The BitTorrent file sharing program was conceived and developed by 28 year old Bram Cohen, after having worked on many disappointing projects for others that never really caught on. "I was sick of working for failures," said Cohen in an interview at his home near Lake Washington. "I wanted to work on something people would use."
So, he sat down and in three years developed a very efficient means to transfer files across computer networks. When using BitTorrent, it's possible to download a DVD movie in a fraction of the time required by other such file sharing programs, not much longer than the amount of time it would take to view it. One thing that probably has movie executives sleeping lightly is the more people wanting the same file, the faster it operates. In addition, once the desired content is downloaded from a spontaneous network of online members, the network vanishes. This makes for frustrating detective work for agencies such as Loudeye that are hired to help stop such activities.
"One of the scary things about BitTorrent is how effective it is at redistributing content," said Andrew Parker, chief technical officer at Cache- Logic, a British firm that monitors Internet traffic. As BitTorrent becomes mainstream, it imperils the movie studios' most lucrative source of revenue '” the US$ 17.5 billion the industry reaped last year from DVD sales and rentals. Hollywood has yet to find a way to thwart BitTorrent's distribution of bootlegged copies of new films like "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," or the latest episode of hot cable television shows like "Nip/Tuck." |
Mr. Cohen is quick to mention that he is not making any money directly from the piracy caused by the BitTorrent program and merely solicits for donations from his website. Furthermore, he states that he has no connection whatsoever with the sites that are helping to distribute illegal copyrighted content through BitTorrent. He says that BitTorrent is nothing more than a distribution program and he feels no danger of being sued. With the Induce Act flailing in the Senate, he may be right. Plus, it's out on the Internet already and it is open source. So much like DeCSS, suing one man won't stop it anyway, the cat is out of the bag so to speak.
But we can read this warning from John G. Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy for the Motion Picture Association of America: "BitTorrent and others who are complicit in copyright theft should take little comfort from their temporary celebrity status." Empty threat? Time will tell.
Source: News-Leader
