Legal Bittorrent now available

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freitasm

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Topic # 12084 27-Feb-2007 14:05

Now that Bittorrent is offering legal downloads, in association with 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., what would be Telecom's excuses to filter their packets, apart from the "official" word which is volume?

Granted Bittorrent is offering the service only in the U.S. at the moment - what's the matter with these companies? - but the argument of "if it's a torrent it must be illegal content" is no longer valid for people defending different treatment to the downloads.

Things are getting confusing now with this step. It's arguably the most efficient distribution channel currently in use. Except in the views of ISPs of course, who need to pay for the (oh so dear) bandwidth consumption.

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Reply # 62144 27-Feb-2007 14:22

Yes I was disappointed with the 'US Only' plus I thought a lot of the content was old and effectively worthless anyway.

By the same argument why not host the content locally?

After all we do not export one apple at a time we export crates of apples. Consumers can then purchase a single apple from a local distribution point.

Why have the same content traverse the S.Cross cable 100's of times?

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Reply # 62185 27-Feb-2007 20:43

Hmmm...movie companies getting out of paying for bandwidth...

weblordpepe

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Reply # 62209 28-Feb-2007 00:00

Seriously aye whats with all the windows-only stuff? And all the legal stuff?

Cant I just watch superman without a lawyer?

Torrent Details

Seeders: 6
Downloaders: 1

File: 1 (1.4 GB)
Format: video
Platform: Windows Only

http://www.bittorrent.com/terms

Minimum System Requirements

In order to download or play Commercial Content, you may use only personal computers that (i) you have activated with BitTorrent.com by entering your account ID and (ii) meet the following system requirements :

Also, we recommend that you have a cable or DSL Internet connection (at least 300 Kbps).

We do not permit transfer or download to portable devices such as iPods, Zunes, PlayStation Portables, or similar devices at this time. Please note that while you might be able to watch some titles on systems with other software, we only support the above configuration.

Web Browsers

We built BitTorrent.com using web standards that enable us to provide you with content no matter what browser you're using. However, using the latest version of your browser and enabling Javascript will allow you the best experience possible. We highly recommend using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher and the latest version of Flash.

bradstewart

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Reply # 62210 28-Feb-2007 00:02

It's not Windows only, it's just they don't support other systems at the moment, they may or may not work. Why put effort into making them work on Linux or Mac when nobody uses them... i'm speaking big picture here.

barf

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Reply # 62211 28-Feb-2007 00:04

well, speaking 'big picture' you'll find alot of people using Ubuntu and Macs, we are not some immigrant minority
iD software publish all their new title for Linux now and Google contribute to the WINE code base

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Reply # 62213 28-Feb-2007 00:22

Yes I know all that, but I'm just saying that I doubt Bittorrent see Linux/Mac as a priority. Since 90+% of users are on Windows thats the system they'll be going for first.

barf

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Reply # 62215 28-Feb-2007 01:07

yeah, I see your point.
but at the risk of sounding belligerent, Linux-based systems now hold over 50% of the server market world-wide, in years to come the desktop market could see some changes too.

weblordpepe: i think you'll find it works anyway, despite the lack of official support, you know very well that bittorrent clients work in Linux.

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Reply # 62217 28-Feb-2007 01:57

Obviously they would focus on the platform(s) for launch which offer the greatest ROI within the context of their short term market strategy. At its barest this would be a function of the numbers of their target market utilising each platform and their respective development and support costs.

In regards to comments on traffic shaping of P2P, this has already been covered to come degree in the following thread: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=10164&page_no=2

To summarise and add to some of the points I posted in this thread which I believe are pertinent to this discussion:

- Not all traffic is equal in what is required of a network technically for an acceptable user experience.
- Opt in otherwise its just best effort at the bottom of the queue.
- Arguments that this approach is an excuse for providers to provide substandard service have the potential to be true however I would suggest that:

- Market forces and well thought out regulation if absolutely needed would prevent this.
- Those who believe that they should be able to get guaranteed line rate ADSL services at the curent resident pricing are in a dream world where actual financial figures play no part.

Until telcos move from becoming more than bitstream providers and find other revenue sources from this delivery method the unsubsidised cost of broadband will continue to be high or compromises such as traffic shaping and contention must be made.

[Edit] Also I believe the following is of great interest to all parties http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/piatek/papers/liveswarms.pdf

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Reply # 62243 28-Feb-2007 10:10

Jama: Yes I was disappointed with the 'US Only' plus I thought a lot of the content was old and effectively worthless anyway.

By the same argument why not host the content locally?

After all we do not export one apple at a time we export crates of apples. Consumers can then purchase a single apple from a local distribution point.

Why have the same content traverse the S.Cross cable 100's of times?

I wonder how they enforce the US only? There are usually two ways. The iTunes way which allows you to buy from the US store but only if you have a US credit card or the Sony Connect Music Store which won't even allow you to buy at all if your IP address is not in a known US range. I suspect BT uses the credit card method since when I went to purchase a show that's when you enter all your details.

Out of interest I signed up and tried to download a free movie. The experience was not that great. Using both their client and Azureus I could not make a connect (some message about no route to host). Since IIRC the BT protocol doesn't use location of IP address as a factor in the communicating, not sure what the problem was. I would be annoyed if I paid for a movie/show and got the same error!

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Reply # 62504 1-Mar-2007 22:58

Just in case anybody wonders, they enforce US residence pretty strongly. I tried to purchase a TV show for $1.99 using my US credit card and mailing address and it objected once I clicked approve. I then tried to do the same thing by dialling a US ISP via iPass. Even though my IP address was clearly in a US range it still said the video was not available for non US residents. I even tried using a different browser this time to avoid cookies etc. Not sure how it worked out I was not in the US when I was dialling into a US ISP.

I thought perhaps that it would have let me buy the video since I had a US credit card with a valid and verifiable US address but object when I went to get the licence (sort of what happened with the T2 Extreme Edition DVD came out) but it's a bit more rigorous.

Anybody know how they could possibly know I wasn't in the US when dialled into a US ISP?

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Fraktul

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Reply # 62608 2-Mar-2007 17:37

No way they could have picked this up from a networking point of view so perhaps it checks your regional settings in your OS.

lchiu7

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Reply # 62669 3-Mar-2007 15:29

yes that worked. Changed my regional settings to US and bought the file while dialled into the US ISP and downloaded the torrent file okay. Was able to download the file itself using Azureus. Not quite P2P since there was only one seed (Bittorrent's) and no peers. But the 600MB file came down in about 2 hours.

Alas I can't play it. Tried on two machines - both acquired the licence okay but one crashes in WMP and the other issues some strange message about WMP can't play this level of analog content.

And I can't try another machine since you are only allowed to authorise two machines. This DRM is just a PITA

Oh well - US$1.99 down the toilet :-(

Larry

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thechampionmasterx

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Reply # 62975 6-Mar-2007 15:09

Jama: Yes I was disappointed with the 'US Only' plus I thought a lot of the content was old and effectively worthless anyway.

By the same argument why not host the content locally?

After all we do not export one apple at a time we export crates of apples. Consumers can then purchase a single apple from a local distribution point.

Why have the same content traverse the S.Cross cable 100's of times?

This fellow has a fine point.

Local hosting FTW. Quicker and cheaper.

CrispinMullins

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Reply # 62994 6-Mar-2007 17:12

freitasm: ...the argument of "if it's a torrent it must be illegal content" is no longer valid for people defending different treatment to the downloads.

I don't consider that argument to have ever been valid. God knows there is enough law-breaking content available on the WWW, and there has certainly always been a large amount of legal content available via Bit Torrent.

Telecom will now fall back on their secondary argument: "We are going to restrict these services until a majority of customers want them". And until there is some independent, reliable data on what a majority of customers do want, they'll be able to get away with it.

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Reply # 62995 6-Mar-2007 17:16

CrispinMullins: Telecom will now fall back on their secondary argument: "We are going to restrict these services until a majority of customers want them". And until there is some independent, reliable data on what a majority of customers do want, they'll be able to get away with it.

How could you possibly know what Telecom are going to do?

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