[Commons-Law] Hollywood studios make deal with [Bram Cohen] BitTorrent creator

[Hasit seth]

Guardian Online (c) Acknowledged.
Hollywood studios make deal with BitTorrent creator

Staff and agencies
Wednesday November 23, 2005

In a deal aimed at reducing illegal internet traffic in pirated films,
Hollywood reached an agreement yesterday with the creator of the
popular file-sharing software BitTorrent.

The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to
prevent his website, bittorrent.com, from linking to pirated versions
of popular movies available online, effectively frustrating people who
search for illegal copies of films.

BitTorrent must remove web links leading to illegal content owned by
the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association
of America.

The BitTorrent technology pioneered by Cohen - and used by an
estimated 45 million people - assembles digital movies and other
computer files from separate bits of data downloaded from other
computer users across the internet. Its decentralised nature makes
downloading more efficient but also frustrates the entertainment
industry's efforts to find and identify movie pirates.

The agreement represents the latest effort by the entertainment
industry to discourage illegal internet downloads. It also
demonstrates Cohen's sensitivity toward Hollywood's piracy problems,
making him potentially more attractive to studios for future deals
related to movie downloads.

Cohen disclosed in September his company had raised $8.75m (£5m) in
venture funding to develop commercial distribution tools for media
companies.

The agreement with Cohen would not prevent determined surfers from
finding movies or other materials using tools or websites other than
Cohen's, but it removes one of the most convenient methods people have
used so far.