BitTorrent going legit - but why buy when you can steal?

Adam Turner
Monday, 26 February 2007 03:58

Opinion and Analysis

If you think people are prepared to pay, look at the example of Podtropolis. A BitTorrent search engine designed especially for video iPod owners, Podtropolis allows them to search for movies and TV shows optimised for the iPod. Podtropolis asked for donations from users several times to cover running costs, but it wasn't enough to keep things going and the site was forced to close its doors in July last year because it couldn't pay the server bills. For want of a measly $US580, Podtropolis went under.

A couple of weeks later isoHunt took Podtropolis under its wing and it's now back in operation again - once again serving the people who were too stingy to kick in a few dollars to keep it running. isoHunt's administrator, Gary Fung, has a history of such acts of charity and Podtropolis is now tied in with isoHunt's sister site TorrentBox (but retains its own front end). With life becoming harder for sites like Podtropolis every day, you'd expect a bit more community spirit from iPod owners getting something for nothing.

So why should anyone already using BitTorrent to steal stuff suddenly go legit? According to the New York Times, BitTorrent’s inventor and BitTorrent.com's chief executive Bram Cohen said the new store would offer a compelling alternative to the illegal ecosystem. "I think what consumers want is a good experience," he said, "and the first part of that is making the content they want available legitimately."

So he's saying people will go legit for "a good experience", but the non-legit services offer a better experience in almost every way. Cohen went on to cite "internal studies" that say 34 per cent of BitTorrent users would pay for content if a comprehensive, legal service was available.

I think Cohen is deluding himself. The only way BitTorrent.com will break in to the "people prepared to pay" market is if it does a deal with an existing product and/or service that people are already happy to pay for - such as the Amazon/TiVo deal. Otherwise BitTorrent.com will be left trying to sell its wares to the people least likely to pay.