BitTorrent goes Trackerless:

In prior versions of BitTorrent, publishing was a 3 step process. You would:

1. Create a ".torrent" file -- a summary of your file which you can put on your blog or website
2. Create a "tracker" for that file on your webserver so that your downloaders can find each other
3. Create a "seed" copy of your download so that your first downloader has a place to download from

Many of you have blogs and websites, but dont have the resources to set up a tracker. In the new version, we've created an optional 'trackerless' method of publication. Anyone with a website and an Internet connection can host a BitTorrent download!

While it is called trackerless, in practice it makes every client a lightweight tracker. A clever protocol, based on a Kademlia distributed hash table or "DHT", allows clients to efficiently store and retrieve contact information for peers in a torrent.

However, I'm not so sure about C|Net News' take (BitTorrent Enemies Face New Hurdle). Um, shouldn't the fact that publishing BitTorrents has become easier be the main story? Why the focus on copyright infringement? In any case, is it really true that this is a major setback to the anti-infringement groups? After all, BitTorrent remains one of the easiest ways to track infringement and sue the users.

Seems to me that C|Net News has bought the anti-BitTorrent propaganda of the anti-filesharing forces. Thanks, C|Net.

For the rest of us, we can celebrate another tool in the arsenal of free expression.