p2pnet talks to Bram Cohen
p2p news / p2pnet: BitTorrent is now a beast with two heads: it’s widely used by anyone and everyone with a large file to share, but it’s also an application that’s becoming a Hollywood favourite.
What’s in store for it?
“Tons of performance enhancements,” BT creator Bram Cohen told p2pnet. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
p2pnet: Hi, Bram. I know you must be up to your ears in alligators and I really appreciate you taking the time out to answer these questions, particularly since I realise some of them are a little on the thorny side.
p2pnet: Did you ever think BitTorrent would take off in quite the way it has?
Cohen: I’ve run out of answers to give to that question. Yes? No? Maybe?
p2pnet: When was the very first time you actually saw what was to become BitTorrent as a workable application?
Cohen: It first had the current user interface in early 2002. It first transferred files with the current protocol format and not for testing in late 2002.
p2pnet: If you could travel back in time, is there anything you’d change about the BT technology?
Cohen: A few little things, for example some protocol extensions which we’re about to unveil which are the way things should really have been done to begin with, but in terms of what the pieces are and how they interact, I think I did it right.
p2pnet: How does it feel to realize that not perhaps, but definitely, your children will read about you in the history books as someone whose invention quite literally changed the face of the Net and world comunications?
Cohen: My children seem happy with me just as daddy.
p2pnet: What achievement, or achievements, are you most proud of?
Cohen: I’d say getting BitTorrent to be such a compelling tool that publishers started using it, despite massive political pressure not to. The Linux distro torrents were quite amusing until the Linux distros got sick of being humiliated and started doing them themselves.
p2pnet: What kind of computer equipment do you use?
Cohen: Currently, an IBM laptop running Ubuntu. It’s okay, but playing video files is quite busted.
p2pnet: What’s you favourite piece of software?
Cohen: That’s rather like asking what one’s favorite type of weld is. People use software to get stuff done, not for the sake of playing with software. The exception is games, but I haven’t had much time for game playing lately.
p2pnet: What’s your personal favourite piece of code?
Cohen: You mean of my own? I generally want to rewrite everything after it’s been around for a while, so it’s hard for me to get too excited about any one thing. The merge code I wrote recently is rather nice though, since it’s simple enough that people can experiment with it and try out variations, while historically merging has been so difficult that it’s almost unapproachable.
p2pnet: You use Ubuntu. So what do you like about it?
Cohen: Uh … it’s less likely to get hacked than windows?
p2pnet: Would you recommend Ubuntu to anyone (or everyone : ) ?
Cohen: Not until it plays all video properly out of the box and has a good working UI for selecting wireless networks. Both of those work poorly on windows too though.
p2pnet: If not, what would you recommend?
Cohen: Flint tools rarely have such problems.
p2pnet: What kind of music do you listen to, and where do you get it?
Cohen: I haven’t had much time for music lately. In my early 20’s I bought close to 1000 CDs, which are quite eclectic in style, but I did used to listen to a lot of industrial music.
p2pnet: What’s your favourite, and least favourite, movie?
Cohen: Someone asked me what my favorite movie was a few years ago, and I said Blade Runner, and she said Everybody says Blade Runner, and asked for a different movie, so I guess the right answer is Amadeus. As for least favorite, that’s hard to say, so many things are unwatchably bad.
p2pnet: What was the very first computer you ever had and where did it come from? And what did you use it for?
Cohen: A Timex Sinclair in 1980. I used to write little programs in basic to make it crash, for example by poking into random parts of memory or doing an infinite recursion.
p2pnet: How old were you?
Cohen: Five.
p2pnet: Can you remember the first program you ever wrote? And how old were you then as well?
Cohen: The first substantive program I even wrote was when I was 12, and it played connect 4, written in Promal on my Commodore 64. I wrote a simple board evaluation algorithm and alpha-beta pruning. It could stomp me quite thoroughly.
p2pnet: Putting BT to one side, which do you think is the most significant commercial p2p application out there at the moment?
Cohen: In terms of a commercial entity publishing their own content, there isn’t a significant competitor to BitTorrent protocol, nor is there a need for one. That problem has been solved.
Ap2pnet: And on the indie p2p side, what impresses you the most?
Cohen: There’s been some interesting work on DHTs.
p2pnet: What would you think about replacing BitTorrent trackers with virtual trackers in a DHT network?
Cohen: A tracker is both more reliable and lets you get statistics about distribution. The reasons to not use one are for (massive) scaling and reliability, which are rarely ever a problem. We do have a DHT protocol though, and it works quite well.
p2pnet: You’re the co-founder of CodeCon. Are you still involved?
Cohen: Yes, I still run the program committee and emcee parts of it.
p2pnet: If you could get the people who run BearShare, Blubster, eDonkey, LimeWire, Morpheus and Warez (in alphabetical order ; ) around a table, what would you say to them with respect to their ongoing troubles with the major labels and movies studios?
Cohen: Uh, stop running warez networks?
p2pnet: And if you could do the same with the Big Four record labels, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, and the Big Six studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, what would you say to them with respect to their apparent impasse with the p2p application developers?
Cohen: We’re already talking to all of those entities, and they’re being quite reasonable.
p2pnet: Do you think the current corporate wholesale pricing structure of, so I’m told, 60 to 85 cents for each digital file is reasonable?
Cohen: There are a lot of things which can be a ‘digital file’. We’re going to see considerable evolution of pricing models over time.
p2pnet: As a father, what do you think of the RIAA’s practice of naming children in p2p file sharing subpoenas?
Cohen: I’m not sure what you’re referring to, and of course am not involved in suing anybody.
p2pnet: Do you think people who share copyrighted files are criminals and thieves, as the RIAA and MPAA say they are?
Cohen: It certainly is illegal.
p2pnet: You’ve been very quiet about your brother’s departure from your company? Are you able to say what happened to make him leave?
Cohen: No.
p2pnet: Ashwin Navin is BitTorrent president. How, where and when, did you meet him?
Cohen: We had a friend in common, and met in 2004.
p2pnet: Whose idea was it for BitTorrent to move into the corporate world?
Cohen: I’d wanted to set up a commercial venture for a while.
p2pnet: Before you actually became involved with the entertainment industry, were you ever seriously threatened with court action?
Cohen: Nope.
p2pnet: Did you start the dialogue with the MPAA?
Cohen: They called me first.
p2pnet: If you were approached by the association rather than the other way around, who initially contacted you?
Cohen: Dean Garfield.
p2pnet: How much time have you actually spent with Dan Glickman?
Cohen: I’ve met him in person several times.
p2pnet: Do you and he still talk to each other?
Cohen: I don’t personally talk to him regularly, but people from BitTorrent talk to people from the MPAA on a routine basis.
p2pnet: What kind of discussions are you currently having with the RIAA?
Cohen: Take down processes and future online sales.
p2pnet: Do you believe a time will eventually come when a genuine accord will be reached between the major movie and music companies and their customers?
Cohen: Not sure what you mean. They’re quite happy with their paying customers.
p2pnet: What would you say to someone who’s contemplating launching a music/movie download site?
Cohen: Get licenses.
p2pnet: What would you say will be the three most significant developments for p2p between now and 2010?
Cohen: It’s hard to say what will happen in networking generally, but clearly everything will be dominated by bandwidth price plummeting and throughput going through the roof.
p2pnet: Do you have any new, personal projects in mind, and if you do, what are they?
Cohen: I’ve been working on a new generation of Codeville’s merge algorithms lately, and they’re going to be available for several other version control systems.
p2pnet: What does the future hold for BitTorrent?
Cohen: We’ve got our Allegro release of the client with tons of performance enhancements you can’t find anywhere else coming out, and are going to start making video available on the web site.
p2pnet: Finally, I’ve asked a lot of questions, but I’d also really appreciate it if you’d use this to express any thoughts or comment on topics which haven’t been covered here.
Cohen: We’re expanding BitTorrent.org to be a common meeting ground for all client developers, so there’s a coherent place where discussions of protocol development take place. A bunch of new documentation is going up there soon, and we’re getting other client developers involved.
p2pnet: Cheers! And thanks. And all the best …
April 28th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
>>Cohen: Not until it plays all video properly out of the box and has a >>good working UI for selecting wireless networks. Both of those work >>poorly on windows too though.
Bram, this will solve your music/video problems.
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-mad gstreamer0.8-plugins gstreamer0.8-plugins-multiverse gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg
The reason they are not installed out of the box is due to legal reasons. Blame the dumb patent laws for that.
As for the wireless, i usually just edit the relevent config files etc. But if you really want a GUI for it, i believe linspire has an app for that.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
did anyone expect anything other than cartel nonsense from the new MPAA/RIAA mouthpiece?
on sueing children:
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to”
on an accord between the cartels and the customers who pay their salaries:
“Not sure what you mean.”
on sharing legally purchased “product” for no profit and calling filesharers criminals:
“It certainly is illegal.”
bram, your ass was bought and paid for by the cartels. go away and play sudoku.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
You certainly hit it straight on catflap.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Bram…. Feel the hate rise within you… Feel the power of the dark side…
Can’t fault the guy for wanting to make a buck…
Actually, yes I can. Bram, you sold out to the worst of the a-holes and became one in the process.
Pretty sad really.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
No different then all the politicians selling out to the MAFIAA as well.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
It’ll be interesting see how he answers. If he answers.
Paul
April 28th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Bram’s wife was literally having a baby when I got his replies and naturally, he wasn’t around. But I left the questions below with him for when he gets back to work.
I did think about holding the Q&A until he was able to respond, but I’m going to be in Europe (more on that Sunday or Monday) until May 8 so rather than hang around, I posted as-was.
Cheers!
=========================
Bram: I’m not sure what you’re referring to, and of course am not involved in suing anybody.
Me: I wasn’t suggesting you personally are going after anyone, man, woman or child. But here’s one instance – http://www.p2pnet.net/story/7942. And there are others
AND
Bram: It certainly is illegal.
Me: That’s debatable, but are the MPAA and RIAA right to call them criminals and thieves?
April 29th, 2006 at 2:09 am
I’ll bet his inbox will be filled with ’suggestions’ on how to answer those questions. You shouldn’t of posted them for shills to pick up.
In any case, Bram Cohen in their pockets or not, these Cartels can’t win on a global scale. Sure they bought US legislation, legislators, politicians and what have you. But they’re up against the world, cultures where capitalism isn’t the be all, end all and an internet that was designed to be libre.
With all due respect to our friends in America, don’t be surprised to find yourselves boxed in at some point down the highway (it’s already started). When that time comes, you’ll have huge decisions to make. Americans have been through this before during prohibition and other issues, when they push back they mean it.
April 29th, 2006 at 2:17 am
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060426006027
why are these SOBs so greedy? the only reason they’re popular is because of the free content!
April 29th, 2006 at 2:55 am
Man he so censored his self. Full of bull man. He definately knows what’s going on lately with the RIAA & MPAA. You can’t ignore that kind of extortion.
April 29th, 2006 at 3:03 am
what do you expect? do we expect him to go to jail for us? anyone want to take his place in prison?
April 29th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
That was pretty content free. I don’t know why people agree to answer questions, and then answer them in such a way that it’s completely obvious they don’t give a rat’s ass about the interview. Cohen should have just politely declined the interview if he couldn’t be bothered to answer properly.
April 29th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Well said. But don’t forget he is now under Hollywood control and no longer has the freedom to be truthful or to say what he really thinks. But it is still interesting.
April 29th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with what Bram wrote, and is not all that different than what I would write if I were not involved in the policy side. I think people here have forgotten that not everyone reads the same BLOG entries that they do, nor do they share the interpretations.
*MOST* people are entirely unaware of the lack of evidence in the cases that the Recording and motion picture industry associations are bringing forward. They don’t know that the lawsuits are often launched without any evidence that works that they are copyright holders of have been infringed.
This lack of understanding extends to many of the comments I’ve seen on this site from people who think that unauthorized P2P sharing of music in Canada is legal. This is based on a misinterpretation of the BMG vs. 29 Does cases where the major labels lost due to lack of evidence, not because unauthorized sharing of music was legal.
While we may have been watching the cases in the USA, it is quite reasonable that Bram — who spends his time authoring software, not dealing with law or politics — would have no idea.
The same type of thing can be said of Linus Torvalds (lead coordinator for Linux) who doesn’t understand the issues with DRM. He thinks it has something to do with people using digital locks (technical protection measures) to protect things which they own (something quite reasonable), rather than the reality which is that DRM is use of digital locks by copyright holder to lock down things which they do not own (our computers, PDA’s, MP3 players, sterios, etc).
Is Linus Torvalds “bought and paid for by the cartels”?
As to whether unauthorized sharing of music and movies via P2P is illegal (IE: is a copyright infringement), the answer is *YES*, under current law in both in Canada where I live and the USA where Bram lives.
Am *I* bought and paid for by the cartels?
Whether it *should* be illegal is an entirely different question. I happen to believe that unauthorized non-commercial sharing of movies and music over the Internet should be legalized and monetized the same way as unauthorized playing of music over the radio or retransmission of television over cable: with a levy that the sender pays that means they no longer require the permission of the copyright holder.
Then again, most people don’t realize that there is an exception to copyright for communication of music over the radio or retransmission of television over cable. They incorrectly believe that all copyright holders are the same, and think that if you need permission to make a copy of a book that you should need permission to share music. The copyright act is full of exceptions to the general rule of requiring permission from the copyright holder.
April 29th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
The problem with not being able to play all audio/video files is not a technical problem that can be solved in software, but a legal problem relating to patents on codecs. My observation has been that whenever it is legal to author software to decode multimedia, a FLOSS project will exist to do so.
The primary problem is software patents which are highly controversial. There are many legal experts that believe that we should either abolish software patents, or create a “fair use” regime that would allow people to implement patents without permission for cases such as implementation of standards or for the authoring of FLOSS (Where royalties don’t exist, and thus RAND licensing is not possible).
April 29th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
No different than private citizens selling out to apathy by not getting involved (Remember: there were more US users of Napster than US citizens who voted for the president).
How many Canadians reading this have went to http://digital-copyright.ca and sent a letter to their member of parliament?
No different than privat citizens selling out to the MAFFIAA by continuing to enjoy their entertainment rather than switching to alternatives where there are not the same problem.
With the new Canadian Music Creators Coalition, will Canadian music fans be boycotting the music of any musician who is not a member of the coaltiion? Not boycotting is a massive sell-out as far as I’m concerned!
Sorry — but I see far too much “passing the buck” when the people in these lists have influence that few seem to be exerting.
April 30th, 2006 at 4:19 am
Go to jail? For what? Saying what he means or feels? He’s being a corporate sellout of the obvious kind and on top of that, is being politically correct to not offend his new-found buddies. Please, step off the Gestapo threat of going to jail for saying “No! People who share/dl files for private/non-profit use are NOT criminals!”. Sorry, Bram! I had respect for you man. But you allowed yourself to be duped into the business web of the worst scum. I understand you have a family and all and money is good, but this is way over that line. It’s one thing to license your prot off to others for commercial use. I woud too…money is good. But to the cartels? Man you are a sellout. First good offer and you jump to the very people you know you hate. Cred lost man! Sorry Bram. You shauld have stayed non-corporate!
May 1st, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Whatever BitTorrent based legal download service you set up for the MPAA or RIAA, if it got DRM, i’m not interested, and most of the people who suckered for DRM are on Itunes and they seem happy there.
May 1st, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Whatever BitTorrent based legal download service you set up for the MPAA or RIAA, if it got DRM, i’m not interested, and most of the people who suckered for DRM are on Itunes and they seem happy there.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
“Cohen: We’re already talking to all of those entities, and they’re being quite reasonable.”
Ha…he totaly pwned p2pnet…
May 2nd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
“p2pnet: Do you believe a time will eventually come when a genuine accord will be reached between the major movie and music companies and their customers?
Cohen: Not sure what you mean. They’re quite happy with their paying customers.”
Wow…no followup to this question? tsk tsk…