Torrente, a micropayment based Bittorrent extension to mitigate free riding

We propose Torrente, a distributed file-sharing solution with economic incentives. Its implementation is built as an extension of BitTorrent protocol, in such a manner that user access to file-sharing swarms is controlled by peers that verify micropayments receipts in a blockchain-based ledger. In addition, by using payment commitments, Torrente facilitates off-chain transactions for faster content sharing. The solution is created as a tool to enhance Amazon Biobank application security, but can be used isolated in cases such as file sharing with monetary incentives.

Methodology to investigate BitTorrent sync protocol

The BitTorrent Sync client application is the most progressive development in the BitTorrent family. Nevertheless, it can be used for the activities that draw the attention of the forensics invetigators. The BitTorrent Sync client application employs quite largely the encryption for sending data packages. The initiation of the activity is carried out in the plain text only. Therefore, we proposed the methodology that enables to capture the initiation step and to inform the forensics investigator, which then takes the reactive actions. The experiment was carried in two modes: 1) simulating of the use of the BitTorrent Sync application; 2) monitoring of real traffic on the Internet. During the monitoring, it is possible to calculate the public lookup SHA1 hash of the shared file. The comparison of the calculated hash with the list of publicly available hashes allows determination whether sharing of the file is legal or illegal. The presented methodology can be applied to any BitTorrent protocol.

Peer production in the Internet and unauthorized copying of an intellectual property in the bit-torrent network

This paper deals with the phenomenon of peer production in the context of unauthorized copying of information goods. Acc. to Yochai Benkler, it is a form of production operation based on a community. It is widely applied in the Internet and consequently, such information goods as GNU/Linux and Wikipedia have been established. Although the peer production has promoted growth in importance of, among others, free software or an open source initiative, it is also related to unauthorized copying of an intellectual property commonly called Internet piracy. The huge scale of this phenomenon, which is nearly 24% of entire Internet traffic, must not be ignored. In the paper a hypothesis has been put forward that low efficiency of counteracting of intellectual property unauthorized copying results from that fact that, to a great extent, it is generated in a process of the peer production. In turn, the goal of the paper is verification of the thesis in the progress of considerations regarding the nature of both the peer production and the unauthorized copying. A research field was limited to a P2P file exchange network based on a BitTorrent protocol.