Why does “big” industry fear BitTorrent

The more I look BitTorrent the more I ask myself why “big” industry fear it so much.

In many ways BitTorrent is the ideal distribution system for the Internet era. It carried many benefits for all sectors of market, including ISPs if people ignore the stigma it has built up in some circles.

Companies and people that distribute media can use it to lower distribution costs. When your customers share distribution load with you it reduces the need for fat pipes to your server. Just look at the fiasco that was the release of the Windows7 beta. The demand was so high that even Microsoft could not provide the bandwidth required to cope.

Had they deployed via BitTorrent it would have been another story. They would have provided the initial seed and as demand ramped so would the bandwidth. More people downloading just means more seeders providing bandwidth.

It is a similar story at the ISP level. If it were possible for an ISP to cached and seed popular torrents they could reduce their external bandwidth by a huge amount. There would only be a need to look outside their private network when the number of seeds dropped below a certain level. This option is just not open to ISPs at the moment, the legal ramifications stop this possibility.

There are a number of interesting trials in progress that could prove to be game changers on Torrents one way or another. If torrent technology and associated trackers come out of these cases in a good light it might change things.

At present it appears narrow minded companies like the Record Majors would prefer if BitTorrent were relegated to a technology that forever branded with theft in the sad hope it will stop the death of their out dated business model.

I hope they lose, BitTorrent is too important to die in this way!

Free, a culture clash!

Day 5 of in the trial of The Pirate Bay has finally started to highlight the real issues at hand in the case. It has finally brought the boil that has been festering to a head. The boil that was first noticed years back when Microsoft said “OMFG! This Open Source Linux thing, How do we compete with free? Lets try and kill it”. Microsoft have just proved more adept at holding free at bay to date than the media industry.

This trial and the death throws of the current style of media industry is really a clash between Old Business and the Y generation.

A generation that appear happy to live and upload and share their lives for all to see. A generation that willingly contribute freely to software, art and culture.

What is the cost of this?

The expectation to instant, free and unrestricted access to all the global pool has to offer. They want this access in formats they decide is best. When this is not the case the data is converted, manipulated, DRM is removed before pushing it back into the global pool so it is available to all.

Even if big media win this case they will not change this mentality. We only have Bit Torrent today because the record industry crushed Napster. When the media industry removed Napster a new system was created that did not have this weak central point that could be removed.

The media industry see The Pirate Bay as the new Napster but they are just missing the point. This was highlight when the lack of understanding of Bit Torrent forced them to drop half the case on day two of the trial.

Ironically  Napster was the system that could have saved and moved the media industry into the next generation. The central server could have been used to track download counts accurately enough to distribute money to artists fairly.

If The Pirate Bay lose I doubt it will even result in the take down of the site. That has already been distributed such that even the defendants have no idea on the locations.

Is there a quick answer? Not while we have a world built on capitalism. Capitalism is built on controlling the flow of “things” so that money can change hands and here is the root of the problem.

Until the old world learns how to interact with the Y generation we will see this battle repeated over and over. Any industries that deal in products which can be represented by digital means WILL have to adapt or die!