BitTorrent has always been as much about giving as receiving, but the company behind two of the major torrenting clients—BitTorrent and μTorrent—and has decided to take this ethos a step further, with the release of what it's calling "altruistic mode."

Good etiquette in the file sharing community dictates that users should try and share as much data as they download. This usually means a 1:1 ratio of downloads to uploads, though many conscientious users try to hit a ratio as high as 2:1 or 3:1, in order to offset those users who don't seed at all.

In the BitTorrent and uTorrent clients, the new mode, however, takes best practise and turns it into a rule, enforcing a 2:1 ratio. Effectively, this means users might not be able to complete their downloads before they've uploaded sufficient data—which could be tricky, if no-one wants what you're seeding.

“The precise definition of Altruistic Mode is that it initially downloads two pieces and after that, every time it uploads two pieces worth of data it downloads one more,” BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen told Torrent Freak. “This is a simple and reliable strategy for making sure that you never get much worse than a 2:1 ratio.”

He continued: “Going for a higher number could also cause swarms to no longer have a complete copy of the file if too many peers are in Altruistic Mode, which would harm not just the one peer in altruistic mode but other peers as well."

The new mode is available in uTorrent 3.4.9 and BitTorrent 7.9.9, which were released last week. It is turned off by default but can be switched on in the preferences menu.