A Torrent future, pity it wasn't used for Good

I, one day, would like to be able put up some video, created by me, on my site.  No, not that kind of video.  Like many contemplating the online media publishing side, and who has a bit of a think about it first, I'm stressing over the bandwidth issue plaguing the Internet.  And as I have complained before, bandwidth is at a premium here in Oz.

BitTorrent and P2P are, at this time, looking like the best way to distribute media content using the web.  Many of you may know BitTorrent for supplying missed episodes of Lost, or maybe the latest Warez.  But Bittorent/P2P can be used for good, and this good is what concerns me and many other content providers.

What is BitTorrent?

Wikipedia says:
"BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting, and bandwidth resources. Instead, when data is distributed using the BitTorrent protocol, each recipient supplies pieces of the data to newer recipients, reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source, providing redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence on the original distributor."

The main forte of P2P is the ability to distribute data quickly and cheaply.  BitTorrent does this well, in fact, it does it so well that it has become the main way to distribute pirated software, movies, TV and music.  A fact not lost on those charged with stopping such piracy, and so the smear campaign and the outright malicious technical attacks begin (Revision3 brought down by Media Defender).  And the victim is going to be the P2P technology, but maybe not in the way we think.

Decentralizing issue.

One of the problems with P2P and Torrents is that anyone can have access to create them.  Those who are good Internet citizens see these technologies as a way to contribute to the greater good.  Bad Internet citizens (I like to think of these as campers in Counter Strike, or those Corpse Campers in WOW) those who enjoy behaving like throwbacks, or who are paid to behave that way, see these technologies as a way to waste our time.  They do this by seeding false torrents to clutter up the tubes.

One of the ways BitTorrent has been able to get around most of this issue is by having managed Trackers.  Trackers like Mininova have moderators, with way more time than me, who check through the Torrents submitted to the Tracker and sift out the rubbish, well, most of it.

There has been moves to make Torrent search engines, but because of the bad citizens, most users prefer to use and support well organised Tracker sites.  The only issue with that is that a well organised Tracker site is an easy target for those keen on shutting down any piracy that may also be made available though the Tracker. 

Torrentfreak.com has a good article around this subject, with a bit more detail and the some of the solutions, and other problems, well worth a read.  The conclusion is that P2P, and more so BitTorrents days may be numbered because, a) It's used for distributing illegal files, and b) done right, it's too big to hide and so easy to target.

Future stuff.

Even with all the problems, the technology is sound and can be used for good.  How?  By commercialising it as a service.  One way this is done is by creating a private and white-listed Tracker, and offer it only to legitimate content providers.  The IPTV networks starting up all over the Internet would be the prime content providers, to a system that was basically a on-demand TV Station.  The Tracker would be heavily policed and the only torrents available would those from subscribers.  Couple that with a good front-end like Miro, and/or the web allowing users to create their own TV channels with their favorite Internet offerings.

With a secure and safe environment, and a truckload of subscribers you may even see some of the networks making regular shows available (not that I can see why you would want to watch that rubbish).  Don't forget that Linux distributions are also legit users of the BitTorrent system, so there is a bit of scope for the project.

The point is that you need to create a marketing and distribution system that will legally make use of the technology.  This is important, because when these sort of technologies are released into the wild, seldom are they used for good, and the publicity destroys them before they can help where they are needed.

Why do I think this approach may work?  Well, there is an increase in services starting to use these technologies and one of note is Adobe.  In a recent Om Malik article he discusses finding P2P abilities in the Adobe Flash Player 10 beta.  This could create an interesting future, couple the Flash Player install base with the stuff being done with AIR, and we would have a powerful distribution network.

In the End.

BitTorrent and P2P are one of the great technologies that popped up out of the open source underground that really needed to be bought by Microsoft and killed early.  But now that it is out there, it will be killed by the Technology Philistines, like governments, and the legal system.  And that would be a real shame.


Jason