|
|
|
| BitTorrent and MPAA join forces |
| Friday, November 25, 2005 at 15:23 by Kathleen Hill |
BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen and Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman announced today that the motion picture industry and BitTorrent are collaborating with the goal of inhibiting film piracy.
Bram Cohen developed a revolutionary technology for web sites to make large content files easily available on the Internet and that technology is often used by others to illegally distribute movies and television shows. Today Cohen confirmed BitTorrent's commitment to removing links that direct users to copies of pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine at BitTorrent.com.
Bram Cohen, developer of BitTorrent said,
"BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the Internet securely. BitTorrent discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorized content from BitTorrent.com's search engine."
Cohen said BitTorrent.com will remove links that direct users to pirated content owned by MPAA companies from its search engine.
Dan Glickman from MPAA said,
"We are glad that Bram Cohen and his company are working with us to limit access to infringing files on the BitTorrent.com web site. They are leading the way for other companies by their example."
Both Cohen and Glickman noted that this effort was an early experiment in using technology to assist in solving the problems of piracy. Over the last year, MPAA has brought lawsuits against several web sites using the BitTorrent protocol for illegal distribution of movies. Since then, 90% of the sites sued have shut down.
The MPAA estimates that the film industry lost approximately $3.5 billion to movie piracy in 2004, a total that does not include losses due to illegal on-line file swapping. According to a Smith Barney study, that number is expected to jump to $5.4 billion in 2005.
Let us know your thoughts on this agreement.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Reader Comments: 0
