How Do Seeders Profit From BitTorrent? 195
arcticstoat writes "As you may remember, a recent study claimed that just 100 users were responsible for downloading 75% of BitTorrent content, and were doing it for money, raising a lot of questions about the study. How do you profit from seeding, and how can the same 100 users be responsible for 75% of downloading and 66% of uploading. The details of the study are clarified in an interview with one of the key researchers, showing that the study's actual statistic is that 66% of the original seeds indexed on the Pirate Bay come from just 100 users, and these seeds then go on to account for 75% of downloads. The interview also details how it's possible for this small number of seeders to make a profit from seeding, via embedding links to their own indexing sites in the filenames and bundled TXT files, which then get money from advertising if downloaders decide to visit the site, assured of quality downloads. Meanwhile, other ways of profiting include 'premium' registered accounts."
I doubt it's as pervasive at they suggest. (Score:3, Interesting)
Most (all?) private trackers that I use absolutely forbid any advertising in the torrent. For the most part the rules on the private trackers dictate untouched scene releases. Some allow for unrarring of the goodies but the nfo and other scene-sourced stuff must remain intact.
Public trackers are another matter completely.
Not a dime (Score:4, Interesting)
I never profited a dime from my seeding activities, but then that was never even a secondary goal of doing it in the first place... quite the opposite. It was anti-greed or anti-capitalism.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
You're over complicating this, don't watch pirated or otherwise.
Reminds me of people who spoke for prohibition, and before that, for abstaining from sex.
Former got essentially swallowed up by reality, latter got caught abusing young boys. Neither is "life-threatening to go without". Which goes to show that "well, just go without!" argument has some rather serious flaws.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
lol reminds me of Microsoft vs. Open Source (Score:5, Interesting)
Balmer: Sir, there is a new threat facing us, Open Source.
Gates: No bother, we'll just rip off what they do and when they sue us we'll buy the company.
Balmer: It doesn't work that way. They're busy trying to emulate the look and feel of Windows. They're ripping us off.
Gates: Then we'll sue them.
Balmer: There's no company to sue.
Gates: If we can't buy them or sue them, what are we supposed to do? Let's go after the programmers. Surely we can pay them more than they're making right now.
Balmer: They're not making anything right now.
Gates: What? Preposterous! Anything worth doing is worth doing for money. What could possibly motivate them?
Balmer: Love and the respect of their peers. I assure you I am as baffled as you are.
Most of this stuff was done as a hobby, for bragging rights. It's like any other kind of hobby people get involved in. People were surfing and rock climbing and flying model airplanes long before there was any sort of sponsorship involved and sponsorships were basically from companies looking to cash in from association with the hobby, either trying to become a lifestyle brand like soda companies aligning themselves with extreeeeeeeeeme! sports or actual suppliers of the equipment wanting to get their name out amongst the participating amateurs.
The mistake these people are making is assuming that what motivates them motivates others. Usually it happens the other way around, people doing it for the love getting disillusioned by those doing it for the money so it's always nice to see it go the other way around for a change.