BitTorrent released its entertainment download store based on the popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol of the same name. The result is a "legit" P2P-based store featuring video from big Hollywood content owners like Warner Bros., Paramount, and Fox Studios.
The launch may score a turning point for the future of P2P, which has been extensively used to share copyrighted material on the Internet. BitTorrent has worked thoroughly over the past two years to assure large entertainment companies that P2P can deliver their content safely and for pay.
But the buy-in from those content owners has come with a cost. The first thing long-time BitTorrent protocol users will notice is the Microsoft Corp. digital rights management (DRM) wrapped around the content. The files are playable only on the Windows media player.
BitTorrent founder and CEO Bram Cohen has publicly acknowledged that the DRM detracts from the user experience at the new store. But the big content owners insisted on it.
Under the DRM rules, users can download TV shows for $1.99. Movies are for rent only, and expire 30 days after download or 24 hours after first play. It's the same model used by Movielink and CinemaNow .
BitTorrent's problems may go beyond DRM. While the BitTorrent people invented the most popular P2P protocol, they don't have exclusive rights to P2P distribution. There's nothing stopping the large content owners from building P2P store-fronts of their own.
VeriSign Inc. VP of global marketing Todd Johnson says content owners "across the industry" are now discussing that possibility. If it happens, Johnson says, only the big third-party aggregators like Walmart and Apple Inc. are likely to survive.
Smaller aggregators like BitTorrent and Joost , he says, might find their niche selling harder-to-find or specialized content. (See Joost Signs With Viacom and Skypsters Fast Forward to Internet TV.)
