Can BitTorrent thrive in the mainstream?

Peer-to-peer technology took another step toward joining respectable society with Monday’s news that the file-sharing company BitTorrent would distribute video over the Internet for Warner Bros. Entertainment, industry insiders said.

Long considered in Hollywood as part of an extensive and despised piracy tool kit, BitTorrent’s file-sharing system will be used by Warner Bros. to distribute films and TV shows starting sometime this summer, the companies announced Tuesday.

The entertainment industry has for some time feared that file-swapping services would allow users to violate the studios’ copyrights and engage in piracy of their music and movies. Studios have aggressively filed lawsuits against peer-to-peer companies.

Entertainment executives now appear willing to partner with file-sharing companies. One reason, said Nitin Gupta, research analyst for The Yankee Group, is that Hollywood needs a cheap and speedy way to transfer huge video files via the Web. Peer-to-peer technologies can do that. Another reason is that by offering the public a legal and inexpensive way to download video, the studios may feel they can remove the need to pirate content while the industry is still in its infancy, Gupta says.

Full article: ZDNet News