bittorrent

BitTorrent

Category: Data

BitTorrent is an advanced peer-to-peer sharing technology that runs using a client system. To share and transfer files, users must be running a BitTorrent software client on their computer. Some Web browsers such as Opera are even building in this client technology. It works by splitting up files into tiny bits of data that can be shared in any order. Users work together to make the file available on demand. Even if just one person has an entire file initially, eventually after sharing it with others, the speed for downloading increases.

To share and download files using BitTorrent, … Read more

Pirates nab Michael Moore's yet-to-be released doc

From all that we've heard about Michael Moore's soon-to-be released documentary indictment of the U.S. health care system, he clearly supports universal health care.

But does he support universal Web access to his film two weeks before its official release? Probably not, or at least his studio doesn't.

Advertising Age reported Friday that Moore's new film, Sicko, has been pirated and is widely available for free download on the Web at BitTorrent and peer-to-peer sites. Advertising Age reporter Claude Brodesser-Akner wrote that he easily downloaded a copy and watched it late Thursday night.

The breach … Read more

The Pirate Bay sees buried treasure in streaming video

The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent file tracking site based in Sweden, hinted in a blog post on Friday that it has begun navigating the high seas of streaming video. The site had been hyping up a "surprise" in recent weeks, and still won't give much detail, but it has confirmed that it is indeed a video project. "As a treat I can tell you--YES--we're going to do a video streaming site," the blog post wrote. "It's true. It's in the works being done right now and as usual we put a … Read more

CNET Live - Episode 6

Had a great time on CNET Live even when the spirits of evil grabbed Cooley's website of the week and twisted it until dead. Great thanks to Ashwin Navin, President of BitTorrent for coming on the show. Here are some helpful links to go along with what we discussed.

Watch Episode 6

Things we Crave

A gadget for germaphobes in space

Motorola Q 9 headed for Italy first; calls out iPhone

Download of the Week

Plasma Pong 1.2

Best of the Web

Sneak peak at Mogulus: new live blogging platform

Calls

Fixing the GIMP - Try to delete … Read more

BitTorrent to fire up CNET Live

In the Internet world, peer-to-peer sharing has always sparked discussion. This week on CNET Live, Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of file-sharing site BitTorrent, will sound off on the hot topic. Navin contributed his perspective earlier this month about Ohio University's decision to ban peer-to-peer applications on campus. What does this mean for the rest of us? Tom Merritt is going to find out.

In addition to that fiery topic, the boys are going to figure out what is behind all those blazing batteries in laptops. Brian will reveal what tops his Crave list, and Tom is going to … Read more

BitTorrent's game downloads: A big hoax

Update: BitTorrent's Games section is misleading. First of all, game downloads don't necessarily use BitTorrent. What you may get via the BitTorrent P2P network is a small (298K) installer program, which in turn runs a proprietary downloader application that gets the game code from a central server.

Second, although games are listed in the B.E.N. catalog as free, they are nothing of the sort. You get a free preview period to try the game. If you want to play it past that period, you have to pay up. Gangland, for example, is free only for 60 … Read more

BitTorrent Entertainment Network hands-on: 10 pros and cons [updated]

The new BitTorrent media store, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, has been live for a few hours. It's a mixed bag, and these are my hands-on impressions. I wanted to come up with five pros and five cons. But I think the cons outweigh the pros, and this list reflects that. Update: The section on games has been rewritten and moved from pros to cons.

Pros:

It's fast. BitTorrent.com has big pipes. This morning, even on files that no one else was hosting (no one else in the swarm), I got 1MB/sec download speeds. An episode of … Read more

BitTorrent goes legit: Paid P2P movie-sharing coming

BitTorrent is launching a legal, paid media distribution system, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network (BEN). [See News.com story.]

Essentially an online store that will compete other stories like iTunes, the new BitTorrent Network will have more than 5,000 titles. TV shows will be $1.99 an episode, and users will be able to watch them as much as they want. Movies will cost $2.99 or $3.99 and will time out 30 days after download, or 24 hours after the user begins playing them.

In other words, there will be heavy digital rights management (DRM) on BitTorrent files. … Read more

Bittorrent goes legit: Online Marketplace to debut in February

As part of the CES announcement of its promising EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, Netgear announced a partnership with file-sharing upstart Bittorrent. Ashwin Navin, cofounder and CEO of Bittorrent, sat down with MarketWatch editor Bambi Francisco to discuss how the Netgear/Bittorrent combine hopes to battle Apple's forthcoming Apple TV. While the interview is short on technical details, Navin offers some interesting previews of where Bittorrent is headed. The company's new Online Marketplace will offer more than 10,000 titles from content partners including "3 major studios and about 25 indepedent and foreign studios," which Navin hopes … Read more