Entertainment Online - The BitTorrent Way

BitTorrent, one of the Internet’s most popular peer-to-peer file sharing and downloading services, has long been called a pirate’s dream protocol. Today, BitTorrent traffic constitutes about a third of all Internet traffic. Big content distributors are waking up to the potential of this peer-casting model. NTL, a UK cable company just announced a deal with BitTorrent and CacheLogic to develop a fast and inexpensive commercial downloading service for movies and music videos, using BitTorrent’s open source file sharing protocol and CacheLogic’s network based content caching.

“The content distribution industry is in for a re-make.”

In 2002, Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent, publicly showcased his efficient and fast P2P protocol as an inexpensive, open source way to swap Linux software online. Since then, BitTorrent file sharing has grown, well, torrentially. BitTorrent downloads are expected to hit 40 million this year. Cohen founded BitTorrent Inc last year with $8.75 million in VC funding from DCM-Doll Capital Management. Ashwin Navin, who co-founded BitTorrent with Bram, wants to distribute paid and ad-supported content using BitTorrent technology. Cohen’s motto of, “Give and ye shall receive,” has become the motto of BitTorrent — the more popular the file is, the faster it downloads.

Content on demand. The next killer application?

NTL’s strategy is to use BitTorrent to promote legal, inexpensive downloading of video content, while discouraging the huge amount of illegal file-sharing on the Internet. NTL will sponsor a technology trial beginning in April 2006 with the mission to test a high speed, legal movie and music video download service in the UK. The next steps for BitTorrent include alliances and deals with content producers, similar to Apple’s iTunes model and making high quality content legally and easily downloadable to consumers across the world. BitTorrent also wants to grow a consumer-friendly P2P based ecosystem for artists and ISPs to interact in. If NTL’s technology trial is successful, it will set a precedent for viable legal content distribution services on the Internet as well as for on-demand, pay as you go content distribution models.

Redefining the content distribution industry

Most movie and music video content producers have been unsuccessful in figuring out how to sell their content online. Online distribution schemes such as Napster have faced the wrath of organizations like Hollywood’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA who have lobbied for anti- consumer and protectionist legislation — further stimulating illegal download and piracy. The MPAA could also sue BitTorrent, just like RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) did Napster, but that’s unlikely for now since BitTorrent, Inc has signed up with the MPAA to remove copyrighted material from its search engine. From a MPAA standpoint, technologies such as BitTorrent could provide the right infrastructure for downloading movies by incorporating stronger built-in Digital Rights Management (DRM). In the meantime, the deal with BitTorrent also makes it easier for MPAA to serve DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices to the search engine.

Speaking at a Los Angeles conference in November, Cohen talked about content producers from the movie and recording companies having little understanding that the content distribution industry is in for a re-make. Citing lower costs for Internet access and bandwidth and constant commoditization of hardware such as computer hard disks, Cohen predicted this transformation would drive consumers to store every song and every movie on their personal computer’s hard disk.

The right to freedom of choice

The US market is one of the most protectionist when it comes to music and movie content distribution. Europe and Asia tend to take consumer freedom and free market dynamics more into account. As users from the rest of the world come online, US record and movie producers and distributors face fundamental challenges to their global model of content distribution. Technologies such as BitTorrent, which have been the darlings of online pirates, when used as part of legitimate online distribution services, can help level the playing field by providing legal content accessible to all. Tools such as BitTorrent reinforce the concept that technology is neutral, and when used wisely, can benefit everyone.