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Largest US Anime Distributor Goes BitTorrent
securitas writes "The New York Times' Charles Solomon reports that 'ADV Films, the largest distributor of anime in the United States is releasing promotional packages via the BitTorrent.' The use of BitTorrent is already extremely popular among anime fans who trade films that are unavailable outside of Japan as well as their own subtitled versions, known as fansubs. The company's first experiment with a Madlax torrent in July was so well-received that ADV is launching the bonus promotional packages for upcoming releases Gilgamesh and Goddanar. The question is will other distributors and studios follow ADV's example or stick to their current distribution models?"
So am I the only one annoyed by the extremely negative connotations used by the "reporter"? Apparently World of Warcraft's use of bit torrent was illegal, or just plain unknown! Or perhaps those who distribute anime truly are the bane of good.
The corner of a round room
http://moztorrent.mozdev.org/
f e.pdf
& cat=31 for the links
and also see this PDF
http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824-2004/reports/jwol
Thanks to http://mimir.silverfir.net/blogs/index.php?blog=6
Have you metaroderated recently?
I don't know much about Anime culture per se, but I think this is a pretty enlightened move.
With promotional freebies, distributing via BitTorrent gets you free publicity and lowers your distribution costs to practically nothing. Furthermore, doing it through your own trackers is likely to give you realistic download statistics, which are very valuable in themselves. (And why go to, say, Pirate Bay if the publisher itself is seeding?)
For commercial products you'd rather sell, there's also something to be said for BitTorrent distribution. If you know that a significant portion of your customers are going to trade the files on P2P anyway, and you realize there's *nothing* you can do to stop it, why not get some love by seeding the things yourself?
Of course that doesn't get you to the magic "3. Profit!" all by itself, but at least you get something back from a process that's inevitable anyway.
That leaves the question of how to turn that good will into a buck (or Yen), which I admit is not easy. But as it stands Hollywood isn't even interested in trying, so it's nice to see someone inching down a new path.
This Like That - fun with words!
So basically what they're doing is using BitTorrent as their distribution system, ok. BitTorrent can perhaps now be shown as a legitimate tool used not just for illegal file sharing. Oh wait, the media would never allow themselves to be wrong. Ah, there was a glimmer of hope...