BitTorrent Fires CEOs, Closes Los Angeles Studio, Shutters BitTorrent Now (variety.com)

Things are not looking good at BitTorrent. Citing multiple sources, Variety reports today that the company has fired two former CEOs -- Robert Delamar and Jeremy Johnson -- and let go an unknown number of staffers. Company's CFO Dipak Joshi has stepped in as interim CEO. BitTorrent is also closing its Los Angeles-based production studio and shutting its BitTorrent Now streaming efforts. From the report: The company had officially announced the appointment of Delamar and Johnson as new co-CEOs in April. At the time, the duo laid out a renewed focus on media production and distribution, which involved the opening of a new Los Angeles-based production studio. These efforts culminated in BitTorrent Now, an ad-supported music and video streaming platform that launched in June. BitTorrent Now built on the company's efforts to strike media distribution deals with independent artists, but didn't actually use BitTorrent's P2P technology for streaming.

Comments

Re:Wut?

[dejitaru]

this is bittorrent the company, not bittorrent the protocol... Yeah... they don't make it easy like, mozilla (a company and a non-profit)

Who are these people?

[Anonymous Coward]

What happened to the Bram Stoker guy? I thought he was BitTorrent.

BitTorrent Now built on the company's efforts to strike media distribution deals with independent artists, but didn't actually use BitTorrent's P2P technology for streaming.

Face, meet palm.

Re:Who are these people?

[Reason58]

It's like 10,000 peers when all you need is a seed.

Good technology verssus bad economic models

[shanen]

It might seem rational to you and me that we work (and play) together nicely, and that our computers could help us. Speaking in a broader sense, if there is some video or news item that a LOT of us want to see, then my computer could help nearby computers get that information, and they could help their neighbors, too.

Too bad no one makes a profit on being neighborly.

The way to maximum profits is CONTROL. You have to grab the customers by their balls and tits and squeeze until you get the last pennies out of them! Plural "You" in this case refers to inhuman corporations, fully sanctioned as human beings by the US Supreme Court.

Government ought to be a neutral referee, but governments tend to like control, too, and when you add in unlimited lobbying by those inhuman corporations, BitTorrent never had a chance. The rules of the game are written by the most cheaply bribed politicians working for the least ethical businessmen.

In conclusion, we now have "government of the corporations, by the lawyers, for the richest 0.1%" ruling the earth.

(Con Man Donald, one of the least ethical businessmen and a self-confessed master of bribing politicians, probably thinks that quote comes from Honest Abe.)

Re:Good technology versus bad economic models

[shanen]

If Slashdot had a better economic model, one of the features that I would be most likely to support would be a recent-post editing feature for stupid typos, like the one in the original Subject: of this thread.

Gotta stop flogging that dead horse, but my next two targets would be (1) features to reduce the visibility of trolls and (2) improvements in the moderation. Actually, the recent-post editing doesn't matter that much to me, much as I hate the typos. It would probably be 3rd or lower on my list.

Mod parent awesome

[Sloppy]

Five minutes ago, I could have told anyone the name of the guy who invented bittorrent protocol.

Now I am laughing and having to look it up. Worse, I know I won't remember it! I'll just remember "Bram Stoker" because you just permanently damaged my brain. For the rest of my fucking life, I am going to have to look up the name of the bittorrent guy.

AC, sometimes you're a genius. And sometimes you're a total bastard. And then there's times like this, when you're both. Fuck you, but also, fuck yeah!

Wait

[Trogre]

"BitTorrent" was the name of a company as well as a protocol?

What next, DivX?