New Torrent tech makes pirates tough to track

The latest version of torrent software from Tribler makes copyright infringers even more difficult to track. Photo / Thinkstock

The arms race between technology and legislators is about to step up several notches as BitTorrent (the file sharing technology of choice for downloading music, movies, TV shows and applications) becomes increasingly difficult to monitor and track.

As a peer to peer technology, BitTorrent is arguably the most efficient way of sharing files.

But like most other P2P-technologies it has been reliant on central servers that can provide copyright police and law enforcement agencies with a centralised point to track down the IP addresses and ultimately the details to prosecute users for copyright infringement.

This could be about to change with the launch of what is claimed to be the first truly decentralised BitTorrent application, which doesn't need any central servers to find and download content.

At the moment BitTorrent downloads are reliant on external search engines and trackers which allow BitTorrent users to find others sharing files they want to download.

The latest iteration of the Tribler BitTorrent application (which is supported on Windows, Macs and Linux PCs), has just been released, and incorporates a 'zero-server' approach which means it doesn't need trackers or external search sites to find downloadable content.

This will in theory make tracking down copyright infringers an increasingly difficult task for law enforcers ahead of new copyright legislation coming into being early next year.

Disclaimer: Pat Pilcher is employed by Telecom, but his opinions are not those of his employer.