From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2004-09-10T08:02:41+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] BItTorrent: A Force for Good or Evil? (Re: Videos of Ruby Conference)

Chris Morris wrote:
>>Um, what does this mean in English?
>>
>>Assuming that the file is served from the same machine as a tracker and
>>the torrent file, is this a problem?
> 
> 
> No. If there's always someone seeding, this shouldn't ever be a
> problem. With certain super-seed modes, that should reduce the amount
> of traffic on the server.
> 
> In some settings (bt.etree.org, for example), there is no server to
> always be seeding from, so the cloud is dependent on individuals who
> have already downloaded the full torrent to stay connected. If all
> seeders (a seeder being anyone who has the complete torrent)
> disconnect, then leechers (those who don't already have the full
> content) can only download the accumulated mass. In some cases, there
> can be enough leechers who combined have the complete content, but
> this is not always the case.

Thanks, I think I understand now.

What I'm aiming for is to have the files, the torrent file, and a 
tracker all on a public server.

If I understand correctly, this should alleviate the problem of there 
being no seed, though it means that leeches all get  free pass. But 
that's no different than if I just allow straight downloads.  At least 
with BT I may get a hand in distribution, and I can (I think) throttle 
the BT bandwidth.

BTW, is anyone familiar with the Internet Archives? They seem to have 
mass terrabytes of stuff.  If copyright is not an issue  (IANAL, etc), 
is offloading to the Archive an option? (I'm going to see about this ...)

Yet another thought would be to assemble a nice master DVD disc, and 
sell copies from Cafe Press (or the like), with a marginal markup above 
cost.  Profits go to RubyCentral.

James