Just a little reminder, this is a universal way. That means it works whether you own a Mac or a PC (I think that it works with Android phones too—if anyone can test it, give me a heads-up.)

Intro

The very tool this how-to is based, is Transmission’s WebUI. Almost every torrent downloader application supports a WebUI. If your app doesn’t support a WebUI, you can switch to uTorrent (if you’re on Windows/Mac) or Transmission (if you’re on Mac).

Small parenthesis: imho after using several years uTorrent on Windows, on various Linux distributions (through Wine) and on Mac I’d recommend you using uTorrent as torrent downloader in Windows/Linux and Transmission in Mac. Transmission simply rocks in it’s native environment. But at the end of the day, it’s all about what your preferences. End small parenthesis.

Step 1

Fire up Transmission’s Preferences and then click the Remote tab. Check to enable remote access. If you like, you can setup a username/password authentication (I didn’t). The listening port can remain to it’s default number, it should be 9091 anyway.

Step 2

Find your computer’s IP address (not the public one) under Preferences > Network. Click on the connection you are using. Under it’s status there is a small text that states where AirPort (if you’re using WiFi) is connected, the name of the network and your IP. Copy the IP somewhere, for example on TextEdit.

Step 3

Grab your iPhone, open Safari.app and type:
http://the-ip-you-copied-before:9091/transmission/web/. If everything worked well, you should see a screen similar to this:

You can click now the Safari’s + icon to add Transmission’s WebUI to the home screen as a web app.

Until now we have complete management functionality of our desktop torrent downloader from our iPhone. But, how about actually downloading a torrent from the iPhone to the desktop?

Step 4

Now, it is time to actually use the remote access. Visit a torrent tracker from Safari.app, I’d say the world’s most resilient one, The Pirate Bay, browse for a torrent and copy its the “Download” link. Open the newly created Transmission web app from your home screen, click on the “Open” icon and paste the torrent’s URL.

Boom.

That was it. From now on you can download any torrent from anywhere in the world on your Mac. Although I don’t want to repeat myself, I’ll say again that this method works for every torrent downloader with a remote access WebUI. If you’re not using Transmission, just follow the same logical steps.

And here fits POwer, Broccoli and Kopimi.

First things first. What the earth is Kopimi?

It’s Piratebay’s manifesto. It’s not only a licence-permit for others to share, translate, remix, bend, modify, copy, trash, bash, move, publish, burn, hide, remake (you can use Creative Commons for this, too). It’s the internet philosophy, summizing to the ultimate wisdom: “The Internet is right”. Actually, it’s more than just a manifesto. It is a booklet (.PDF) freely available, a guide containing a 100-things list to live the Kopimi way.

Though seeded in prehistory, Kopimi is rooted in the future, and holds together a constantly vibrating avalanche of knowledge that forms the foundation for a discussion indifferent to the rippling changes of time and space. A tumult where no one has the permission to keep silent, and where we must speak to everyone and everything.

Our words shall, simultaneously, sound as foolishness upon deaf ears and lovely caresses to those who see and hear, but above all: They should bite firmly into you – and your mom. This is a book for those of you who find yourselves in the moment, but are looking for your way forward through the ages.

Kopimi’s core philosophy is not “share, remix, copy, etc” (I am “licensing this blog through Kopimi & Creative Commons) though of course it supports it, but to preserve the Internet as Internet and not as byproduct from companies and/or governments.

That’s how it goes — two paragraphs from the introductory text in the book. You can grab the .PDF here. Have fun reading it.

But how is Kopimi connected to this Greek journo-blogger-thing?

See, Kopimi’s ultimate wisdom is “The Internet is right”. Now everyone (read: Government, journalists, bloggers) is trying to regulate the Internet. The second most ultimate Kopimi’s wisdom is “Regulate Nothing”. I think you get the point.

It is our duty to help preserve the Internet. None can regulate the Internet, even Tim Berners-Lee can’t and none shall even try regulate it. The Internet is the ultimate freedom.

In the shadow of the culture industry’s final crisis of the 20th-century, grows a larger portrait of the POwr, broccoli and Kopimi. The culture industry’s complete failure is followed by the uncanny success of the diffused structure of an Internet elite, spread the world over. The book you’re about to read has no author, no designer, no typesetter, no distribution channel. Nevertheless, you have it in front of you. How did that happen?

Read the frightening instructions of a loosely coherent core of IT specialists grafted into an unsuspecting generation of youths, and how the group stole the eggs, dollars and jpegs in front of the powerless establishment and strong financial interests. Learn how servers, seeders, trackers, e-mail, company formation, foreign investors, Ikko’s weekly allowance, scandalous advertisements, links and search services, infiltrated and destroyed an entire world that had nowhere to run, no one to consult, and no one to trust…

The machine, which operates under the radar frequency is unhindered from the Cambodian jungle to the gay neighborhoods of San Francisco, via the empty beaches of Tel-Aviv, and into the Internet of plain folks in Jönköping suburbs and Gothenburg harbor. It leaves no one unmoved and mangles everything in its path. Technically superior and physically independent it’s constantly transforming, mutating and reappearing in new guises and under new codenames. With a stranglehold on its opponents it’s completely untouched and even more – incomprehensible.

It has rightly been said that this is the first time Kopimi has freed the world and we can be sure that it’s not the last.

Χαρακτηριστικά ο Sunde δήλωσε,

We can’t pay and we wouldn’t pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn’t even give them the ashes.

και

It’s serious to actually be found guilty and get jail time. It’s really serious. And that’s a bit weird

Η ομάδα του Pirate Bay αποφάσισε να δώσει μια συνέντευξη τύπου μέσα από το Bambuser που καλό θα ήταν να την δείτε. Ακόμη, το Torrentfreak καλύπτει αναλυτικά με συχνά updates το θέμα.

Προσωπικά, πιστεύω ότι τίποτα δεν έχει κριθεί στην μάχη copyrights-file sharing vs. corporations. Το Pirate Bay δεν θα κλείσει βάσει της απόφασης του δικαστηρίου για το οποίο πολλοί ανυσηχούν. Είμαι φανατικά υπέρ του Pirate Bay καθώς είμαι υπέρ του διαμοιρασμού αρχείων και κατά των κάθε είδους copyrights. Όλα θα έπρεπε να διακινούνται ελεύθερα ειδικά ως προς την μουσική και γενικότερα τις τέχνες, αφού είμαι της άποψης “την μουσική σκοτώνει η πελατεία”.

Τέλος, αρχίζουν και βγαίνουν “βρώμες” για την δίκη -για το πως το δικαστήριο διέρρευσε την απόφαση και πως ένας δημοσιογράφος την μετέφερε στο TPB team λίγες ώρες πριν πριν ανακοινωθεί η επίσημη.  Έτσι, η αστυνομία θα ερευνήσει και αυτή με την σειρά της την υπόθεση.

Ο Sunde σχολίασε πάλι μέσω του Twitter του,

But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That’s the only thing hollywood ever taught us.
The Pirate Bay team