A year ago, Bram Cohen created the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent makes it easy to download large files quickly because you download pieces of the large file from various peer users across the internet. So it’s hardly surprising that BitTorrent is used mostly for video and that college students across the country use it download free movies and television shows with the same careless abandon of Napster’s early users. In fact, Cohen claims that internet tracking research shows that more than one-third of all internet traffic is using the BitTorrent protocol!
While he may have created the protocol, Cohen is hardly the only webmaster serving up movies – a quick google search will easily reveal the number of sites dedicated to amassing links to “torrents” for popular shows and movies. So Cohen is not exactly seeing any $$$ from all the buzz…yet…or so he hopes.
Today, Cohen inked a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) agreeing to remove all links to illegally available movies on his site, and to prevent any future such links. He’s also in further negotiations with several studios to give him the content licensing he needs to turn his site into a pay-site.
But how many users really go to Cohen’s BitTorrent site to find their movies anyway? Torrent search sites are a dime and dozen – and none of them charge. MPAA has targeted some, but if not BitTorrent, there will always be UseNet to find free movies. Cohen wants to turn his creation into a cash cow, but the returns may be slow in coming. The interface of the competing sites are already clean and easy to use. Plus, they have movies and shows of all different genres and categories. Meanwhile, Cohen’s site will be limited to the media produced by the specific studios with whom he can strike deals. How many users do you know that want to pay for less?
And since BitTorrent also runs on P2P, unless the MPAA can delete all the copies of its content off of hard drives across America, that content is out there and will be shared.