Peer-to-peer company BitTorrent is set to announce on Tuesday morning the availability of a new enterprise content delivery product, BitTorrent DNA. Designed for companies that use streaming video, large downloads or games over the Web, the launch of BitTorrent DNA marks yet another conscious move by the San Francisco-based software brand to move beyond its roots as the creator of file-sharing protocol that became nearly synonymous with digital piracy over the past few years.
BitTorrent described the new BitTorrent DNA product in a statement as “the ideal solution for publishers seeking ways to overcome the obstacles associated with centralized content delivery, such as slow downloads, choppy video streams, and inefficient use of network infrastructure.” The inaugural client for the new content delivery network (CDN) is online video start-up Brightcove, which powers a number of large companies’ broadband media operations.
BitTorrent DNA will be used to “accelerate” the delivery of the video hosted on Brightcove’s platform.
With the rise of online video and large-scale media downloads, content delivery has become a crowded niche in the market. BitTorrent DNA will square off with industry leaders like Akamai Technologies–the force behind CBS’ video distribution network as well as a host of others. BitTorrent is hoping, however, that its massive following (150 million downloads of its client, according to the company) will help give it an edge.
In addition, the peer-to-peer format has become increasingly popular in the streaming video space, with recent entries like Joost and Babelgum touting P2P technology as the backbone for their professional-quality video content.
In February, BitTorrent announced that it was creating a digital download store that would use that robust user base as a way to legally transfer large movies, games and other files. The company has also forged alliances with major movie studios for legal film downloads.
Meanwhile, the exhaustive battle over online piracy wages on.
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Posted in Software, Torrent | 1 Comment »
The Minnesota woman a federal jury ordered to pay $222,000 for unlawfully pirating digital music tells THREAT LEVEL she is innocent and was the subject of a computer hack, a position federal jurors in Duluth, Minnesota, rejected Thursday after five hours deliberating.
“I want people to know that they are being sued based on hacked, spoofed computers. They should still fight back in these cases,” Jammie Thomas, 30, said in a telephone interview moments ago. “I have to pay for somebody else’s actions.”
Thomas, a single mother of two from Brainerd, Minnesota, is among the 20,000-plus individuals the Recording Industry Association of America has sued in the past four years. She was found liable for 24 songs and ordered to pay $9,250 per track in penalties. She faced fines as high as $3.6 million.
Her case was the first to go to trial, while the bulk of them have settled and others are pending.
When the verdict was read, she said she became “disgusted because I didn’t do this.”
She said she would not settle the case before trial. “I wasn’t going to pay for something I didn’t do,” she said. She and her attorney, Brian Toder, are mulling whether to appeal the judgment.
The RIAA put on evidence that the internet protocol address and cable modem account linked to her internet service provider was sharing some 1,700 files on the Kazaa program on Feb. 21, 2005. Thomas was logged in to Kazaa using the name Tereastarr, jurors found.
Thomas uses Tereastarr on her e-mail accounts, for online shopping, on MySpace, and even with an online dating service.
When asked if she was going to buy any new music, she said “I don’t have any money for that.”
The Native American woman works as an administrator at a local tribe and said she would worry about the financial implications of paying the judgment “when I cross that bridge.”
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Posted in Internet, Legal | 1 Comment »
The Motion Picture Assn. of America has filed suit against two Web sites that it claims are allowing Internet users to view pirated films, many of which are still in theaters.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of the major studios, seeks to shutter cinematube.net and ssupload.com from further infringing on the copyrights of the MPAA members.
The sites feature links to hundreds of titles, including such recent releases as “Resident Evil: Extinction,” “The Brave One” and “Good Luck Chuck.”
A “Who Is” domain search of the sites indicate both are registered as private, meaning the information on ownership and administrative contacts are not disclosed.
The domain search also indicated cinematube.net’s servers are located in Malaysia. The site averages more than 24,000 unique users each day who view more than 85,000 pages of content.
Servers for ssupload.com are located in Arizona and average 55,000 unique daily visitors who view more than 190,000 pages of content per day.
“We are putting illegal Web operators on notice that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities,” said John Malcolm, executive vp and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations at the MPAA.
The MPAA estimates that the industry lost $18.2 billion in 2005.
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