This is relevant but forgetting torrenting for just a moment.. I believe Dropbox uses hashing to identify files in their system, since sometimes you can copy a large file into your Dropbox and it syncs immediately (without an upload).

Given this, rather than using torrents, could there theoretically be a way to tell your Dropbox account you "have" a certain file that, indeed, you do not, merely by using the hash? For example, if I know the hash for the latest episode of a TV show is "ab12de" (gross simplification!) and I can make Dropbox think I "have" that file, if someone else already uploaded that file to their Dropbox, I could grab it too?

Pretty much boilerplate, but don't think this is going to protect you if the torrents being downloaded are illegal:

"Boxopus may disclose Personally Identifiable Information if required to do so by law or in the belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with law or legal process, court order or a subpoena served on Boxopus or the Site to cooperate with law enforcement authorities; (b) investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activity or fraud on the Site;"

Doesn't this make Boxopus a honey pot for MPAA subpoenas?

Wow, in before API access is cut to prevent the mountain of lawsuits that would hit Dropbox if it's not. API cut in 3... 2... 1...

Torrent Reactor has already added a Boxopus ("Download to Dropbox") option to their torrent pages.

I have actually had similar service running on my servers for a while now (took me about almost 3 months to design, code and test), though it makes legally no sense to make it available to the public, as you will need a solid ISP that will guarantee you that it won't abandon you as soon as they receive a letter from the Copyright Mafia. The service will eventually resemble a glorified cyber locker, since it makes no sense to delete the most popular files. Secondly, you aren't really protecting your customers unless you can provide payments through bitcoin, but even that wouldn't be safe enough.

So maybe I'm overreacting or misunderstanding, but if this kind of thing became popular (using a service to push torrents, which are by and large used for things lawmen don't like, to your dropbox account) could dropbox face similar issues to those faced by MegaUpload?

I kind of feel like at this point my data should be stored a in a 'RACS' configuration: a Redundant Array of Cloud Storage.

At least with DB you usually also run the d/t client and so have the data 'checked out' in local drives, but I do know people who just use the web client (locked down computers).

I've done something similar with an IFTTT recipe, where I can email the URL of a .torrent file and it will be automatically added to a folder in my Dropbox. Then I have my torrent client setup to watch that folder for .torrent files. This works nicely when I'm not at my computer and want to start downloading something.

Here's the recipe: http://ifttt.com/recipes/100

This brings to mind lots of questions like, Does this take advantage of Dropbox's single instance file storage? As in, are they uploading completed files and saving themselves the bandwidth of having to actually do the upload because dropbox likely already has a copy of that file hosted? Also, if multiple users are requesting the same file is Boxopus downloading this more than once?

Let's say I'm a copyright holder and I see my content on the bittorent network. Would the IP address of the downloader on the network belong to boxopus? If so, if I then asked boxopus to hand over the all user's details (dropbox accounts and email addresses I guess) that accessed the torrent in question through their service, would they have that data on their servers?

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Has anyone been able to download through this? I tried about 30 minutes ago and the torrent still says it's waiting in their queue. This seems like a very slow way to download a torrent.

This is basically a torrent VPN service that goes through DropBox.

I don't understand it. What is the difference to just configuring a dropbox folder as the download destination in the BitTorrent client of your choice?

Excellent innovation. This is like waving a red flag in the face of the MPAA, RIAA, and all the other entrenched monopolies that are seeking to extend their outdated business models by using old-school Mafioso tactics. I would be very surprised if Boxopus, Dropbox (or both) wasn't pressurized to discontinue this service in some way. API changes by Dropbox (or TOS violation based suspension), Lawsuit for BoxOpus, etc to follow...

Does this have a file size limit? I'm pretty sure dropbox's API has a 300MB limit.

Can you seed with this?

Please vote this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4153077