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Comment by vintikzzzz | Hacker News Reader

That’s a valid concern, and I’m aware of the risks involved.

Webtor is a tool, not a content provider — it doesn’t index or host anything itself. Users supply their own torrent or magnet links, and the system processes them on demand, like a torrent client with a browser interface.

That said, if someone uses the hosted version to stream content that triggers a copyright complaint — yes, I may receive a DMCA notice, and in that case I’ll take the content down as required.

This is also exactly why the project is fully open-source and self-hostable — anyone can run it privately, with full control and different legal boundaries depending on their jurisdiction.

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> or host anything itself.

It does, or there would be nothing to download.

> and the system processes them on demand > Webtor is a tool, not a content provider

By assembling the chunks into content it then provides via a link to download.

Is the implication here that the data is transient (eg time-gated or single use links) or something?

We're in the age of AI and Automation. Just because you aren't publishing an index of your content doesn't mean there aren't plenty of others searching, indexing, scraping, and aggregating it, nor does it mean the content isn't provided to the internet/public.

The content is only partially downloaded to the servers, and only on demand. Storage is limited — old, inactive cached data is removed when space is needed for new requests.

There’s also the ability to revisit previously used content via direct links like https://webtor.io/{infohash} — this lets users bookmark a stream or return to it later. However, availability still depends on whether the content is cached or needs to be fetched again.

I actually experimented with making content indexable in the past, but many torrents turned out to be pirated — and eventually triggered DMCA notices. So I chose not to publicly expose anything on the hosted version.

Automation is possible: there’s a public API and a lightweight SDK for embedding content into external websites.

If this is a tool and doesn't host any content, what exactly will you be taking down upon receiving a DMCA?

Good question.

Even though Webtor doesn’t host or index any content itself, users can generate direct links like https://webtor.io/{infohash} to access specific torrents. Sometimes these links get shared publicly — on forums, blogs, or aggregators — and that’s usually how DMCA notices find their way to me.

When that happens, I remove access to that specific infohash from the hosted service. It’s not about removing stored files (since there’s no persistent storage), but about disabling further processing of that particular torrent.

> what exactly will you be taking down upon receiving a DMCA?

Content on the hosted instance...?

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