clone all of uTorrent's features, of course, but pretty much all of the features you need on a day-to-day basis, and a lot you don't, are there. You can add torrents from files or URLs, change file priorities, manage labels, use the integrated search, and even access most of uTorrent's settings. All the while your downloads keep ticking away via the wonder that is Ajax. This is all backed by a password-protected login, but the uTorrent team is planning to add an optional guest account feature.
One potential caveat is that Internet Explorer 6 is not supported by the uTorrent WebUI, and, to quote the developers, "NEVER WILL BE." They are, however, working on a mobile version of the WebUI, which may work with IE6. Oh, and in case you're worried that the WebUI will add bloat to the traditionally slim uTorrent, fret not: The main uTorrent executable is still just 174kb, and the optional WebUI package adds just 57kb on top of that, and will as likely as not slim down even more by the final release.
Dan Lurie over at TUAW found a review of BitTorrent clients for Mac OS X a few days ago. Apparently, this inspired Clone Software, Ltd. to stop guarding their secret and release BitRocket (which TUAW promptly found) - an OSS torrent client (in beta) for the Mac that indeed rockets past the competition (zing!).
BitRocket excels because it is refreshingly Mac OS X friendly, right down to the UI and design of the app. On the left side is a list for RSS torrent feeds, and at the bottom of that list is a master up/download panel for keeping an eye on just how much is moving in each direction.
In depressingly unsurprising news, Microsoft's lawyers have cease-and-desisted Windows Vista Torrent off the face of the planet. The site, which was set up last week by Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington, provided a BitTorrent tracker to take the load off of Microsoft's servers from downloads of Windows Vista Beta 2. The tracker was completely unauthorized, but provided an unaltered (i.e. downloaders still needed to legally obtain a license key from Microsoft before installing) copy of the beta for users who couldn't get through on Microsoft's servers. Nobody, least of all Pirillo and Ludington, were surprised when they received a not-especially-clueful cease & desist letter from Microsoft's lawyers, which you can read at the Vista Torrent web site.
Despite being, uh, Microsoft, Microsoft has found itself unable to cope with the demand for Windows Vista Beta 2. Their download servers are swamped and they've begun recommending people shell out ten bucks to get a DVD shipped to them in two to four weeks. As Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch puts it, "Microsoft, of course, has chosen to ignore the most efficient file distribution method in existence-BitTorrent." You know where I'm heading with this: Microsoft's customers are watching its back and have set up VistaTorrent.com, an unofficial tracker for download Vista, set up by Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington. "This is not a crack, this is not a hack, this is not software piracy," they say, "it's unofficial mirroring with official validation." That means you'll still have to get your product key (free) from Microsoft but won't have to wait so long for the download.
Attention, law-abiding citizens! If you believe in BitTorrent as a means of distribution for large files, but you're concerned about the claims of piracy that are often associated with it, you should take a look at YouTorrent. Despite having to shut down for a while because of legal issues, YouTorrent is back in operation, with a reported 67,170 torrents that are all legal to share. 
Just when you thought there were enough BitTorrent apps to serve and fetch your download needs for life, Mashable puts together 
