slg2 days ago
>SeedBox Lite is an open-source project provided for educational and personal use only. We do not endorse, promote, or facilitate copyright infringement, illegal streaming, or piracy in any form. This software is designed to be used with legal content only.
I always find legal disclaimers like this funny. It's like kindergarteners giving each other cootie shots. Just some magic words said out of some combination of tradition and hope that they might have some actual protective qualities. "Who cares if the words are objectively untrue? We have plausible deniability now that we said them!"
A4ET8a8uTh0_v219 hours ago
You know.. if a major corp can you use disclaimers that are objectively untrue and wink their way out of any responsibility, I see no reason why the little guys can't either. We might as well apply rules uniformly.
gouggouga day ago
> "Who cares if the words are objectively untrue? We have plausible deniability now that we said them!"
But they are not "objectively untrue". You can argue all day long that you don't believe the author are being truthful, it doesn't make it true.
edit: that being said, in juxtaposition with a copyrighted Marvel image, I could see it being used in court against the author to prove they were all along catering to piracy.
edit2: clearly, I'm not a lawyer
7bita day ago
I always find it funny when people with no legal education jump in and defend something that clearly requires legal education. At least with the second edit you made it clear. Thank you.
gouggoug17 hours ago
People can have opinions and instincts on a subject matter without a formal education in said matter.
slga day ago
I’m sorry but it is objectively untrue that this software does not “facilitate copyright infringement, illegal streaming, or piracy in any form”. What is the purpose of this project if it is not to “facilitate” watching torrented material?
gouggouga day ago
Torrented material is not necessarily copyrighted material.
It's not unlawful to use bittorent.
azalemetha day ago
A good example to mention here would be etree -- https://bt.etree.org/ -- Which is a complete legal, pro sharing music torrent site. There are others.
slg16 hours ago
Once again, the existence of legal use cases does not invalidate the existence of illegal use cases. Do you genuinely believe the primary use case of this software by a majority of its users will be to download this type of legal content?
lurking_swea day ago
i’m not judging anyone that’s interested in the tech here. it’s pretty neat.
but do you think we were all born yesterday? Are you suggesting _most_ people using a bittorrent client are downloading public domain movies like sherlock holmes shorts? Or linux ISO’s for fun?
You are technically correct. But it doesn’t take a genius to understand that the disclaimer here is a total joke.
slga day ago
This is more plausible deniability talk. No one has suggested that all torrent use is illegal. But this software absolutely “facilitates” illegal use cases. A gun can be used legally, it would still be ludicrous to say that guns never “facilitate” murder.
gouggouga day ago
I think it's fair to say that the software itself could/does facilitate illegal uses cases. But with that line of argumentation, then all software facilitates illegal use-cases just by existing.
The statement "We do not endorse, promote, or facilitate copyright infringement, illegal streaming, or piracy in any form", might be poorly written with regards to the fact that just by existing this torrent streaming program _does_ facilitate piracy, but I don't think this was your original argument.
slga day ago
> I don't think this was your original argument.
I’ll be honest, I really don’t know what argument you think I’m making or that you yourself are making.
The truth here is that this software will overwhelmingly be used in an illegal manner. The creators knew that when they wrote that disclaimer and we all know that reading the disclaimer. Yet the disclaimer is still placed there like it has some reason for existing beyond allowing everyone to pretend something that is happening isn’t happening. Your comments here seem to just be continuing that charade.
I’m not even condemning this software or illegally pirating movies and TV shows. I’m just remarking on the silliness of the disclaimer.
timeflexa day ago
Same argument you're making would be that gun manufacturers know that their product will be used to kill lots of people, and any disclaimer on the package to not murder is silly. Would you make that argument with a straight face or change your argument as a result?
Or does it make sense to put a disclaimer on there, not just from a legal perspective, but to actively discourage those users who haven't made up their mind already? While people absolutely can use their software for pirating content—which is in open debate about the ethics—I've known very few individuals who torrent to actually profit from others material, but I know of plenty anti-piracy advocates who use stolen content for profit.
I've also known bucketloads of people that have paid $50+ for a movie in the theater or $10+ for a rental at home, only realize how badly they were duped by the industry to give money for something that was practically garbage, which they ended up not watching anyway yet the purchase was nonrefundable, which unfortunately happens several times because of all the fake interest in something actually being advertising, which appeals to their desire to fit in. It is often very exploitative.
I've also known a descent amount of people that discovered content they found joy in by torrenting, maybe at the time being depressed... struggling to get out of bed or find inspiration, and as a result improved their condition to become pretty big supporters of those who made that content later on, which they would then gladly pay for thereafter.
Seriously, any actual good artist I've known usually would be the first to encourage someone to pirate their content because they understand that the people that like it will support them, and the people that don't... they have no desire to exploit them.
Like you can claim people shouldn't shoot up heroine, while still giving them clean needles if they're still going to do it.
ac29a day ago
> Same argument you're making would be that gun manufacturers know that their product will be used to kill lots of people
Not a great example because very few guns will be used to kill people whereas an overwhelming majority of the users of this software will use it to view pirated material.
number6a day ago
Cars and speed limits then? Most if not all cars will violate the speed limit - without them it is also virtual impossible to break them
fp64a day ago
Cars primary purpose which the majority of people are using them for is not breaking the speed limit.
number6a day ago
While most people may not see breaking the speed limit as the primary purpose of their car, the way cars are designed, especially marketed and used in everyday life normalizes and even encourages exceeding posted speeds. This makes speeding not an edge case, but a central, majority use case in practice.
Ok, that's not actually what I believe, I don't even know if you could make this argument. This is just for the arguments sake, sorry.
gouggouga day ago
TL;DR: I am nitpicking on the use of "objectively untrue" and the implication this disclaimer serves no purpose.
> The creators knew that when they wrote that disclaimer and we all know that reading the disclaimer.
This is the idea I'm pushing back against.
Yes, you are very likely correct in your assessment that the creators know that their software will be used illegally.
No, you are incorrect, in saying this is 1- "objectively untrue" and 2- implying the statement might _not_ have some protective qualities.
To take a purposefully exaggerated analogy: you can believe all day long someone committed murder, it still doesn't make it true. You can argue all day long the authors aren't being truthful, it still doesn't make it true.
> Yet the disclaimer is still placed there like it has some reason for existing beyond allowing everyone to pretend something that is happening isn’t happening
I'd agree with this, and, add that, at the same time, (assuming the USA here) it's probably placed there for legal reasons (whether it factually matters legally or not is a question for an actual lawyer, which, objectively, I am not).
> I’m just remarking on the silliness of the disclaimer.
It feels a bit silly, yes, and at the same time... needed?
slga day ago
You're shifting what I used “objectively untrue” to describe. Here's what I originally said, “the words are objectively untrue”. I was not describing the thought process of the creators because that is obviously unknowable to us. I was instead describing the accuracy of “the words” claiming that the software does not facilitate copyright infringement. That claim is “objectively untrue”. The software obviously does facilitate this, which you seemingly already agreed to being true. The authors' thoughts on the matter don't impact the objective truth.
Also, I don't know what compelled you to speculate on the legal value of the disclaimer while also admitting you have no actual insight into that issue. That feels like posting just to post. You're not even baselessly speculating that I'm wrong, you're baselessly speculating that I might be wrong.
gouggouga day ago
The original statement is not just "we do not facilitate copyright infringement". It has a whole lot of other words.
If your original comment is solely about this revised 6 words statement, then, yes, you are correct, the claim is objectively untrue.
I'm no mind reader though, I assumed you were talking about the whole thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
slg16 hours ago
What a weird comment. If you surround a lie with enough truth, it makes the lie disappear?
brooksta day ago
“Disclaimer: this disclaimer is not written in English, it is just a coincidental arrangement of letters that resembles English”
mystifyingpoi2 days ago
This is beautiful and hillarious. A disclaimer at the very bottom of the page who no one will ever notice. A huge colorful screenshot of the newest Marvel movie at the very top of the page everyone will see immediately.
Great.
NotPracticala day ago
They've literally censored the pirated filename and the torrent hash. Begging to be sued.
I'm starting to regret supporting software freedom. /s
Dinux2 days ago
While showing an image of Disney IP
littlestymaara day ago
I have the exact same reaction when I read about “licenses” attached to LLM weights, especially the “you can't use that in the EU” as if it sufficed to comply with European regulations.
tshaddoxa day ago
Wait until you see the terms of service documents your corporate lawyer will tell you that you need in the footer of your website.
progbits2 days ago
Aren't these torrent clients bad for the swarm? Requesting chunks in sequence and probably not sticking around to seed. Do they at least seed while watching?
diggan2 days ago
> Do they at least seed while watching?
Considering there is a file called "verify-no-uploads.js" ((https://github.com/hotheadhacker/seedbox-lite/blob/6a89d1974...)) in the repository, which contains "This script monitors network activity to ensure zero uploads", it seems to me like they're actively trying to just be leechers.
zolland2 days ago
Using "Seedbox" in the name is very misleading then... I would have been excited to see a Stremio style alternative that actually downloads and seeds content for an extended period of time.
throwaway93876a day ago
> I would have been excited to see a Stremio style alternative that actually downloads and seeds content for an extended period of time
That's just a standard torrent client + media player combo, isn't it?
rand0mx1a day ago
Although a standard torrent client doesn't download any file sequentially.
thisislife2a day ago
Huh? Did I misunderstand you - many torrent clients today allow you to download a file sequentially?
Charon77a day ago
Maybe they're talking about prioritizing earlier "Piece"
Seattle35032 days ago
Sometimes I think private trackers are too uptight about ratios and hit-and-run rules, then I see something like this.
TuringTest2 days ago
Wouldn't an app like this stop working after a few uses?
As I understand, the protocol penalizes users that don't contribute to the upstream, although I never checked the details.
Or do this kind of app keep changing the identity to avoid getting downgraded? Does Stremio work like this too?
neckro232 days ago
Outside of a private tracker (which takes measures to keep random untracked peers from getting on the torrent), not really. Individual seeder clients can detect bad behavior like leeching and ban by IP, but each torrent is likely to have a different seeding pool.
So the penalty is mostly just on individual torrents. Of course, trying to pull something like this on a private tracker would get you banned real fast...
delusionala day ago
I was under the impression that part of what made bittorent work was that the protocol tried to estimate how much each peer is uploading moment to moment and only provide it that much data to download.
Dylan16807a day ago
Oh definitely not, a limit that harsh would prevent most people from getting the whole file.
Uploaders get priority. But if you show up to a torrent past the initial ramp of growth there will be plenty of bandwidth to go around and you'll experience a high speed download regardless of your ratio.
toomuchtodo2 days ago
If you're not uploading, you're not infringing/pirating (in some jurisdictions).
dullcrispa day ago
This looks like it's AI coded so I wouldn't take the presence of any file in the repository to indicate anything.
littlestymaara day ago
> a file called "verify-no-uploads.js" ((https://github.com/hotheadhacker/seedbox-lite/blob/6a89d1974...))
What the duck did I just read?
100% this was vibecoded and the author doesn't understand what they are doing…
fp64a day ago
I think you are right. At least they should document that it only works if you have netstat installed and using it on a device called "en0"
diggana day ago
They do that implicitly in the comment above the function:
> // Function to monitor network activity (macOS specific)
I'm guessing all macOS computers use exactly the same NIC name, and come with netstat preinstalled?
owjofwjeofm2 days ago
Isn’t piracy itself a form of leeching
craftkillera day ago
In this context the word "leeching" has a specific meaning. In bittorrent, "leeching" is downloading, "seeding" is uploading. With a normal torrent client, every download has you starting as a leecher (downloader) and becoming a seeder (uploader), but this client skips that 2nd part.
swinglocka day ago
A seeder is a peer which is serving a complete a set of all files. Peers which are not seeds also uploads, and this is not called seeding.
craftkiller19 hours ago
Yes, I didn't think that extra nuance would help in this situation. The person I replied to wasn't familiar with bittorrent terminology so adding in the complexity of whether or not you have the complete set of files is unnecessary for this discussion. But yes, you are correct and my statement was technically wrong/incomplete.
lawlessone2 days ago
>Isn’t piracy itself a form of leeching
Actually i'm just collecting data to train an AI
MurkyLabs2 days ago
well officers I see nothing illegal being done here, case closed
[deleted]2 days agocollapsed
swinglocka day ago
If a torrent is already well seeded then downloading in random order isn't really a problem because there are already multiple complete copies out there. If it isn't, then the streaming client will likely receive less data from non-streaming peers due to the data it can offer being less rare and desirable, given several peers in the swarm downloads in sequence. That makes them all even less likely to be able to stream without pausing for buffering when there's not already a lot of capacity. So it probably works itself out alright.
u80802 days ago
Leech client, add to blacklists.
ddtaylor2 days ago
This is awesome for some use cases, but the problem with having it replace my Jellyfin + qbittorrent + vpn setup is that Jellyfin is available on many smart TVs such as Roku or LG.
evulhotdoga day ago
This could be integrated into Jellyfin as a source and it would stream it from the server to whatever client.
password43212 days ago
Should be called "not-a-seedbox"
xaindume2 days ago
Or "leechbox"
IceWreck2 days ago
Does it download torrents on your server or web torrent on your browser? - the readme really doesn't say.
Imo downloading on the server is more useful. Web torrent is great but I don't think it's very practical in many places.
koakuma-chan2 days ago
Why does this need a server? Isn't the point to be able to add a torrent and start watching immediately?
immibis2 days ago
Browsers can't make torrent connections, or any others for that matter. Except for HTTP and WebRTC.
WebTorrent is a hack to run torrent protocol over WebRTC, but obviously it only connects to other WebTorrent programs and not to normal torrent programs. I think PeerTube uses it.
koakuma-chan2 days ago
It could be a desktop app :shrug:
majorchorda day ago
there are several hybrid desktop clients that do support WebTorrent peers
adithyassekhar2 days ago
I'm looking through the frontend code, I mainly work with react and vite, same as this project.
It was refreshing to see a plain standard vite initial setup used as is but the way authentication is handled makes it feel like it's all AI generated. It does the standard authprovider, useauth setup all AI tools give with the same variable names
mystifyingpoi2 days ago
It definitely is. No human would write a Dockerfile with absolutely useless comments like:
# Copy source code
COPY . .
# Expose port
EXPOSE 3001
craftkillera day ago
> No human would write a Dockerfile with absolutely useless comments like:
One small correction: no human with more than a passing familiarity with Dockerfiles would write those comments, But I've definitely seen humans learning Docker for the first time write useless comments almost exactly like that. Especially if their coworkers have given them a list of what they need the Dockerfile to do.
adithyassekhar2 days ago
Maybe my message came a bit too negative, AI is fine. The scope of this app is incredible regardless.
I've only just began working on these things. Just curious to see what other methods people use to do auth than the same thing all tutorials do. Expected to learn something and got disappointed that's all.
gaowanliang2 days ago
Over a decade ago, there was a software in China called "Kuaibo(快播, meaning 'Fast Playback')", which offered a similar service. But different from it, Kuaibo had its own server, which allowed users to stream torrent videos very quickly. Eventually, the company was shut down due to copyright and porn issues.
Eldt2 days ago
I know of a few of these types of services operating in Europe presently
kamranjona day ago
How would this work well? I kinda thought that the whole benefit of torrents was being able to parallelize the downloads in chunks across the entirety of the file - wouldn't this negate that?
netsharca day ago
(Ab)using torrents for sequential watching is not an original idea, probably the thought is "doesn't matter, I get to watch the movie".
I think the original concept of torrents is to ensure the chunks with the least amount of copies in the network get duplicated earliest (in worst case there's only 1 copy, if that peer goes offline you won't get a complete download).
But this concept would be interesting to see when people stop watching.. if 1000 clients have the first 20% of the movie but only 600 have more, it means many quit watching at 20% of the movie..
Dylan1680713 hours ago
Parallelize in chunks, yes. Across the entirety of the file, not as much. If you work in parallel across a 50MB range it works about as well.
[deleted]a day agocollapsed
hauxir20 hours ago
somewhat similar to my project called rapidbay. https://github.com/hauxir/rapidbay
lossolo16 hours ago
It's interesting how can you spot LLMs now. Whole docs, commit messages and code was generated by LLM in that repo.