February 26th, 2007
Sorry, Bit Torrent-these legit content deals of yours are like farts in a blizzard
Borderline vulgar term meaning little impact.
OK, so BitTorrent's new Digital Entertainment Network has 5,000 titles, including first run films such as Little MissSunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Superman Returns, and Poseidon. It's good to know that such mainstream studios such as 20th CenturyFox, Lions Gate, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. HomeEntertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios,Inc. (MGM) are on board. Some of these films are pre-DVD release.
There's music, games and tv shows as well. And you already know how efficient BitTorrent's peer to peer technology is.
Oh, don't let me forget to mention this content will be playable via Microsoft DRM but not on iPods.
And if that's not enough for DOA:
Despite these steps toward legitimacy, BitTorrent ain't there yet. Far, far from it. We are talking 135 million users, and a self-cited 40% of all Internet traffic.
I'm sorry, but there is a rather profound disconnect between the relatively sparse number of legal titles available via BitTorrent, and the proportion of Internet traffic claimed by BitTorrent as well as cited to BitTorrent by third-party sources.
But in light of BitTorrent's largely $2.99-$3.99-a-title new service will even a microscopically detectable percentage of BitTorrent users gollow their favorite service and go legit?
Elise Ackerman of the "Merc," (San Jose Mercury News) nails that one.
"The new site represents a big gamble that BitTorrent's core users — males between 16 and 34 — will accept the restrictions of a legal marketplace," Elise writes. "While BitTorrent boasts that 135 million people have installed its file-sharing software, that software is primarily used to illegally trade copyrighted movies, TV shows, software and music."
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Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
