BitTorrent Beats Kazaa In Traffic Numbers

prostoalex writes "CacheLogic attempted to measure the peer-to-peer network traffic by installing their network monitoring tools in data centers of large ISPs. The results are in, and Bram Cohen's BitTorrent overtook Kazaa's FastTrack network. BitTorrent traffic amounted to 53% of all peer-to-peer traffic, according to CacheLogic. It's worth noting, though, that Kazaa traffic is highly seasonal, as a lot of high-schoolers and college students are simply on vacation this time of year."

Comments

I'd assume BitTorrent is seasonal Too

[yotaku]

"It's worth noting, though, that Kazaa traffic is highly seasonal, as a lot of high-schoolers and college students are simply on vacation this time of year."

And BitTorrent traffic isn't seasonal?

Re:Well shit.

[ackthpt]

I sure hope the RIAA doesn't look in Bittorrent's direction.

You should know by now that they certainly will, if they could show that ftp was ever used for music piracy they'd go after ftp servers, too. You're concerned that cow actually cares where it takes a dump?

Disturbing

[Nom du Keyboard]

Am I the only one who find this disturbing that a private company is allowed inside a number of major ISP's and allowed to monitor traffic to the level of determining which programs the users are running? Doesn't this mean that they've looked inside the packets, since most programs now allow the user's choice of ports to use, and P2P means you can't analyze traffic based on its destination IP address?

If CacheLogic, then why not the RIAA?

If monitoring, then why not outright blocking?

Is that a slope, or a Slip-and-Slide[tm], ahead of me?

This just might be "the one"...

[mcrbids]

I sure hope the RIAA doesn't look in Bittorrent's direction. There are a LOT of good legal uses for it. Moreso (in my mind) than KaZaA.

Which is precisely why BT stands to legitimize open-structure p2p networks forever.

Napster really had no legitimate use. I mean, did you *ever* download a song from Napster that wasn't a bootleg? Neither did anybody else.

Kazaa also has very limited legitimate use. Other than renaming an encrypted tar file "Wild Donkeys do hot chicks.mpg" and using it as a backup vehicle, its use as a bona-fide legal distribution channel is pretty limited.

However, BT is different. There are plenty of BT users distributing bootleg movies, songs, and pr0n, but there are also plenty of sites using it to distribute legitimate demos, patches, ISO images, and other large files.

To think that BT allows somebody on a T1 to serve near an OC3 worth of bandwidth by distributing the load is just incredible. I don't think the industry would be willing to give up that advantage without a fight.

Re:Bit Torent

[Peeet]

The only thing that needs to be improved with bit torrent is a merger of all the small tracker sites into one big site where you can hook on to any torrent out there. Suprnova.org is getting there but still, more momentum needs to be developed.

That being said, the best thing about the bit torrent technology is that it's almost impossible for the RIAA to control it. The cat is out of the bag and theres no way it will be pushed back in.

That being said, wouldn't centralization (sp?) or merger of trackers create the one problem that other P2Ps have had? One target to attack? I think it's fine that BT is harder to find and nail down. That will help keep it as content-rich and un-**AA-able as possible.