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Bram Cohen, the creator of bittorrent.com has signed a deal with the Movie Industry, that is hoped will reduce the number of pirated films, shared on the Internet, via the website. The deal means that BitTorrent must remove any links to pirated films.

The deal between the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and BitTorrent is the latest in a line of moves to limit the illegal sharing of films via the Internet. Mr Cohen has raised $8.75m to turn the BitTorrent Inc into a commercial download service, similar to Napster, who made a likewise transition.

"We are glad that Bram Cohen and his company are working with us to limit access to infringing files on the BitTorrent.com Web site," said Dan Glickman, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood's major studios and signed the deal with BitTorrent.
"They are leading the way for other companies by their example," Glickman added.

The deal is hoped to stem the number of illegal downloads, although it is not known how much impact the deal will make, and is seen by both as an “early experiment. This comes, after a conviction by a Hong Kong court, of a man trying to illegally distribute films using the software.

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started the thread and the follow-ups from and pointed to the two core facts worth separating: (a) a site that indexes .torrent files or exposes a search API can remove listings, and (b) the BitTorrent protocol itself is a decentralized delivery system that uses infohashes, trackers, magnet URIs and a DHT for discovery. That separation explains why removing entries from a single index changes discoverability but does not remove the protocol or the mechanisms peers use to find each other. Wired: BitTorrent Does a Hollywood Deal (BitTorrent overview). (wired.com)

Practical, non-invasive checks and mitigations (technical only):

  1. Test index vs client: run an open-source client (examples: qBittorrent or Transmission), disable any site-search plugins, enable DHT/PEX, then add a magnet URI or a local .torrent. If the client locates peers, the client/DHT is functioning independently of any web index.
  2. Use magnet links and trackerless torrents for discovery; magnets refer to content by hash and let the client use the DHT to find metadata and peers. This reduces reliance on any single searchable website. (Magnet URI, BEP for DHT).
  3. Forking is possible because many clients are open source, but forking changes only a client’s behavior — it does not change the protocol’s decentralized discovery. (en.wikipedia.org)

A few cautions: BitTorrent is not anonymous by default and participating in distribution of copyrighted material has legal risks; relying on technical workarounds to evade takedowns carries legal and ethical consequences. For lawful distribution, use licensed/official channels or private trackers with clear rights management. Historical coverage and the protocol spec make the technical limits and the legal context clear. (en.wikipedia.org)

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Member Avatar for alc6379

I'm not advocating Piracy or anything, but it's a good thing the open-source nature of the program can be forked, and that we're not stuck using this new version.

Case in point: What if suddenly a government wants to block seditious media being transferred via bittorrent? Could this same anti-piracy measure be used to subvert it, as well?

Member Avatar for Ooble

It's not the actual client that's filtering copyrighted works, but the search engine on BitTorrent.com. You can use the client for anything available via torrents.

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