Creating a personal torrent site?
 

Is this viable... or even worth the effort.

A few of my mates were wondering if it would be viable to setup a hosted site which simply holds files (movies, music, software, etc). The idea that only friends/family have access and can upload/download/share.

My main concern is bandwidth, legality, etc.

Any advice?

As long as no copyrighted stuff is involved, there should be no problem. Illegal files are a different matter, and with the current crackdown on internet pirates taking place, I'm not sure why anyone would even contemplate hosting stuff. A surefire way of being slapped on the wrist by mr plod :)

Whats been happening lately with torrent sites?

A lot of torrent sites being shut down. Internet police chasing hosters and handing out big fines. People being "banned" from the interweb etc...

Ahh, havent heard about that stuff. Thanks.

I run a few tracker sites myself and even have a uTorrent client sharing files on the same VPS, the files are legal so I haven't had any trouble.

I use a basic tracker site template callet RivetTracker from here RivetCode Software

You will be fine aslong as you host everything in Sweden, if not then I would leave well alone.

But if it is all password protected (i,e for each of the users of which you can guarantee their identity) you would also be fine.

A Hosting site isn't a torrent site, hosting implies the files will be stored on the server, torrents use the members to host.. you'd need to host the tracker files and someone in your circle of friends would need to be sharing the file at all times. Based on the current upload speeds from UK ISPs its really not worth it, unless you have several hundred friends !