P2P supernova BitTorrent, responsible for a substantial minority, and some say majority, of web traffic, has reached an agreement with the Hollywood studios. In an important symbolic move, the deal requires BitTorrent developer Bram Cohen to remove from the BitTorrent site links that lead to unauthorized films owned by the seven studios represented by the Motion Picture Association.
Under the pact, BitTorrent won’t stop unauthorized film links from being posted on the site, but will remove them once he receives complaints from the studios. Although the removal of the links won’t completely stop swapping of unauthorized movies using BitTorrent, it will slow the shadowy online trades because BitTorrent’s site currently makes movie files easy to find. And the deal will not prevent the inevitable rise of another popular, equally threatening file-sharing service.
Still, BitTorrent and Hollywood are in talks to launch a legitimate movie P2P service. A successful outcome of these talks could do more than any litigation (Hollywood’s hand was strengthened, while BitTorrent’s options were narrowed, by the Supreme Court’s Grokster decision this summer) or chest-beating by Hollywood to retard the growth of P2P.
The music industry’s track record in dealing with its own early-stage P2P threat and the ultimate success of iTunes, Rhapsody and other legitimate online music services, underscore the wisdom of Hollywood’s willingness to negotiae rather than continue to fight a losing battle. Unlike Hollywood, record companies chose to fight the audio equivalents of BitTorrent such as Napster and Grokster, rather than jump on the P2P bandwagon itself.
The record companies; decision resulted in years of prolonged legal battles and continued ramp-up in audio file sharing. Then Apple came along and built a viable business with iTunes and now legal distribution of music on the Internet is the fastest growing segment of the music business. But Apple and RealNetworks and Yahoo and other web-based music distributors are reaping the benefits of being Internet music middleman, an opportunity that has virtually been lost to the record industry.
In this glimpse of reasonableness on Hollywood’s part, it’s not inconceivable that the studios, unlike their record company peers, see the writing on the wall and could embrace P2P rather than fight it. It’s also possible that the studios are paying lip service to BitTorrent and intend to display their usual business tactic of attempting to stamp out new technologies to maintain their existing business models.
But for now, the studios and BitTorrent are talking and hopes are high that Hollywood might “get it” now.
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:31 PM|Comments(0)
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