this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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Hi, I was wondering how they do this and if there is a way to "cheat" the amount of data you are downloading or seeding.

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[–] yote_zip@pawb.social 38 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You have a unique "passkey" in the torrent that you download, and the tracker won't let you connect without it. I wouldn't try to cheat it, or you'll likely end up banned. Trackers have scripts to detect tampering.

[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The passkey is also why you shouldn’t share torrent files.

[–] orsetto@beehaw.org 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Wait, you mean the *.torrent file, right?

[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes! Private sites’ .torrent and magnet links know who you are so they can track your ratio.

[–] orsetto@beehaw.org 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Alright, for a moment I thought you meant the actual files I download

That wouldn't make sense tho

[–] rlhe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago

My fault. Sorry for the panic!

[–] heartlessevil@lemmy.one 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Additionally magnet links. The torrent files and magnet links (which are equivalent) need to have your user key in them not only to track your ratio but just to make sure you're a member of the tracker.

In other contexts this kind of user tracking is called a session key and using someone else's torrent file is called a replay attack or a session hijack.

[–] Lazz45@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Not to mention its not a huge scene. If you get black-listed, you might have a hell of a time getting back in to decent trackers if the admins share info on known blacklisters