Notorious software BitTorrent, which so far has been aiding illegal file sharing online, will now help Hollywood film studios curb the menace that leads to losses of millions of dollars every year.
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and BitTorrent's founder Bram Cohen have inked a pact wherein Cohen will do away with the practice of providing links to illegal downloads of copyrighted films on his Web site. A system where films and TV shows can be downloaded for a cost is being worked out between the two.
“We are glad that Bram Cohen and his company are working with us to limit access to infringing files on the BitTorrent.com Web site. They are leading the way for other companies by their example,” said Dan Glickman, chief executive of MPAA.
The MPAA has seven member studios – The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLLP and Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. Content owned by the above studios would fall under the deal.
“BitTorrent Inc discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. The content-owner companies and content-delivery companies should be working together. This is the first step. We are working toward deals in which BitTorrent will deliver MPAA content online,” said Bram Cohen.
According to Cohen, the next move would be to 'work with the motion picture industry to make as many movies available online as possible'. “We have no content-distribution deals at this time. But there will be in the future. Not tomorrow, but soon. Months, not years,” he said.
However, skeptics aren't too sure that the deal will impact Internet piracy in a big way. So far BitTorrent has 45 million users worldwide. The software, due to its ability to dismantle a file into smaller bits, called torrents, makes for faster downloads. Later, the file is reassembled to give the user the file he or she was seeking in 15 to 20 times less time than it would take to download it in the regular manner. Several Web sites, besides BitTorrent.com allow users to search for the 'torrents'. Some are www.torrentportal.com, www.torrentz.ws and even www.bittorrent.bctel.org, among umpteen others. Cohen will not be able to control the illegal file sharing that happens through these sites.
“Bram Cohen has no ability to keep people from using BitTorrent. There is no central database to monitor who's offering or searching for what and anybody, including Google or Yahoo, can build engines specifically for the purpose of searching the Web for torrents,” said Fred von Lohmann of Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Agreed Mark Ishikawa of BayTSP, a company that analyses file-sharing traffic. “We don't anticipate any major effects from this announcement. Pirates are transport-agnostic. They move wherever they can get and transmit content with the least interference,” he said.
