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BitTorrent, MPAA make peace
Here's an odd couple if ever we met one: Dan Glickman, chairman of the MPAA, and Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent.
NY Times: Web Site Agrees to Help Curb Access to Movies.
Well, that's nice of the "Web site" BitTorrent. Has this reporter ever been on the Internet? You have to wonder.
Mr. Cohen created BitTorrent a year ago.
Say what? BitTorrent has been around since 2002. Has the Times fired all its mid-level fact-check editors? As Business Week's Heather Green reported some time ago, "BitTorrent was developed and released in 2002 by independent programmer Bram Cohen as a way to efficiently distribute the free Linux operating system."
Certainly, the bottom line here -- that BitTorrent is doing its part to police blatant infringements of Hollywood movies -- is welcome news. But you have to wonder whether they'll police just bootleg copies of Hollywood fare or whether they'll go further and stamp out movie snippets that the studio chiefs won't acknowledge fall under fair use.
November 22, 2005 at 10:17 PM in File sharing | Permalink
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» Hey look were winning! Honest! from mathewingram.com/work
Theres a story on the Associated Press wire about an agreement reached between the Motion Picture Association of America and BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen and after reading about three sentences it becomes obvious that the primary inten... [Read More]
Tracked on Nov 23, 2005 11:16:09 AM
Comments
The BitTorrent client has been around since 2002, but the BitTorrent company and search engine at bittorrent.com are much more recent, probably within the last year. Still, it's shoddy reporting.
Posted by: Ryan | Nov 23, 2005 7:48:44 AM
Utterly pointless move, but whatever makes the MPAA feel better without in any way affecting the status quo can only be a good thing. It saves the MPAA some face with politicians, leaves users largely unaffected in any real sense, and highlights, to those in the know, the futility of the MPAA's current strategies.
Posted by: Roamerick | Nov 23, 2005 2:32:48 PM
