Free Riding in BitTorrent is Cheap Thomas Locher1, Patrick Moor2, Stefan Schmid1, Roger Wattenhofer1 1 Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK), ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland {lochert, schmiste, wattenhofer}@tik.ee.ethz.ch 2 Google Inc., Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
[email protected] ABSTRACT while seeders (“altruistic peers”) clearly offer the oppor- tunity to freeload, we are even able to download content While it is well-known that BitTorrent is vulnerable to self- quickly if we ignore seeders and download solely from ish behavior, this paper demonstrates that even entire files other peers that do not possess all pieces of the desired can be downloaded without reciprocating at all in BitTor- content (leechers). This implies that the basic piece ex- rent. To this end, we present BitThief, a free riding client change mechanism does not effectively restrain peers from that never contributes any real data. First, we show that freeloading. simple tricks suffice in order to achieve high download Sharing communities are also investigated in this paper. rates, even in the absence of seeders. We also illustrate By banning users with constantly low sharing ratios or by how peers in a swarm react to various sophisticated at- denying them access to the newest torrents available, such tacks. Moreover, our analysis reveals that sharing com- communities encourage users to upload more than they munities—communities originally intended to offer down- download, i.e., to keep their sharing ratio above 1. We will loads of good quality and to promote cooperation among show that sharing communities are particularly appealing peers—provide many incentives to cheat.