The Pirate Bay Sees a Future Without BitTorrent
Why a new protocol? Well, the current BitTorrent protocol is developed and maintained by BitTorrent Inc. This company, founded by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, recently decided to close the source of some newer additions to the protocol.
Context & Ripple Effects
Bram Cohen spent late 2006 laying out his commercial vision for BitTorrent in an interview on BitTorrent's future, and through 2007 his company moved decisively down that path: acquiring the lightweight uTorrent client, debuting streaming tools on Brightcove's video service, and floating a move from PCs to TV set-top boxes.
Against that backdrop, TorrentFreak reports The Pirate Bay is weighing a future without BitTorrent altogether — the trigger being BitTorrent Inc.'s decision to close the source of some newer additions to the protocol, which puts the largest torrent site on notice that the format it depends on is now steered by a company with its own product ambitions. The move is reported as a consideration, not a commitment.
First-order effects
- If The Pirate Bay acts on it, BitTorrent Inc. loses the de facto endorsement of the web's most-trafficked torrent site just as it tries to position the protocol for licensed video distribution via partners like Brightcove.
Second-order effects
- A split at the biggest tracker forces BitTorrent Inc. to choose between monetizing closed additions and keeping the client-and-tracker ecosystem unified around one protocol — a tension sharpened by the freshly acquired uTorrent user base.
Third-order effects
- With Comcast already throttling BitTorrent traffic and bypass methods published days before this story, an exit by The Pirate Bay would accelerate file-sharing toward custom or obfuscated protocols, eroding any single company's choke point over the format.
The trend: Open file-transfer standards are drifting toward vendor control, pushing the largest dependent communities to consider building around the incumbent protocol.