8 ms·

Joker – Torrents to streamable video

401 points by bmaeser 12y ago

Phogo 12y ago
Wow, that was easy and actually worked flawlessly. Could you provide us with a little info on the technologies behind it?
- bmaeser 12y ago
  sorry, not my site or tech. i just shared the link here on hn.
colinramsay 12y ago
This worked really well for me after a few seconds of stuttering at the start. Looking at the network requests, it's streaming from an MP4 file on the server which I guess is being fed by the torrent. But doesn't it effectively mean that this site is hosting the MP4 of potentially illegal content - even if just a few seconds of it? Or even as just a container for it?
- pessimizer 12y ago
  That's not how I expected it to be designed. I assumed that you would only be asking for the pieces to fill a moving buffer starting from the beginning of the file (like a sort of client 'superseeding.') edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-seeding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-seeding super-leeching?
- easytiger 12y ago
  If it all runs in the browser then its no different than running a libtorrent application locally or such locally
  - romanovcode 12y ago
    It depends. In Germany, for example, it's illegal to SEED, downloading is not a problem. That's why websites similar to mega upload and russian movie streaming websites are so popular there. If this thing only gives content to you and you don't give anything back than it's pretty cool.
- chii 12y ago
  i was hoping that it was a javascript torrent client, not a server based media player that happened to use a torrent to obtain that media (then immediately serving that media). It's a cool tech, but it's a tech that can be targeted by "authorities", and so sooner rather than later, will get taken down due to copyright claims.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  Tried different links (magnets or .torrent) without any luck. I'm curious to see how it behaves even though I don't intend to use it afterwards.. just for the sake of doing it in the browser. Anyone care to give me a small sample magnet ? <10M
  - icebraining 12y ago
    This works fine for me: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:373b1794e9e73dbf206bce304a5900851193f285&dn=steal+ this+film+part+1+and+2&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A8 0%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      Same.. I get an error (I fixed the space between ? and xt). Chrome devtools/network shows nothing suspcious, some basic ping pong between their server for small HTTP request returning 200. Weird. Thanks for the help though
caractacus 12y ago
Tried an mkv from NYAA: no go, format not supported (loads to 100% but then gives the error) Different mkv from Kickass: format not supported (without loading, apparently, though I wonder if it's cached given that it was Guardians of the Galaxy) TV episode of Gotham: same as for previous Something is happening because it says e.g. 'Gotham' in the top and retrieves a nice faded background of the cast but I keep getting 'format not supported' EDIT: seems to be my browser or connection; trying a different machine on a different IP and it works very nicely and quickly indeed.
mk00 12y ago
Worked beautifully for me, including loading at different points. Very nice.
bluehazed 12y ago
Worked fantastic. Awesome.
Mendim 12y ago
IT saves the torrents in host.i checked an video.the site maybe will be suspended because is hosted ilegaly contents http://v4.joker.org/v/d027a2418e34d040f015a75376d627c0a022e22b93ba3d0ac4507ef87da5fa7286fd1c171a19cc19e7a7d29cf6111410e9765fe25b88badc4fb40b1770b073ad60a4ed0f00da5e316fefd73021dc8ac1.mp4 http://v4.joker.org/v/d027a2418e34d040f015a75376d627c0a022e2...
- ikt 12y ago
  looks like it deletes the file shortly after download?
  - Mendim 12y ago
    let we check it after 24 hours.maybe they delete files automaticaly.but for now the link is alive yet.
drdoooom 12y ago
this is really great, worked better than i anticipated. maybe a xbmc addon in the future!
- zperrault 12y ago
  There are actually several XBMC addons that do this sort of Torrent file streaming. Here's one: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200957 http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200957
  - drdoooom 12y ago
    that's great, thanks i'll check it out. i don't suppose you know of a similar option for roku?
Patrick_Devine 12y ago
Didn't have time to look through the DOM. Is this a javascript torrent client? I think there was one out there in the wild before, but I'm not sure how good it was. I always thought if there was a simple JS torrent library out there, Bit torrent could make a comeback.
- mhaymo 12y ago
  According to this (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4776112/is-it-possible-to-build-a-torrent-client-using-only-html5-and-javascript http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4776112/is-it-possible-to...), it's not possible to build a bittorrent client in javascript.
  - MzHN 12y ago
    That was true in 2011, when the question was asked and answered. For recent developments, take a look at http://webtorrent.io http://webtorrent.io
  - iambot 12y ago
    it is: https://github.com/feross/webtorrent https://github.com/feross/webtorrent
kristofferR 12y ago
Damn, it's awesome that bandwidth has become this cheap. This isn't a torrent client in your browser, the server actually does the torrenting for you and then streams the file to you as it's downloading on the server.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
interdrift 12y ago
What if the data isn't a video.Does every format have a header which provides that it's actually a video?I assume it works through a stream feeding it with data at a time and then decoding it?
- icebraining 12y ago
  Does every format have a header which provides that it's actually a video? I've never seen one that didn't. Certainly the most common containers do.
hotgoldminer 12y ago
What are the legal ramifications of streaming pirated content? Could you cache popular content to preserve downstream traffic? Or is that the loophole? This plus content aggregation/browsing.. hmm..
- belorn 12y ago
  Depend where the server is located. In this case its UK law that dictate the rules. If it did go to court, I would suspect that the case Public Relations Consultants Association Limited [PRCA] v. The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited and others (http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/07/viewing-cached-copyrighted-content-isnt-infringing-uk-supreme-court-says/ http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/07/viewing-cached-copyrighte...) would be relevant. "The court said: Whether looking at a cached copy of protected content, without downloading or printing it, amounts to infringement. Lower courts held that it does, a finding unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court.".
  - kristofferR 12y ago
    How is downloading defined?
    - grabeh 12y ago
      The defence is linked to Art 5(1) of the Copyright Directive[1], which states that where a reproduction is temporary, incidental or transient. it will not be considered to be an infringement. A download would classed as anything that didn't satisfy those conditions. So if you're storing something for the purposes of making use of it later it would fall outside the exception as it would not be temporary or transient. Technically your browser downloads content of course, but provided the content is only viewed whilst you are in the browser and not retained following the end of your browser session (or were merely retained in your cache), this would not constitute a download for the purposes of putting a user outside the exception to infringement under Art 5(1). [1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001L0029:EN:HTML http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...
  - 12y ago
Jamie452 12y ago
Seeking seems super fast, I'm impressed!
afro88 12y ago
Anyone know how this would work in Germany? They're incredibly strict on torrents here (you can torrent one movie and get a letter in the mail 2 weeks later). This seems like it would be a nice workaround... While it lasts
- jagermo 12y ago
  It would work - however, I guess you mean: "Will I stay anonymous and/or not upload anything, so the movie industry will not send their goons/laywers after me." I'd say no.
  - kuschku 12y ago
    The idea is that streaming can never be illegal under current german laws, so if the server is just handing an mp4 to the client, then it’s perfectly legal.
    - jagermo 12y ago
      yes, but what if they get a hold of the IP logs of the Joker-server? They'd probably send out cease and desist letters just to scare people. I would not use it if I'd fear to be discovered.
- hobofan 12y ago
  If you stream it through your browser, they still have the same IP, which is used to identify you. As for prosecution of torrent seeders, that's not really possible anymore IIRC, since the "Vorratsdatenspeicherung" (= stockpile saving of which IP address has been connect to which landline, in case it is needed for law enforcement) has been declared illegal. AFAIK movie torrents were never really monitored, the focus was always on the latest music releases. I also haven't heard of any fines for torrenting in the last 2-3 years, but that might be because I'm not really in that age anymore.
  - memorion 12y ago
    They can have your IP but just streaming itself isn't illegal in Germany and since you actually don't personally seed the content here you might just be ok.
denisnazarov 12y ago
This is not actually p2p. Check out https://github.com/feross/webtorrent https://github.com/feross/webtorrent. Hoping to hear feross' input.
- caractacus 12y ago
  Does that matter? The joker.org server is doing the p2p download bit and streaming the content to the browser. It's likely that it's caching material for torrents. I tried Guardians of the Galaxy and could skip almost all the way to the end of the film when it had only just begun.
  - skolor 12y ago
    That could quite possibly just being taking advantage of the torrent block downloading. Normally you download blocks based on the least available, but you can pull them in any order you want. This would allow the server to selectively buffer whatever you need fairly quickly. That said, its likely that they're cacheing.
    - djyaz1200 12y ago
      Cache is likely and that has legal ramifications. If they are just providing a viewer their hands are clean legally, if they cache they are in danger RE DMCA. Cool product, works remarkably well.
      - zenocon 12y ago
        I'd suspect they have to be using a cache, too, but I tried a whole slew of random torrents off kickass.to, and if it played it at all, I could scrub every single one of them to any point in the video with a mere 1-2 sec delay. So, they've either cached a gi-normous amount of torrents, or they've come up with something really interesting in the ability to dynamically stream any block with very low latency.
        djyaz1200 12y ago
daddykotex 12y ago
Very impressive, it worked flawlessly for me with a randomly picked torrent. The file was an MP4. Good job, I hope you find a way to make it stick around!
deleted 12y ago
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fredley 12y ago
On my Chromebook I use JSTorrent: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent/anhdpjpojoipgpmfanmedjghaligalgb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent/anhdpjpo...
- kzahel 12y ago
  Which has a free trial version: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent-lite/abmohcnlldaiaodkpacnldcdnjjgldfh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent-lite/abm...
- sdk16420 12y ago
  The paid version of Vuze also allows streaming torrent videos http://www.vuze.com/features/playnow http://www.vuze.com/features/playnow So all in all, hardly a new concept, but this looks really convenient to use.
  - j_s 12y ago
    Tribler is free and will prioritize piece-picking to allow immediate playback while the download is in progress. This has long been frowned upon in the BitTorrent community and usually leads to client bans from the more pickiest of the private sharing sites. http://www.tribler.org/ http://www.tribler.org/
kumarharsh 12y ago
It seems there is another issue: Some of the torrent videos don't play at all.
taneem 12y ago
What's the difference between this and Popcorn Time?
- louhike 12y ago
  Popcorn Time is decentralized. It does not require the movie to be downloaded first on a server, unlike this service.
- calvin_c 12y ago
  As I understand it Popcorn Time torrents and seeds a file sequentially, allowing you to watch the video as it downloads and removes the video from your device when it's over. It's more similar to torrenting a file yourself, but doesn't store the file when it's over. In contrast this torrents the file to the server and allows you to stream the content over your browser, so it isn't your device doing the leeching and seeding. You just watch it all happen.
  - taternuts 12y ago
    Last I checked, it's actually a simple check-box in the settings to stop popcorn time from deleting the file afterwards. Really the only thing popcorn time did over the old-fashioned torrenting process was enable easy 'streaming' of torrents by downloading the bits in order instead of by least available first, as well as a nice UI to find them
manish_gill 12y ago
I wonder how this will work with Private Trackers?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
neogenix 12y ago
Does it support ChromeCast?
baldfat 12y ago
So a ton of links and stories are removed from Hacker News based on???? But a service that stream pirated material is fine?
- undrwatr 12y ago
  I'm sure there's at least one legal video torrent out there. Technology alone does not infringement make.
- darkstar999 12y ago
  Bank robbers use cars. Ban all cars.
- kbart 12y ago
  What's with the attitude that torrents == piracy? Torrents have many legitimate uses and is great technology for decentralized sharing, for example, you can download some Linux distributions via torrents from the official site what in turn reduces cost for the maintainers. It's the same as saying that all Tor users are pedophiles. I expect people here in HN to be more technologically literate and less biased than average Joe.
bmaeser 12y ago
developer of joker.org joined comments on product hunt: http://www.producthunt.com/posts/joker http://www.producthunt.com/posts/joker
- josu 12y ago
  This is the guy who claims to be the developer: https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok
  - wmt 12y ago
    The guy sure likes superonlinealmalimiyim.com
  - imaginenore 12y ago
    That's a Turkish name, and there are a couple of Facebook accounts that match the name and the photo. Here's the US-Turkey extradition treaty: http://www.mcnabbassociates.com/Turkey%20International%20Extradition%20Treaty%20with%20the%20United%20States.pdf http://www.mcnabbassociates.com/Turkey%20International%20Ext...
    - josu 12y ago
      Yeah, but: https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok/status/516602396353384448 https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok/status/516602396353384448
Codename47tr 12y ago
Even works perfect on my ipad, amazing
Sami_Lehtinen 12y ago
In Finland it's totally legal to watch streamed pirated content. But the streamer (source) will get quite likely get sued and pay a lot.
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
Wow that was smooth as butter... Am I unique or is everyone getting speed like this?
wmt 12y ago
What's the catch? I have a few trust issues when someone wants to pay his own money to give me access to mostly illegal content. Somebody just spent time making a torrent streaming service, and is now paying for the bandwidth it takes to download that torrent content AND to upload it to your browser. What I could quickly see about the service is that the facebook "app" of it doesn't have too many users[1], dyn.com[2] handles the site DNS (not free) and redstation.com[3] hosts the service (not free). [1] https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/?method=GET&path=720087414746210&version=v2.1 https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/?method=GET&p... [2] http://who.is/whois/joker.org http://who.is/whois/joker.org [3] http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=149.3.133.138&o=1 http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=149.3.133.138&o=1
- Codename47tr 12y ago
  I think after few months, it'll not be free. This is the trial
- graystevens 12y ago
  I'm assuming you can extract a nice amount of personal information from 'private' torrents and links. Excellent way to harvest accounts of private torrent sites for your own personal gain.
  - jsmthrowaway 12y ago
    That isn't how private torrents work. They contain a key that identifies the user who downloaded it, for bookkeeping purposes on the site (tracking bytes in and bytes out for ratio purposes), but you cannot get into the site's UI from the information in the torrent. This was a deliberate design decision in most private tracker software, notably Gazelle, because it was accepted that people would post the .torrent files in other places. Many trackers also limit the IP addresses that are permitted to join a swarm based upon the same identifier in the torrent file; all of the ones I've been in have required me to disclose the IP addresses of my seedboxes, and attempting to use another IP address would get my account flagged for a ban. So no, your assumption is completely incorrect. Even if someone shoved a passthepopcorn torrent in there, (a) that person would likely get banned from ptp, (b) it probably wouldn't work in the first place because joker's servers couldn't join the swarm and (c) the information that the owner of joker can glean from such a torrent file would be almost entirely useless unless the goal is boosting the ratio of the user. As much as you'd assume about something you've never used, private torrents are actually a well-oiled, quite secure machine. It's easy to think of pirates as incompetent, but Gazelle is actually decent software and the biggest problem I ever faced while involved in that scene was DDoS attacks against the trackers.
atmosx 12y ago
Is this open source? Can I download/install this to my VPS?!
h43k3r 12y ago
I am thinking of starting a project similar to this for DC++. DC++ is pretty popular in many of the indian universities intranet networks for sharing files/music/videos(I know its illegal, but no one cares about it here in India because very weak laws) . Anyone having any inputs on this?
foobarqux 12y ago
iflix.io, which did the exact same thing (in fact I think it is the same code base), closed after a few days because it is not sustainable to do the downloading on behalf of the client.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
tomphoolery 12y ago
Noticed "Inception" was much easier to stream than "200 Motels", and the laserdisc version didn't even work. How in the hell does this thing work? It's pretty awesome, once the movie actually downloads. :) Seems like there's some caching going on. Good idea.
- dchuk 12y ago
  Well, "200 Motels" shows about 16 seeds on Kickass right now, while Inception has about 1600. So that would explain why one works so much better than the other.
  - emerongi 12y ago
    It must be caching the more popular torrents. Inception loaded up within 1s for me, which means there probably was no communication between the trackers and the server. Other torrents didn't even load up for me.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      Inception loaded up within 1s for me Didn't it show an ad first? Even if you're fast at skipping, it's still enough time to preload the file in the background.
      - emerongi 12y ago
        No ads. I live in a country with barely any ads targeted at it (only 1M people live here) - so I usually get none. It loaded up so incredibly fast that it must have been cached and stored on the server.
jokoon 12y ago
I remember watching some video of bram cohen in his lab, where he was actually making some p2p video client. I guess what he's working on at this moment... I guess nothing ?
- caractacus 12y ago
  Bram Cohen has been working on some p2p video client for years and I don't think he's ever even released an alpha. Given that (i) typical residential broadband speeds have increased dramatically over the last few years and (ii) bittorrent or some form of it has become the accepted means for cheap live video streaming by clients the world over (qvod, pps, popcorntime, etc etc), I don't see what issues he might be facing.
digital-rubber 12y ago
Somehow i predict this site will not live long. Mainly because of the legal implications. If it does live long, i might start to wonder if this is some RIAA like honeypot system to have users report where they get their torrent downloads from by sharing the links directly. Just my penny.
mbesto 12y ago
I do exactly this with Put.io - (1) get magnet link (2) stream on the browser and (3) push out to chromecast on my TV. No downloading ever. My understanding of "how is this legal" is the following - the server and server admin has no keys to the data so it would be impossible for them to do DMCA. Put.io has been around for a long time now so I'm pretty sure they've cleared the legal hurdles already.
- hyperbovine 12y ago
  I congratulate you on possessing such an easily appeased conscience.
  - coryfklein 12y ago
    You assume he is doing something wrong, but using torrents to stream video is probably amoral, not immoral.
    - therealdrag0 12y ago
      Not compensating content creators for their work is immoral.
      - JetSpiegel 12y ago
        Buy content doesn't compensate the creators anyway. At least for any content with intermediates, like publishers.
        Buge 12y ago
        Some actors earn percentages. Even if they don't, if a film does poorly, the investors will be less likely to invest in more films and the workers will have a harder time finding work on a new film.
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
omgmog 12y ago
Tested with Big Buck Bunny and it seems to work nice enough. http://distribution.bbb3d.renderfarming.net/video/mp4/bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_normal.mp4.torrent http://distribution.bbb3d.renderfarming.net/video/mp4/bbb_su...
maram 12y ago
Wow! this is very simple and easy to use!! I wonder for how long it will be available..
geekymartian 12y ago
This is cute, but I will continue using peerflix : https://github.com/mafintosh/peerflix https://github.com/mafintosh/peerflix . Loads way faster and is not hosted/tracked (besides the obvious p2p interaction). And I don't have to see ads.
- hyyypr 12y ago
  Thanks, very nice little software.
Aissen 12y ago
So this is basically put.io, but free ?
JCJoverTCP 12y ago
dont torrent chunks show up out of order?
- valarauca1 12y ago
  No this is how you stream torrents. Normally you request what ever chunk a seeder has available. But instead you request in order. This slows your speed (slightly), but a torrent likely will still finish before the movie has making the point moot.
paul9290 12y ago
With all the streaming sites out there that let you watch ALL your favorite TV shows and the latest movies, I never understood the lure of PopCorn Time and this type of site? With both Popcorn Time and this tool (site) I could receive a copyright infringement notice. While the streaming sites that stream the latest from the Pirate Bay & more are liable. Further, by the letter of the law, me watching these streams is perfectly legal; no copyright notice will be received. Maybe the streaming sites I speak of are not well known or not openly spoken about because they'll get shut down?
- veridies 12y ago
  There's also the issue of quality; most free streaming sites have much more heavily compressed video than a good torrent. And you don't have to deal with ads on a torrent.
anilshanbhag 12y ago
This service is very good. You can watch pretty much any video (not a movie - that's piracy you know) as if it were hosted on Youtube. Scrolling is smooth and almost instantaneous load time.
jmbmxer 12y ago
I work in security and have been running into more and more issues with these types of Torrent streaming services. People at work mostly know that downloading a BitTorrent client, seeding, leeching, etc. is bad but they have no idea that these streaming applications are doing the same exact thing behind the scenes. They just see it as a way to watch free movies. Keep your employees informed about this and tighten up your policies because DMCA laws apply.
- kbart 12y ago
  As other comments have already mentioned, watching the streaming contest (even copyrighted) is perfectly legal in many countries (at least in EU).
notax 12y ago
Doesn't seem to work. I get an error on any torrent I try, regardless of source or video format.
burten 12y ago
joker down, are there alternatives besides http://put.io http://put.io or https://bitport.io/ https://bitport.io/?

401 points by bmaeser 12y ago

Phogo 12y ago

Wow, that was easy and actually worked flawlessly. Could you provide us with a little info on the technologies behind it?

bmaeser 12y ago
sorry, not my site or tech. i just shared the link here on hn.

colinramsay 12y ago

This worked really well for me after a few seconds of stuttering at the start. Looking at the network requests, it's streaming from an MP4 file on the server which I guess is being fed by the torrent. But doesn't it effectively mean that this site is hosting the MP4 of potentially illegal content - even if just a few seconds of it? Or even as just a container for it?

pessimizer 12y ago
That's not how I expected it to be designed. I assumed that you would only be asking for the pieces to fill a moving buffer starting from the beginning of the file (like a sort of client 'superseeding.') edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-seeding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-seeding super-leeching?
easytiger 12y ago
If it all runs in the browser then its no different than running a libtorrent application locally or such locally
- romanovcode 12y ago
  It depends. In Germany, for example, it's illegal to SEED, downloading is not a problem. That's why websites similar to mega upload and russian movie streaming websites are so popular there. If this thing only gives content to you and you don't give anything back than it's pretty cool.
chii 12y ago
i was hoping that it was a javascript torrent client, not a server based media player that happened to use a torrent to obtain that media (then immediately serving that media). It's a cool tech, but it's a tech that can be targeted by "authorities", and so sooner rather than later, will get taken down due to copyright claims.
agumonkey 12y ago
Tried different links (magnets or .torrent) without any luck. I'm curious to see how it behaves even though I don't intend to use it afterwards.. just for the sake of doing it in the browser. Anyone care to give me a small sample magnet ? <10M
- icebraining 12y ago
  This works fine for me: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:373b1794e9e73dbf206bce304a5900851193f285&dn=steal+ this+film+part+1+and+2&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A8 0%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    Same.. I get an error (I fixed the space between ? and xt). Chrome devtools/network shows nothing suspcious, some basic ping pong between their server for small HTTP request returning 200. Weird. Thanks for the help though

caractacus 12y ago

Tried an mkv from NYAA: no go, format not supported (loads to 100% but then gives the error) Different mkv from Kickass: format not supported (without loading, apparently, though I wonder if it's cached given that it was Guardians of the Galaxy) TV episode of Gotham: same as for previous Something is happening because it says e.g. 'Gotham' in the top and retrieves a nice faded background of the cast but I keep getting 'format not supported' EDIT: seems to be my browser or connection; trying a different machine on a different IP and it works very nicely and quickly indeed.

mk00 12y ago

Worked beautifully for me, including loading at different points. Very nice.

bluehazed 12y ago

Worked fantastic. Awesome.

Mendim 12y ago

IT saves the torrents in host.i checked an video.the site maybe will be suspended because is hosted ilegaly contents http://v4.joker.org/v/d027a2418e34d040f015a75376d627c0a022e22b93ba3d0ac4507ef87da5fa7286fd1c171a19cc19e7a7d29cf6111410e9765fe25b88badc4fb40b1770b073ad60a4ed0f00da5e316fefd73021dc8ac1.mp4 http://v4.joker.org/v/d027a2418e34d040f015a75376d627c0a022e2...

ikt 12y ago
looks like it deletes the file shortly after download?
- Mendim 12y ago
  let we check it after 24 hours.maybe they delete files automaticaly.but for now the link is alive yet.

drdoooom 12y ago

this is really great, worked better than i anticipated. maybe a xbmc addon in the future!

zperrault 12y ago
There are actually several XBMC addons that do this sort of Torrent file streaming. Here's one: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200957 http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200957
- drdoooom 12y ago
  that's great, thanks i'll check it out. i don't suppose you know of a similar option for roku?

Patrick_Devine 12y ago

Didn't have time to look through the DOM. Is this a javascript torrent client? I think there was one out there in the wild before, but I'm not sure how good it was. I always thought if there was a simple JS torrent library out there, Bit torrent could make a comeback.

mhaymo 12y ago
According to this (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4776112/is-it-possible-to-build-a-torrent-client-using-only-html5-and-javascript http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4776112/is-it-possible-to...), it's not possible to build a bittorrent client in javascript.
- MzHN 12y ago
  That was true in 2011, when the question was asked and answered. For recent developments, take a look at http://webtorrent.io http://webtorrent.io
- iambot 12y ago
  it is: https://github.com/feross/webtorrent https://github.com/feross/webtorrent

kristofferR 12y ago

Damn, it's awesome that bandwidth has become this cheap. This isn't a torrent client in your browser, the server actually does the torrenting for you and then streams the file to you as it's downloading on the server.

deleted 12y ago
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interdrift 12y ago

What if the data isn't a video.Does every format have a header which provides that it's actually a video?I assume it works through a stream feeding it with data at a time and then decoding it?

icebraining 12y ago
Does every format have a header which provides that it's actually a video? I've never seen one that didn't. Certainly the most common containers do.

hotgoldminer 12y ago

What are the legal ramifications of streaming pirated content? Could you cache popular content to preserve downstream traffic? Or is that the loophole? This plus content aggregation/browsing.. hmm..

belorn 12y ago
Depend where the server is located. In this case its UK law that dictate the rules. If it did go to court, I would suspect that the case Public Relations Consultants Association Limited [PRCA] v. The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited and others (http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/07/viewing-cached-copyrighted-content-isnt-infringing-uk-supreme-court-says/ http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/05/07/viewing-cached-copyrighte...) would be relevant. "The court said: Whether looking at a cached copy of protected content, without downloading or printing it, amounts to infringement. Lower courts held that it does, a finding unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court.".
- kristofferR 12y ago
  How is downloading defined?
  - grabeh 12y ago
    The defence is linked to Art 5(1) of the Copyright Directive[1], which states that where a reproduction is temporary, incidental or transient. it will not be considered to be an infringement. A download would classed as anything that didn't satisfy those conditions. So if you're storing something for the purposes of making use of it later it would fall outside the exception as it would not be temporary or transient. Technically your browser downloads content of course, but provided the content is only viewed whilst you are in the browser and not retained following the end of your browser session (or were merely retained in your cache), this would not constitute a download for the purposes of putting a user outside the exception to infringement under Art 5(1). [1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001L0029:EN:HTML http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...
- 12y ago

Jamie452 12y ago

Seeking seems super fast, I'm impressed!

afro88 12y ago

Anyone know how this would work in Germany? They're incredibly strict on torrents here (you can torrent one movie and get a letter in the mail 2 weeks later). This seems like it would be a nice workaround... While it lasts

jagermo 12y ago
It would work - however, I guess you mean: "Will I stay anonymous and/or not upload anything, so the movie industry will not send their goons/laywers after me." I'd say no.
- kuschku 12y ago
  The idea is that streaming can never be illegal under current german laws, so if the server is just handing an mp4 to the client, then it’s perfectly legal.
  - jagermo 12y ago
    yes, but what if they get a hold of the IP logs of the Joker-server? They'd probably send out cease and desist letters just to scare people. I would not use it if I'd fear to be discovered.
hobofan 12y ago
If you stream it through your browser, they still have the same IP, which is used to identify you. As for prosecution of torrent seeders, that's not really possible anymore IIRC, since the "Vorratsdatenspeicherung" (= stockpile saving of which IP address has been connect to which landline, in case it is needed for law enforcement) has been declared illegal. AFAIK movie torrents were never really monitored, the focus was always on the latest music releases. I also haven't heard of any fines for torrenting in the last 2-3 years, but that might be because I'm not really in that age anymore.
- memorion 12y ago
  They can have your IP but just streaming itself isn't illegal in Germany and since you actually don't personally seed the content here you might just be ok.

denisnazarov 12y ago

This is not actually p2p. Check out https://github.com/feross/webtorrent https://github.com/feross/webtorrent. Hoping to hear feross' input.

caractacus 12y ago
Does that matter? The joker.org server is doing the p2p download bit and streaming the content to the browser. It's likely that it's caching material for torrents. I tried Guardians of the Galaxy and could skip almost all the way to the end of the film when it had only just begun.
- skolor 12y ago
  That could quite possibly just being taking advantage of the torrent block downloading. Normally you download blocks based on the least available, but you can pull them in any order you want. This would allow the server to selectively buffer whatever you need fairly quickly. That said, its likely that they're cacheing.
  - djyaz1200 12y ago
    Cache is likely and that has legal ramifications. If they are just providing a viewer their hands are clean legally, if they cache they are in danger RE DMCA. Cool product, works remarkably well.
    - zenocon 12y ago
      I'd suspect they have to be using a cache, too, but I tried a whole slew of random torrents off kickass.to, and if it played it at all, I could scrub every single one of them to any point in the video with a mere 1-2 sec delay. So, they've either cached a gi-normous amount of torrents, or they've come up with something really interesting in the ability to dynamically stream any block with very low latency.
      - djyaz1200 12y ago

daddykotex 12y ago

Very impressive, it worked flawlessly for me with a randomly picked torrent. The file was an MP4. Good job, I hope you find a way to make it stick around!

deleted 12y ago

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fredley 12y ago

On my Chromebook I use JSTorrent: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent/anhdpjpojoipgpmfanmedjghaligalgb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent/anhdpjpo...

kzahel 12y ago
Which has a free trial version: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent-lite/abmohcnlldaiaodkpacnldcdnjjgldfh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent-lite/abm...
sdk16420 12y ago
The paid version of Vuze also allows streaming torrent videos http://www.vuze.com/features/playnow http://www.vuze.com/features/playnow So all in all, hardly a new concept, but this looks really convenient to use.
- j_s 12y ago
  Tribler is free and will prioritize piece-picking to allow immediate playback while the download is in progress. This has long been frowned upon in the BitTorrent community and usually leads to client bans from the more pickiest of the private sharing sites. http://www.tribler.org/ http://www.tribler.org/

kumarharsh 12y ago

It seems there is another issue: Some of the torrent videos don't play at all.

taneem 12y ago

What's the difference between this and Popcorn Time?

louhike 12y ago
Popcorn Time is decentralized. It does not require the movie to be downloaded first on a server, unlike this service.
calvin_c 12y ago
As I understand it Popcorn Time torrents and seeds a file sequentially, allowing you to watch the video as it downloads and removes the video from your device when it's over. It's more similar to torrenting a file yourself, but doesn't store the file when it's over. In contrast this torrents the file to the server and allows you to stream the content over your browser, so it isn't your device doing the leeching and seeding. You just watch it all happen.
- taternuts 12y ago
  Last I checked, it's actually a simple check-box in the settings to stop popcorn time from deleting the file afterwards. Really the only thing popcorn time did over the old-fashioned torrenting process was enable easy 'streaming' of torrents by downloading the bits in order instead of by least available first, as well as a nice UI to find them

manish_gill 12y ago

I wonder how this will work with Private Trackers?

deleted 12y ago

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neogenix 12y ago

Does it support ChromeCast?

baldfat 12y ago

So a ton of links and stories are removed from Hacker News based on???? But a service that stream pirated material is fine?

undrwatr 12y ago
I'm sure there's at least one legal video torrent out there. Technology alone does not infringement make.
darkstar999 12y ago
Bank robbers use cars. Ban all cars.
kbart 12y ago
What's with the attitude that torrents == piracy? Torrents have many legitimate uses and is great technology for decentralized sharing, for example, you can download some Linux distributions via torrents from the official site what in turn reduces cost for the maintainers. It's the same as saying that all Tor users are pedophiles. I expect people here in HN to be more technologically literate and less biased than average Joe.

bmaeser 12y ago

developer of joker.org joined comments on product hunt: http://www.producthunt.com/posts/joker http://www.producthunt.com/posts/joker

josu 12y ago
This is the guy who claims to be the developer: https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok
- wmt 12y ago
  The guy sure likes superonlinealmalimiyim.com
- imaginenore 12y ago
  That's a Turkish name, and there are a couple of Facebook accounts that match the name and the photo. Here's the US-Turkey extradition treaty: http://www.mcnabbassociates.com/Turkey%20International%20Extradition%20Treaty%20with%20the%20United%20States.pdf http://www.mcnabbassociates.com/Turkey%20International%20Ext...
  - josu 12y ago
    Yeah, but: https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok/status/516602396353384448 https://twitter.com/ufukaltinok/status/516602396353384448

Codename47tr 12y ago

Even works perfect on my ipad, amazing

Sami_Lehtinen 12y ago

In Finland it's totally legal to watch streamed pirated content. But the streamer (source) will get quite likely get sued and pay a lot.

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

Wow that was smooth as butter... Am I unique or is everyone getting speed like this?

wmt 12y ago

What's the catch? I have a few trust issues when someone wants to pay his own money to give me access to mostly illegal content. Somebody just spent time making a torrent streaming service, and is now paying for the bandwidth it takes to download that torrent content AND to upload it to your browser. What I could quickly see about the service is that the facebook "app" of it doesn't have too many users[1], dyn.com[2] handles the site DNS (not free) and redstation.com[3] hosts the service (not free). [1] https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/?method=GET&path=720087414746210&version=v2.1 https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/?method=GET&p... [2] http://who.is/whois/joker.org http://who.is/whois/joker.org [3] http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=149.3.133.138&o=1 http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=149.3.133.138&o=1

Codename47tr 12y ago
I think after few months, it'll not be free. This is the trial
graystevens 12y ago
I'm assuming you can extract a nice amount of personal information from 'private' torrents and links. Excellent way to harvest accounts of private torrent sites for your own personal gain.
- jsmthrowaway 12y ago
  That isn't how private torrents work. They contain a key that identifies the user who downloaded it, for bookkeeping purposes on the site (tracking bytes in and bytes out for ratio purposes), but you cannot get into the site's UI from the information in the torrent. This was a deliberate design decision in most private tracker software, notably Gazelle, because it was accepted that people would post the .torrent files in other places. Many trackers also limit the IP addresses that are permitted to join a swarm based upon the same identifier in the torrent file; all of the ones I've been in have required me to disclose the IP addresses of my seedboxes, and attempting to use another IP address would get my account flagged for a ban. So no, your assumption is completely incorrect. Even if someone shoved a passthepopcorn torrent in there, (a) that person would likely get banned from ptp, (b) it probably wouldn't work in the first place because joker's servers couldn't join the swarm and (c) the information that the owner of joker can glean from such a torrent file would be almost entirely useless unless the goal is boosting the ratio of the user. As much as you'd assume about something you've never used, private torrents are actually a well-oiled, quite secure machine. It's easy to think of pirates as incompetent, but Gazelle is actually decent software and the biggest problem I ever faced while involved in that scene was DDoS attacks against the trackers.

atmosx 12y ago

Is this open source? Can I download/install this to my VPS?!

h43k3r 12y ago

I am thinking of starting a project similar to this for DC++. DC++ is pretty popular in many of the indian universities intranet networks for sharing files/music/videos(I know its illegal, but no one cares about it here in India because very weak laws) . Anyone having any inputs on this?

foobarqux 12y ago

iflix.io, which did the exact same thing (in fact I think it is the same code base), closed after a few days because it is not sustainable to do the downloading on behalf of the client.

deleted 12y ago

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tomphoolery 12y ago

Noticed "Inception" was much easier to stream than "200 Motels", and the laserdisc version didn't even work. How in the hell does this thing work? It's pretty awesome, once the movie actually downloads. :) Seems like there's some caching going on. Good idea.

dchuk 12y ago
Well, "200 Motels" shows about 16 seeds on Kickass right now, while Inception has about 1600. So that would explain why one works so much better than the other.
- emerongi 12y ago
  It must be caching the more popular torrents. Inception loaded up within 1s for me, which means there probably was no communication between the trackers and the server. Other torrents didn't even load up for me.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    Inception loaded up within 1s for me Didn't it show an ad first? Even if you're fast at skipping, it's still enough time to preload the file in the background.
    - emerongi 12y ago
      No ads. I live in a country with barely any ads targeted at it (only 1M people live here) - so I usually get none. It loaded up so incredibly fast that it must have been cached and stored on the server.

jokoon 12y ago

I remember watching some video of bram cohen in his lab, where he was actually making some p2p video client. I guess what he's working on at this moment... I guess nothing ?

caractacus 12y ago
Bram Cohen has been working on some p2p video client for years and I don't think he's ever even released an alpha. Given that (i) typical residential broadband speeds have increased dramatically over the last few years and (ii) bittorrent or some form of it has become the accepted means for cheap live video streaming by clients the world over (qvod, pps, popcorntime, etc etc), I don't see what issues he might be facing.

digital-rubber 12y ago

Somehow i predict this site will not live long. Mainly because of the legal implications. If it does live long, i might start to wonder if this is some RIAA like honeypot system to have users report where they get their torrent downloads from by sharing the links directly. Just my penny.

mbesto 12y ago

I do exactly this with Put.io - (1) get magnet link (2) stream on the browser and (3) push out to chromecast on my TV. No downloading ever. My understanding of "how is this legal" is the following - the server and server admin has no keys to the data so it would be impossible for them to do DMCA. Put.io has been around for a long time now so I'm pretty sure they've cleared the legal hurdles already.

hyperbovine 12y ago
I congratulate you on possessing such an easily appeased conscience.
- coryfklein 12y ago
  You assume he is doing something wrong, but using torrents to stream video is probably amoral, not immoral.
  - therealdrag0 12y ago
    Not compensating content creators for their work is immoral.
    - JetSpiegel 12y ago
      Buy content doesn't compensate the creators anyway. At least for any content with intermediates, like publishers.
      - Buge 12y ago
        Some actors earn percentages. Even if they don't, if a film does poorly, the investors will be less likely to invest in more films and the workers will have a harder time finding work on a new film.
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]

omgmog 12y ago

Tested with Big Buck Bunny and it seems to work nice enough. http://distribution.bbb3d.renderfarming.net/video/mp4/bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_normal.mp4.torrent http://distribution.bbb3d.renderfarming.net/video/mp4/bbb_su...

maram 12y ago

Wow! this is very simple and easy to use!! I wonder for how long it will be available..

geekymartian 12y ago

This is cute, but I will continue using peerflix : https://github.com/mafintosh/peerflix https://github.com/mafintosh/peerflix . Loads way faster and is not hosted/tracked (besides the obvious p2p interaction). And I don't have to see ads.

hyyypr 12y ago
Thanks, very nice little software.

Aissen 12y ago

So this is basically put.io, but free ?

JCJoverTCP 12y ago

dont torrent chunks show up out of order?

valarauca1 12y ago
No this is how you stream torrents. Normally you request what ever chunk a seeder has available. But instead you request in order. This slows your speed (slightly), but a torrent likely will still finish before the movie has making the point moot.

paul9290 12y ago

With all the streaming sites out there that let you watch ALL your favorite TV shows and the latest movies, I never understood the lure of PopCorn Time and this type of site? With both Popcorn Time and this tool (site) I could receive a copyright infringement notice. While the streaming sites that stream the latest from the Pirate Bay & more are liable. Further, by the letter of the law, me watching these streams is perfectly legal; no copyright notice will be received. Maybe the streaming sites I speak of are not well known or not openly spoken about because they'll get shut down?

veridies 12y ago
There's also the issue of quality; most free streaming sites have much more heavily compressed video than a good torrent. And you don't have to deal with ads on a torrent.

anilshanbhag 12y ago

This service is very good. You can watch pretty much any video (not a movie - that's piracy you know) as if it were hosted on Youtube. Scrolling is smooth and almost instantaneous load time.

jmbmxer 12y ago

I work in security and have been running into more and more issues with these types of Torrent streaming services. People at work mostly know that downloading a BitTorrent client, seeding, leeching, etc. is bad but they have no idea that these streaming applications are doing the same exact thing behind the scenes. They just see it as a way to watch free movies. Keep your employees informed about this and tighten up your policies because DMCA laws apply.

kbart 12y ago
As other comments have already mentioned, watching the streaming contest (even copyrighted) is perfectly legal in many countries (at least in EU).

notax 12y ago

Doesn't seem to work. I get an error on any torrent I try, regardless of source or video format.

burten 12y ago

joker down, are there alternatives besides http://put.io http://put.io or https://bitport.io/ https://bitport.io/?