According to those who engage in it, file-sharing is supposed to be fun. A breath of fresh air when compared to some stuffy official offerings that restrict their users with tight business models and overpowering licensing restraints. Now it appears that at least one torrent site is attempting to go down exactly the same route.

Last week we reported on some unusual developments at the CHDBits BitTorrent tracker. The site, for reasons best explained by them, decided to implement some of the most crazy members rules we’ve ever seen. You can read about them here.

While many hoped the site would have a change of heart and soften its stance a little, it seems that they have done entirely the opposite.

In what they are describing as their “year end assessment”, members are now required to jump through a series of hoops starting May 1 and running until June 30, 2013.

The requirements (pasted below) seem to fly in the face of the freedoms supposedly offered by file-sharing. Why people want to exercise this much control is beyond comprehension.

If this is the future of torrents, the mass exodus to iTunes et al is just around the corner.

(Here are the ‘assessment’ rules, copied from the site.)

————————————————————————————————–

Year end assessment is just around the corner. It will be carried out from 1st of May till 30st of June, 2013.

1) Target: members between “Peasant” and “Crazy User” class (both inclusive) whom registered before 1/1/2013.

2) Period: from 1/5/2013 12am till 30/6/2013 11:59pm (61 days).

3) Requirement: Users should increase the following figures accordingly during this period:

i) increase upload amount by 45GB

ii) increase download amount by 45GB (excluding promotional/free/discount torrent)

iii) increase bonus point by 3000 point.

* You should meet and maintain these three criteria till the end of assessment period.

4) Members not affected by this assessment:

i) donators

ii) “insane user” class and above

iii) members with 15TB upload (or more) OR 600k bonus (or more) before the assessment begins

5) To prevent members from failing the test due to excessive bonus point spent during the assessment period, the bonus point exchange system will be unavailable from 1st of May 12am till 15th of June 11:59pm. Only “10GB upload” (and below) button is available for use from 16th onwards till the end of assessment. The exchange system will resume its normal operation from 1st of July onwards.

6) You are wholly responsible for your own action and any consequences thereof.

B) Result of the assessment will be announced on 1st of July, 2013. Please refer to “announcement” board.

c) remarks:

1) You’re required to go thru and fulfill the assessment’s requirement if there’s a “progress indicator” on the main page of the site.

2) Parked account is NOT exempted from the assessment. You’re required to unpark and join the assessment if your user level / stat meets the criteria.

3) again, rule “a) 4) iii)” above refers to net increment during the assessment period.

example： On the 1st of May 2013, 12am, your amount of upload =600G，download=400G and bonus point=20000。 By 1st of July 2013 12am, you upload should be ≥645G，download ≥445G and bonus ≥23000。

d) CHDBits admin team reserves the right of final interpretation of all the rules of this assessment.