BitTorrent Gets $8.75M From Venture-Capital Firm

funny-jack writes "BitTorrent's drive to legitimize itself as a tool for distributing legal content appears to be gaining steam, as evidenced by the $8.75 million venture capital they recently secured. 'The piracy business is not something anyone can make money on,' says Ashwin Navin, who co-founded BitTorrent with Bram Cohen. 'We want to distribute paid and ad-supported content, using this technology.'"

Comments

Bandwidth and word of mouth are both money

[Nomihn0]

I'm thinking that share ratios could become a kind of online currency once BitTorrent becomes commercially accepted. Seeding a file could earn you points to download other media. For example, sharing an artist's latest music video using the .torrent from her/his site could be rewarded with downloads of free singles or swag.

Re:But there's a catch!

[Mr Guy]

No, it's actually the opposite (which does help demonstrate that copying isn't theft, even if it's infringement).

See, in a pyramid scheme, the Guy A starts with nothing.
A^2 gives him X.
A^3 gives him X and and A gives A^2 f(X).
A^4 gives him X and and A gives A^2 f(f(X)) and A gives A^3 f(X).
A^5 gives him X and and A gives A^2 f(f(f(X))) and A gives A^3 f(f(X)) and A gives A^4 f(X).

Where f(X) is > X.
As long as it keeps growing, Guy A will be able to meet his obligations. Once growth slows down (Social Security), the system fails.

BitTorrent is the exact opposite.

Guy A starts with X.
Guy A gives A^2 X.
Guy A gives A^3 f1(X) and A^2 gives A^3 f2(X).
Guy A gives A^4 f1(X) and A^2 gives A^4 f2(X) and A^3 gives A^4 f3(x).

Where fn(X) X and sum f1..n(x) = X.

Pyramid schemes just shift content around, BitTorrent rapidly progates new copies of content.

I think I spent way too much time writing this out.