Seeding (computing)

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In computing, and specifically peer-to-peer file sharing, seeding is the uploading of already downloaded content for others to download from. A peer, a computer that is connected to the network, becomes a seed when having acquired the entire set of data, it begins to offer its upload bandwidth to other peers attempting to download the file. This data consists of small parts so that seeds can effectively share their content with other peers, handing out the missing pieces. A peer deliberately chooses to become a seed by leaving the upload task active once the content has downloaded. The motivation to seed is mainly to keep the file being shared in circulation (as there is no central hub to continue uploading in the absence of peer seeders) and a desire to not act as a parasite. The opposite of a seed is a leech, a peer that downloads more than they upload.

Contents

This shows in a simplified way when one seeds. Seeding (computing).gif
This shows in a simplified way when one seeds.

Background

Seeding is a practice within peer-to-peer file sharing, a content distribution model that connects computers with the use of a peer-to-peer (P2P) software program in order to share desired content. An example of such a peer-to-peer software program is BitTorrent. Peer-to-peer file sharing is different from the client–server model, where content is directly distributed from its server to a client. To make peer-to-peer file sharing function effectively, content is divided into parts of 256 kilobytes (KB). This segmented downloading makes the parts that peers are missing be transferred by seeds. It also makes downloads go faster, as content can be exchanged between peers. All peers (including seeds) sharing the same content are called a swarm. [1]

Data shared via peer-to-peer file sharing contains shared file content, computing cycles and disk storage, among other resources. [2]

Motivations

In peer-to-peer file sharing, the strength of a swarm depends on user behaviour, as peers ideally upload more than they download. This is done by seeding, and there are different motivations to do this. There are two popular motivations to seed, of which one is the reputation-based incentive mechanism and the other is the tit for tat mechanism. As the name reveals, the former is based on the reputation of a peer, meaning that those peers who have a good reputation will get a better treatment from the uploader. [2] The tit for tat mechanism prevents peers from downloading content if they do not upload to the peers they download from. The latter forces a peer to upload. [3]

Although seeding is only a social norm, some scholars see the practice of uploading parts of the data bulk to others as a duty, claiming that "downloaders are forced to reward uploaders in order to compensate for their resource consumption and encourage further altruistic behaviour." [2] Other scholars are milder and believe that a group of highly motivated seeders could already provide a notion of fairness by scheduling when to seed, uploading more effectively. [1]

Threats

Leechers, peers that download more than they upload, are a threat to peer-to-peer file sharing and the practice of seeding. Where the goal of seeding is to upload more than to download, thus contributing to the sharing of content, leechers stop uploading as soon as their download is finished. What this means is that seeders must upload more parts of the data bulk in order to guarantee a successful download for others in the swarm. Leeching is a form of "free riding" and is associated with the free rider problem, temporal downloading users that, by not seeding, do not support the distribution of content.

Although leeching is a threat to peer-to-peer sharing and an opposite of seeding, it is not regarded as an immediate problem. With downloads rising, upload is still guaranteed, though few contributors in the system account for most of the services. [4]

Opportunities

Research sees opportunities for seeding as a practice that caters contribution within peer-to-peer file sharing and the distribution of content in the digital world in general. A term for this is an economic traffic management (ETM), which is concerned with traffic management solutions to involve all peers, both seeder and leecher. It is ETM's goal to unite peers that have different objectives and to make the sharing of content with peer-to-peer file sharing more efficient. Locality awareness is raised as the most promising concepts by scholars. This entails stimulating peers to seed downloads in their neighbourhood, which speeds up the upload speed and saves inter-domain traffic over the Internet. [5] Other opportunities that have arisen out of research are to schedule seeding [1] and use models that reduce the power consumption of seeding computers. [6]

Peer-to-peer file sharing is legal, however, the platform may be also used to share illegal and pirated content. With the sharing being done between peers all over the world, there is no supervision. Control over illegal or manipulated content is therefore difficult. Seeding is a part of this and a peer can therefore be involved in helping other peers download illegal content. [7]

One of the largest contenders against peer-to-peer or sharing in general is the Motion Picture Association of America that has led a many lawsuits against peer-to-peer sharing websites. Notable examples include the Megaupload legal case and Torrent websites like The Pirate Bay (see The Pirate Bay trial and The Pirate Bay raid).

See also

Related Research Articles

LimeWire is a discontinued free software peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) client for Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris. LimeWire uses the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol. A zero-cost version and a purchasable "enhanced" version were available; LimeWire Pro could be acquired through the regular LimeWire software without payment, as users distributed it through the software without authorization. BitTorrent support is provided by libtorrent.

Warez Movies, software or music distributed in violation of copyright

Warez is a common computing and broader cultural term referring to pirated software that is distributed via the Internet. Warez is used most commonly as a noun, a plural form of ware, and is intended to be pronounced like the word wares. The circumvention of copy protection (cracking) is an essential step in generating warez, and based on this common mechanism, the software-focused definition has been extended to include other copyright-protected materials, including movies and games. The global array of warez groups has been referred to as "The Scene", deriving from its earlier description as "the warez scene". Distribution and trade of copyrighted works without payment of fees or royalties generally violates national and international copyright laws and agreements. The term warez covers supported as well as unsupported (abandonware) items, and legal prohibitions governing creation and distribution of warez cover both profit-driven and "enthusiast" generators and distributors of such items.

Uploading refers to transmitting data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients], and terminals (SCP/SFTP). Uploading can be used in the context of clients that send files to a central server. While uploading can also be defined in the context of sending files between distributed clients, such as with a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol like BitTorrent, the term file sharing is more often used in this case. Moving files within a computer system, as opposed to over a network, is called file copying.

BitTorrent is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner.

In computer networks, download means to receive data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is sent to a remote server. A download is a file offered for downloading or that has been downloaded, or the process of receiving such a file.

In file sharing, super-seeding is an algorithm developed by John Hoffman for the BitTorrent communications protocol that helps downloaders become uploaders more quickly, but it introduces the danger of total seeding failure if there is only one downloader.

BitTorrent is an ad-supported BitTorrent client developed by Bram Cohen and Rainberry, Inc. used for uploading and downloading files via the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent was the first client written for the protocol. It is often nicknamed Mainline by developers denoting its official origins. Since version 6.0 the BitTorrent client has been a rebranded version of μTorrent. As a result, it is no longer open source. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol.

In computing and specifically in Internet slang, a leech is one who benefits, usually deliberately, from others' information or effort but does not offer anything in return, or makes only token offerings in an attempt to avoid being called a leech. In economics, this type of behavior is called "free riding" and is associated with the free rider problem. The term originated in the bulletin board system era, when it referred to users that would download files and upload nothing in return.

Pando (application)

Pando was an application which was mainly aimed at sending files which would normally be too large to send via more "conventional" means. It used both peer-to-peer and client-server architectures and was released for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

eMule Free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows.

eMule is a free peer-to-peer file sharing application for Microsoft Windows and Linux. Started in May 2002 as an alternative to eDonkey2000, eMule now connects to both the eDonkey network and the Kad network. The distinguishing features of eMule are the direct exchange of sources between client nodes, fast recovery of corrupted downloads, and the use of a credit system to reward frequent uploaders. Furthermore, eMule transmits data in zlib-compressed form to save bandwidth.

This is a glossary of jargon related to peer-to-peer file sharing via the BitTorrent protocol.

A seedbox is a high-bandwidth remote server for uploading and downloading of digital files from a P2P network. The bandwidth ranges generally from 100 Mbit/s to 20 Gbit/s. After the seedbox has acquired the files, people with access to the seedbox can download the file to their personal computers.

aXXo

aXXo is the Internet alias of an individual who released and standardized commercial film DVDs as free downloads on the Internet between 2005 and 2009. The files, which were usually new films, were popular among the file sharing community using peer-to-peer file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. A download-tracking firm BigChampagne found — in a sampling period in late 2008 — that almost 33.5% of all movie downloads were aXXo torrents. aXXo encoded files to approximately 700 MB – the same size for a compact disc. Due to the re-encoded quality of an aXXo file, the suffix "aXXo" was often used by imitators.

RapidShare was an online file hosting service that opened in 2002. In 2009, it was among the Internet's 20 most visited websites and claimed to have 10 petabytes of files uploaded by users with the ability to handle up to three million users simultaneously. Following the takedown of similar service Megaupload in 2012, RapidShare changed its business model to deter the use of its services for distribution of files to large numbers of anonymous users and to focus on personal subscription-only cloud-based file storage. Its popularity fell sharply as a result and, by the end of March 2015, RapidShare ceased to operate and it is defunct. As of 2017, Rapidshare AG was acquired by Kingsley Global.

libtorrent

libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtorrent uses Boost, specifically Boost.Asio to gain its platform independence. It is known to build on Windows and most Unix-like operating systems.

In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called swarms. A torrent file does not contain the content to be distributed; it only contains information about those files, such as their names, folder structure, and sizes obtained via cryptographic hash values for verifying file integrity. The term torrent may refer either to the metadata file or to the files downloaded, depending on the context.

Torrent poisoning is intentionally sharing corrupt data or data with misleading file names using the BitTorrent protocol. This practice of uploading fake torrents is sometimes carried out by anti-infringement organisations as an attempt to prevent the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of copyrighted content, and to gather the IP addresses of downloaders.

Pirate Pay Anti-piracy software

Pirate Pay is a software toolset used in the copy protection and content management of torrents, for authors and publishers. Pirate Pay operates on the Japanese, Russian and Indian markets. Eighty-five percent of Pirate Pay clients come from outside Russia. Pirate Pay technology blocks approximately 5 million illegal downloads per month, processing about 1500 torrent-seeds. According to Dasreda, this translates into around $8 million of savings for copyright holders. Pirate Pay is widely used around the world.

File sharing in Japan is notable for both its size and sophistication.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bera, D., Esposito, F., Matta, I., Michiardi, P. (2011). On The Impact Of Seed Scheduling In Peer-To-Peer Networks. Computer Science Department, Boston University
  2. 1 2 3 As-Sayid-Ahmad, L., Hawa, M., Khalif, L. (2012). On Enhancing Reputation Management Using Peer-To-Peer Interaction History. Springer Science and Business Media
  3. ↑ Hajek, B., Zhu, Ji. (2011). The Missing Piece Syndrome In Peer-To-Peer Communication. Department of Electrical And Computer Engineering
  4. ↑ Yang, S., Jin, H., Liao, X., Yao, H., Huang, Q., Tu, X. (2009). Measuring Web Feature Impacts In Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Systems. Hushing University of Science and Technology
  5. ↑ Despotovic, Z., Hossfeld, T., Kellerer, W., Lehrieder, F., Oechsner, S., Michel, M. (2011). Mitigating Unfairness In Locality-Aware Peer-To-Peer Networks. International Journal of Network Management
  6. ↑ Hlavacs, H., Wiedlich, R., Treutner, T. (2011). Energy efficient peer-to-peer file sharing. Springer Science and Business Media
  7. ↑ Halldorson, U., Hasslinger, G., Sigurdsson, M. (2007). Potentials And Challenges Of Peer-To-Peer Based Content Distribution. Telematics And Informatics 24
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