TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Hollywood and BitTorrent Reach Agreement

Hollywood and BitTorrent Reach Agreement

Gary Gentile (ap@telecom-digest.org)
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 23:06:36 -0600

By GARY GENTILE, AP Business Writer

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

The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to prevent
his Web site, bittorrent.com, from locating pirated versions of popular
movies, 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.

"BitTorrent Inc. discourages the use of its technology for
distributing films without a license to do so," Cohen said in the
statement. "As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to
remove unauthorized content from bittorrent.com's search engine."

MPAA Chief Executive Dan Glickman declared, "They're leading the way
for other companies by their example."

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 $8.75 million in
venture funding to develop commercial distribution tools for media
companies.

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 decentralized nature makes
downloading more efficient but also frustrates the entertainment
industry's efforts to find and identify movie pirates.

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

On the Net:

BitTorrent: http://bittorrent.com
Motion Picture Association: http://mpaa.org

Associated Press Writer Ted Bridis in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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