BitTorrent: Adversary or Opportunity ?

When the subject of the Internet and new technologies is raised, one of the first thoughts that spring to mind is the pirating of copyrighted content. Ever since Shawn Fanning invented Napster and peer-to-peer file transfers, legions of technology initiatives and projects have attempted to facilitate direct transfers between Internet users. But are these technologies useful only for pirating or can they also support commercially viable initiatives? I believe that certain multimedia content editors will find that P2P protocols offer the solution, and I’m thinking of one in particular: BitTorrent.

The Problem

Many content editors are restricted by the costs of the bandwidth and infrastructure needed to deliver large multimedia content files such as e-training, Webcast, online video rentals, shareholder meetings, product demos, Webisodes, etc. This problem stems from the classic client-server model, which relies on a single server to send files to all clients (see figure at right).

The Concept

Couldn’t the ingenious technology of Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent, be the solution to making these seemingly unrealistic ambitions possible? His file transfer protocol is actually quite simple: the bandwidth of files being downloaded remains proportional to the bandwidth of files being uploaded. In other words, if you want to receive a file quickly, you must send files to other clients who are downloading the same content. The beauty of this simple concept is that file access actually speeds up as more people join rather than the opposite. The more customers there are involved, the quicker the content will be available to each individual. BitTorrent actually enables content distributors to benefit from their customers’ untapped high-speed upload capacities.

Evidence of BitTorrent’s Efficiency

According to the British Internet traffic analysis firm Cachelogic, BitTorrent file transfers represented more than one-third of all Internet traffic on the planet in 2004. Now that’s truly incredible, wouldn’t you agree?

Who’s using it?

When Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent, unveiled the code and protocol during a hackers’ conference in 2002, he presented it as free, open-source solution to distributing applications between members of the web developers’ community. The application was perfect because it enabled members of collaborative development projects to exchange extremely large files without paying heavy bandwidth charges. Not surprisingly, today this application is widely used.

However, we regret to say that those who benefit most from BitTorrent are content pirates since they can use the protocol to transfer very large files, such as TV shows (200 to 500 megabytes) or DVDs (several gigabytes), in record time.

Are any legitimate, large-scale projects considering BitTorrent as a content distribution tool? The answer is yes. The BBC, one of the world’s leading creators and content distributors, is currently testing a project that would use a P2P protocol similar to BitTorrent to provide more content and to ensure that “their plans have a positive impact on broadband Britain” and to “make its programme archive available over a peer-to-peer network.” [1]

How Can You Use BitTorrent to Distribute Content?

Do you have rich multimedia content that you haven’t dared to distribute on your web site? All you need to do is create a .torrent file – very easy to do – and make it available on your site. Then, just as you would for a PDF Acrobat Reader file, display a link to the popular BitTorrent download tool ( http://www.bittorrent.com/download.html ). This tool is very user-friendly and looks much like a typical download window, except that it displays files being uploaded as well. That’s it – your P2P file transfers are ready to begin!

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/0...