One of the best-known names in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, BitTorrent , plans to take a more active and profitable role in Internet video distribution by opening its own retail siteBitTorrent will enter a growing Internet video business, a phenomenon happening concurrently with the telcos' rollout of IPTV service. (See Content Deals May Swing IPTV Acceptance.) Some observers believe Internet video could remove some of the upside from the telcos' IPTV business case
Since 2001, BitTorrent has distributed its peer-to-peer technology to millions of file sharers at no cost. The company only last year became a corporation, and now plans to leverage its brand name to sell licensed video content on its own retail site
BitTorrent's flavor of P2P works and people like it. A source close to BitTorrent makes the point that many P2P file sharers have kids and jobs and backyards and would rather not do anything illegal. Those users, the source says, are likely to eschew legally dubious file sharing sites in favor of BitTorrent's paid video service.
BitTorrent delivers video files using a method known as "swarming." Small pieces of the file are gathered from the PCs of users who already have the content, then quickly reassembled on the downloader's PC. Swarming is far faster than a linear download from a central server somewhere.
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