BitTorrent Legitimizes Download Service

BitTorrent, a company synonymous with manufacturing technology that allows for the free trade of pirated videos, is launching a website that will sell downloadable films and television shows fully licensed by the studios.

BitTorrent had recently attained several contracts with major entertainment companies. Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, MGM and Lionsgate have all agreed to sign on with them. (Source: theglobeandmail.com)

The BitTorrent Entertainment Network, the expected name of the website, will be aimed at the same young male audience who regularly use the service to view and trade pirated films and television shows.

Some analysts have criticized the company, saying that with the removal of free, pirated media, many will abandon the web service altogether.

BitTorrent remains optimistic, because the company reasons that even though the pirated videos downloaded were free, many users will acquire a fondness for the new subscription-based service. These same individuals will surely agree to pay for high-quality copyrighted content rather than take their chances with pirated media.

BitTorrent has promised its customers that all video content will be sold at reasonable prices. The current estimates are $1.99 per TV episode that consumers will be allowed to keep. Movies will only be released on a rental basis for $3.99 for 24-hour viewing of new releases and $2.99 for 24-hour viewing of older titles. (Source: technology.canoe.ca)

Movies cannot be sold to own because BitTorrent has deemed the studio prices much too high for the average consumer, although no figures have been released to the media.

BitTorrent is urging the studios to ease up on prices, because they believe that the price of the video downloads should leave their customers feeling as though they got a good deal for the same material that they would have previously downloaded for free. (Source: theglobeandmail.com)

The technology instituted by BitTorrent assembles digital movies and other computer files from separate bits of data that are downloaded from users all across the Internet.

The decentralized nature of its program makes downloading more efficient, meaning that a full-length movie should download in about a half hour (about twice as fast as some other sites). (Source: technology.canoe.ca)