BitTorrent – on the rise
p2pnet.net News:- Bram Cohen’s BitTorrent p2p application is definitely going mainstream.
Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft beta test is nigh and, “While we plan on having several ways available to distribute the files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program, which uses BitTorrent technology,” says Donna “Katricia” Anthony on the web site.
Mike Robertson is using BitTorrent to distribute Lindows at 50% off to buyers who choose p2p as the primary means of delivery and there’s no question that other companies with a need to move large files around the Net economically will be watching closely.
Valve Software is developing its Half-Life 2 video game and also creating an online distribution network called Steam. Valve offered Cohen a job.
“When we looked around to see who was doing the most interesting work in this space, Bram’s progress on BitTorrent really stood out,” Valve magaing director Gabe Newell is quoted as saying in a New York Times story here.”The distributed publishing model embedded in BitTorrent is exactly the kind of thing media companies need to build on for their own systems.”
Naturally, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) sees BitTorrent as a threat rather than a possible means of distribution.
“BitTorrent is definitely on our radar screen,” Tom Temple, MPAA director for Internet enforcement says in the NYT report. Through the MPAA, Hollywood started sending infringement notices to BitTorrent site operators in November and:
“We do have investigations open into various BitTorrent link sites that could lead to either civil or criminal prosecution in the near future,” Temple said.
Same old same old.
For anyone who’s not familiar with BiTorrent (and is too embarassed to ask : ) see Brian Dessent’s excellent BiTorrent FAQ here, and to start you off:
“BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth. The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound.) In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols.”
April 9th, 2004 at 6:54 am
Coooool – BitTorrent Rocks. And I’m not an anonymous coward like it says. Screw you. I take offense. Like I need more spam in my mailbox for signing up.
November 20th, 2004 at 3:01 am
bit torrent is awesome….i feel sorry for struggling software/games companies that must suffer…..but when it comes to hollywood/microsoft…i couldnt give a flying fxxk…theyre all rip off artists anyway…..i look forward intensely to watching their greedy hands as burnt as possible by this new p2p protocol……FXXK YOU!!!!!