BitTorrent, Joost put download tech to legal use

By Antony Bruno

SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - There was a time when the phrase "peer-to-peer" (P2P) was practically a curse word in the music industry.

But in the past month, two new services have emerged to utilize the technology for the legal, protected distribution of content -- specifically video.

One of them is BitTorrent, which developed the technology that at one point was used for one-third of all P2P traffic on the Internet. The other is Joost -- formerly known as the Venice Project -- which was founded by the same developers who created the notorious Kazaa music-swapping community and later the Skype Internet telephone service.

Both BitTorrent and Joost rely on P2P technology to enhance the user experience. The more popular a file is on either network, the easier and faster it will be to download. Whereas the iTunes store shut down last Christmas because of overwhelming demand, services like BitTorrent and Joost are designed to improve as demand increases.

Despite their history with unauthorized digital content distribution, both services are setting themselves up to provide some of the better digital entertainment services available today. The question is: Will their technology credibility be sufficient to lure into a more legitimate environment the millions of downloaders who previously have used their technology to steal content?

BITTORRENT

More than 135 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent technology worldwide. It basically lets people publish content to the Internet in a way that enables multiple users to quickly download large files by sharing the distribution load. While it has several legitimate uses -- game publishers use it to distribute software updates -- it also is used by such sites as Pirate Bay to allow illegal downloads of Hollywood movies.

The company hopes to convert these users into legitimate customers through the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, which launches February 26. The new service has compiled the rights to more than 3,000 movies, 1,000 games and 1,000 music videos from 34 participating content providers.