All posts tagged BitTorrent Inc.

BitTorrent Adds Chief Strategist, Executive Vice President of Marketing

by eklinker on November 10, 2010 in Announcements with No comments

For the past several months, the expansion of apps and delivering quality content to our community has been a couple of our top priorities. Our goal is to create a platform where content creators can deliver their artistic works and build relationships with fans while giving our users access to unique content.

Bridging the digital divide continues to be a priority, therefore we have expanded our team and are today announcing the addition of Shahi Ghanem as chief strategist and executive vice president of marketing. Shahi will take our efforts in the expansion of apps, content and consumer electronics to a new level, and we are thrilled to have him join the team.

Shahi has worked with dozens of startups and has an impressive background in digital media, Internet advertising, consumer electronics and advanced technology development. Formerly President of DivX, Inc., a developer of video compression, digital rights management and media language technologies, he helped lead the company from a pre-revenue startup into a profitable, multi-national, public company. While with DivX, he was instrumental in forging relationships with several major Hollywood studios and every major chip and consumer electronics manufacturer in the world.

Recently, Shahi served as CEO of digital media start-ups including STL (helps Fortune 500 companies manage, distribute and measure digital assets), EmpowHER (a health media company dedicated to female health and wellness), and Brickfish (an Internet advertising and social media company that delivers campaigns and metrics to clients in the fashion, sports, electronics and consumer products industries).

Please join the BitTorrent team in welcoming Shahi to the company.

- Eric -

Shared Film Festival at the Open Video Conference

by BitTorrent on September 14, 2010 in Other with 1 Comment

Over the past few months we have worked with several indie artists to distribute their work via BitTorrent. As a company, this is something that we are passionate about, because we think there is great potential for artists to leverage the distribution economics of BitTorrent to reach a large and engaged audience to not only build a fan base but create a sustainable business

Shared Film Festival at OVC is Open to the General Public

model that allows them to create future works. We are encouraged by the results that we have had with VODO on the Pioneer One and The Yes Men Fix the World – P2P Edition releases, and most recently with PAZ’s mixtape “Young Broke and Fameless.”

So, in conjunction with the Open Video Conference (OVC) we are excited to launch the Shared Film Festival (SFF). The festival will bring notable films from creators who are experimenting with alternative media models and distribution to the big screen. The filmmakers will be on hand to present their stories, experiences and business approaches. SFF gives creators and audiences alike an opportunity to engage in a larger dialogue about shared culture and peer-to-peer distribution with other filmmakers, creators, funders and members of the general public not yet familiar with this rich, developing culture.

Each night following OVC, we’ll screen a short film, a feature length production, and then sit down to a discussion with the filmmakers, learning about the stories behind the films; their production experiences; and business strategies. We are excited to announce that The Yes Men will be in-person to screen their film during the first evening. On the second night, we will be screening a new film, “Person of Interest,” and the writer/star and director of the film will also be on hand. (The full schedule is below.)

So, as if the event could not get any better, we are opening it up to the general public for FREE! We are very excited about this event, and hope to see you there!

Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, 7 p.m.

 

Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010, 7 p.m.

  • VODO Short Film – Lilah by Nathaniel Hansen
  • Full-length feature: Person of Interest by Gregory Bayne
  • Panel
    • Gregory Bayne, director of Person of Interest
    • J. Reuben Appelman, writer and star of Person of Interest
    • Moderator – Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre and former CEO of Tribeca Film Institute

The Arrival of Apps

by smorris on September 9, 2010 in Announcements with 5 Comments

We’ve always strived to make the BitTorrent client simple and useful, basing our design philosophy around this core ideal. At the same time, we recognize there are many features that may enhance your experience – by choice.

The solution? Apps. Available today for the first time in a new release candidate build of the BitTorrent Mainline client (the 7.1 Release Candidate version available below the download button on the homepage, or here), we’re introducing apps to provide a flexible, easy way to add and extend BitTorrent functionality, discover new media/games/software, and lots of other cool things at your leisure.

While only available today as a release candidate, over the next several weeks we will issue the production release to roll it out to all BitTorrent Mainline users.

Apps for BitTorrent are built on a JavaScript-based extension framework and make it easy for users to discover and download digital media without ever leaving the client. To kick off this limited release, we’re launching with 11 apps, ranging from useful to fun, enabling you to create a personalized BitTorrent experience by adding new features and services. For example, add virus protection with Virus Guard (powered by BitDefender), or clean up mislabeled songs in your playlist with TuneUp. See a map of all the peers in your swarm with uMap or organize all your torrents and downloaded files with uBrowse. Even share your torrents with TorrentTweet. More apps are coming soon.

The best part – we encourage all third-party developers to write and publish new apps, meaning that the breadth of creative ideas of apps to come is unlimited. And if you’re a developer yourself, you can now write an app available to BitTorrent’s millions of users using the SDK Developer tools.

The apps platform on BitTorrent Mainline 7.1 is completely open, and allows for easy extensibility by independent developers through a simple API. Partners and independent developers can access all the functionality of the client and offer a simple and more integrated way for consumers to find and download different types of content as well as integrate with external services that add new functionality.  In addition, the SDK developer tools and all the Apps we release from BitTorrent are free software, released with a three-clause BSD license.

Apps are built with JavaScript, the standard language used for Web-based tools and services. They can interact with other Web services and Web content to create rich media experiences for users, and use HTML and CSS for rendering.

Our goal is to provide our users with easy access to quality content and services to improve the experience of downloading and sharing content. This is our first step (of many to come) of our journey into the world of apps – stay tuned. We continue to be excited by the potential and look forward to your feedback!

-Simon-

Introducing µTorrent Server for Linux

by Brett Nishi on September 2, 2010 in Announcements with 18 Comments
If any group has embraced the possibilities and power of BitTorrent for distribution, it is the Linux community. Virtually every distribution is available via torrent download and many even ship with a BitTorrent client in the default configuration. While the BitTorrent Python code has always been available for Linux users and uTorrent runs very well for many with Wine, a resounding number of BitTorrent fans have asked for a native µTorrent for Linux. When we started our Idea Banka few months ago, a Linux version was immediately the most requested feature, and has stayed #1 ever since.  We’ve heard you loud and clear, and today, we’ve taken a notable first step toward making it a reality.

µTorrent Server for Linux

This morning, we are announcing a preview release of the first of two new products for Linux users. µTorrent Server, an alpha version available immediately for download here, is intended for users seeking a fast, powerful and lightweight BitTorrent client without the need of the full features and complexity of the native GUI.  The server is a daemonizable 32-bit binary of the µTorrent core, built for x86 compatible Linux. It can be managed programmatically via an HTTP API or interactively by using the (included) customized version of the popular uTorrent Web user interface. µTorrent Server is a native Linux build from the same codebase as our very latest clients, featuring µTP support and all of the protocol improvements and extensions µTorrent users expect.

Today, we are distributing this as an archive to users who know their way around Linux and can help us test it and improve it before a wider release as a package for specific distros. If you are comfortable with extracting tar archives, running programs from the command line, and manually configuring a settings file then we invite you to download and try the alpha.

 

Today’s version is only the first step, and we will continue to support the Linux user community with new versions in the near future. If you prefer to stick to more conventional user experience, rest assured we are working hard to build a full-featured client, coming soon. µTorrent Linux will offer the same clean and full featured UI that millions of users of of µTorrent on Windows have enjoyed.  We are hoping to get this out to you for testing in a few months. Stay tuned!

 

In the meantime, we look forward to hearing what you think of µTorrent Server – please join us in our forums and continue to help shape the future of µTorrent through the Idea Bank, or share your thoughts below.



- Brett –

 

Musician “PAZ” Chooses BitTorrent for Distribution

by smorris on August 16, 2010 in Other with 3 Comments

For a lot of musicians the dream is to get a deal with a big record label; make an album; and then make lots of money. The reality is that most musicians will never get that big record deal. Even if they do, most traditional models follow the sort of “hit maker” model that removes the artist from the process and doesn’t allow them to connect with their audiences – much less to reap many of the rewards.

With the shift from physical to digital media a new breed on artist has emerged in the music scene. This new wave of creators are looking for alternative distribution methods to reach consumers and grow their fan bases organically. They are artists like PAZ.

It was just a few years ago when PAZ entered a MasterCard competition for college musicians. Out of 25,000 aspiring hopefuls, he was chosen to tour with country music legends Tim McGraw and Big & Rich. His unique sound made a big impression on Tim McGraw, who ultimately took PAZ under his wing.

When PAZ began thinking about distribution for his debut mixtape, “Young Broke and Fameless,” he wasn’t looking to get his music on iTunes or Amazon, but wanted an approach that would allow him to establish his name and share his music with the largest possible number of people. So, PAZ decided to join a growing list of creators who are leveraging BitTorrent distribution to tap into a powerful online community and reach millions of consumers for free.

You could say that for PAZ his career has been a bit like a social experiment where he is using a variety of platforms to connect with consumers and incorporate them into every step of the process – including choosing the cover art for “Young Broke and Fameless.” For PAZ, it is about being a trailblazer for a new unified model, and so far his willingness to take risks has paid off. In only a few short months he has built a series of successes on non-traditional platforms and developed a substantial audience.

In today’s digital age, the traditional model that artists once bowed to does not serve them in the same ways. Artists like PAZ are creating a new media model that is not based on selling units of CDs or even downloads. What he is creating is much more important – it is consumer engagement. In doing so, he is building a fan base that will invariably attend shows and purchase merchandise down the road.

The Internet has created a model of empowerment that allows creators to retain full control of their creative works, and now BitTorrent is helping them build a business model that will fit with the new digital realities. We are always interested in working with content creators who want to develop models that play to the strengths of the Internet, and allows them to tune into the distribution potential of BitTorrent to reach millions of people within communities that might otherwise be inaccessible.

For a limited time starting today, PAZ’s mixtape will be available from his website; via our website; with all fresh downloads of the µTorrent client; and at ClearBits. The torrent file is here.

- Simon -

BitTorrent 7 Goes Stable

by smorris on August 13, 2010 in Announcements with 1 Comment

Fundamentally, BitTorrent is about creating a more efficient and open Internet. We believe that μTP, an updated BitTorrent protocol that makes efficient use of bandwidth while reducing network problems, is a critical component in continuing to drive that legacy forward. μTP is an enhanced BitTorrent transfer protocol that we introduced in our μTorrent client a few months back. While BitTorrent 6.x clients partially supported it, the new BitTorrent 7 client now has support for μTP on a par with the popular μTorrent software.

In addition to μTP there are several other improvements in BitTorrent 7 including:

- UDP NAT-traversal – an improved way to find peers who might otherwise be stuck behind firewalls;

- Transfer Cap feature – a way to limit the total bytes transferred by your client in a specific period, to keep you in line with any limits imposed by your ISP;

- UDP Tracker support – a way to reduce the load on trackers and improve performance.

The technology on which the μTP protocol is based is also available as an open source software library published here. Several other BitTorrent clients either have implemented μTP support or are now considering it. We hope we will continue to see wider adoption of μTP across the BitTorrent ecosystem.

In many ways, μTP is a get-smart approach to managing traffic on the network. Where its predecessor TCP could only detect a problem on the network once a packet was dropped and when a user’s Internet connection had slowed to a crawl, μTP can slow itself at the earliest signs that the network is getting overloaded – avoiding problems before they become acute. While some users have been concerned that they don’t want a BitTorrent client that slows itself down, the somewhat counter-intuitive result is that by automatically avoiding over-aggressive behavior, the downloads tend to actually go faster.

We continue to see µTP as a mutually beneficial solution for users and ISPs. Moreover, we believe that it is in the best interest of all parties when all stakeholders do their part to preserve a neutral Internet and self-regulate. BitTorrent Inc. is grounded in innovation, and µTP is the natural progression in ensuring that the Internet can scale and continue to evolve to meet users’ ever-changing demands.

- Simon -

New to Apps: Torrent Discussions with Torrent Tweet

by smorris on August 5, 2010 in Announcements with 71 Comments

Today we’re releasing Torrent Tweet – the latest entry into our Apps ecosystem. Torrent Tweet is a Twitter-based system for following and contributing to discussions relating to individual torrents. Tweets are indexed with an automatically generated hashtag unique to each torrent file. Find out what people are saying about torrents you are downloading and sign in to a Twitter account to contribute to the discussion.

Like uMap and several other Apps, Torrent Tweet is an optional app that we developed in-house at BitTorrent Inc. We continue to be excited about the possibilities of using Apps to mashup popular web services with some of the fundamentals of BitTorrent.

In this case we are relying on the fact that torrents are indexed not by file name but by infoshash, a  digital fingerprint of a file. While you might find the same torrent on dozens of different torrent sites, and get pieces of the associated file from thousands of different peers, ultimately, you can be sure that you’re going to get the torrent you want, not something that shares the same file name.

The infohash is a key foundation of BitTorrent – referring to content by digital fingerprint rather than just a file name is a powerful way of referring to something. Its like referring to a person by referencing their fingerprints rather than just their name. There are many people in the world called “Simon Morris,” but my fingerprints are unique.

The point of Torrent Tweet is to adapt the powerful referencing system built into BitTorrent to the incredible social interaction engine that Twitter has built such that people can have conversations about things they are downloading, and they can be sure that they are talking about the same thing.

Now of course this system has some limitations in that there’s no way of knowing whether someone is telling the truth, but that is the case in all social interactions. In some important way the wisdom of crowds can give you some rough gauge of how likely something is to be true. Our objective with Torrent Tweet is to link torrents with Twitter conversations and see if something useful evolves.

We hope that torrent sites will adopt our convention of referring to torrents using a shortened hashtag prefixed with “#bt” and enhance comments systems that already exist on torrent sites so that discussions can be accessed and propagated there and everywhere that Twitter is available.

- Simon -

BitTorrent Hackathon This Thursday

by smorris on August 2, 2010 in Other with 1 Comment

Over the past several months we have been busy building Apps for µTorrent. Apps are completely optional, and are a way to give users easy access to additional services and features around media. Most recently, we announced the general availability of the Apps for BitTorrent software developer kit (SDK) as well as launched the Apps for µTorrent Developer Challenge. (By the way, have you submitted your App?!)

Since we are so excited about Apps and exposing the platform to developers, we are going to hold a Hackathon on Thursday, Aug. 5, 6-8 p.m., at the Citizen Space in San Francisco. This will be an opportunity for developers to learn how to download and install the BitTorrent Apps SDK and begin coding on the spot. Also, BitTorrent developers will be on hand to answer questions and help you develop or optimize your App for µTorrent.

There will also be some folks from BitTorrent who will be leading lightning talks to help you learn all about the Apps platform and what Apps mean for BitTorrent users. Among those slated to speak are:

- Bram Cohen, co-founder and chief scientist
- Simon Morris, vice president of products and marketing
- Thomas Rampelberg, software engineer

As if the event couldn’t get any better, we will be offering free pizza and beer too. Space is limited and tickets are going fast, so mark your calendars and reserve your spot today! Also, don’t forget to bring your laptop to the event.

- Simon -

µTorrent Web Now Available on iPad and Android

by smorris on July 29, 2010 in Announcements with 6 Comments

Since launching µTorrent Web for iPhone, users have been clamoring for something similar on other devices. So, today we are very excited to announce support for the iPad and Android platform – including the Nexus One and Google Ion devices. Now you can control torrents via your web browser on a PC, iPhone, iPad and Android.

In case you are new to µTorrent Web, we will rewind a bit and tell you exactly what it is. µTorrent Web is a way to allow users to manage their downloads from anywhere on the Internet via a web browser. So, hypothetically, before you leave work or school in the evening you could start a torrent download on your home computer via another PC, iPhone, Android or iPad, so that it is completed by the time you arrive home.

What makes this different from other web-UI-for-bittorrent-client products is the incredible simplicity of setting it up. There’s no complicated port-forwarding or confusing settings in your router or firewall. Just set up a username and password in your µTorrent 3.0 alpha client, and presto you’re ready to go! (Be sure that you have the latest client with µTorrent Web installed on your computer.) It’s also a good idea to check “stay signed in” to ensure quick and easy accessibility in the future.

Just like with µTorrent Web for iPhone, we continue to take users’ privacy very seriously – all your private data is encrypted from the moment it leaves your browser right to the client on the other end. So, as before, you can rest assured that the private details of your µTorrent usage are never exposed to BitTorrent Inc. or any third parties.

We are excited to expand µTorrent Web to other devices, and look forward to continuing to roll it out further. If you have suggestions for other devices, let us know via our Idea Bank.

- Simon -

What is the Right Business Model on the Internet?

by smorris on July 27, 2010 in Other with 1 Comment

What is the right business model on the Internet? For the most part, organizations are still trying to find the balance between how to create value for consumers and a sustainable business model.

In case you haven’t noticed, media scarcity has for all intents and purposes disappeared. The Internet is essentially a giant copy machine that makes distribution of content frictionless. So, when you think about the web in these terms, then it makes it easy to understand why pay walls on the Internet do not work.

For example, take The Times of London, which recently implemented a pay wall. Last week, The Guardian reported that since instituting the pay wall The Times had lost 90 percent of its online traffic. The fact is the news that they are reporting is no longer scarce. Readers can easily find something similar (or even identical) on another competing website, or better they can find it on Twitter or a blog. The Times has created a model based on metering access, and in the process has lost eyeballs, which will almost certainly result in lost ad revenue.

As distribution costs reach effectively zero, we believe that there is value to be derived not in just access, but in creating an experience for users. In the future rich media will not have to be held under a lock and key to make money, which could result in a very different business model.

So, creators and organizations that are serious about making a business work on the Internet are looking to alternative media models – many of which fall under an umbrella you might loosely label freemium. The fact is that even with the shift from physical to digital media, the simple Economics 101 notion that consumers will pay for what is valuable and scarce still rings true.

We are partnering with various creators from filmmakers to gamers to software vendors – to enable relationships that bring value to the consumer, but allow the creator to build a business that works. These business models are largely based on this concept of freemium, where they leverage consumer adoption of values freely given to drive an opportunity for value to be captured later. We are still early in this process, but early results look very promising.

If you are interested in learning more about how freemium can be used as part of a business, I will be participating in a webinar with Mike Masnick of the popular blog Techdirt and Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote tomorrow at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET on the topic. Get the details here.

- Simon -

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