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Bit Torrent and Hollywood, where are movies and P2P headed?
By Skye Conroy

While Hollywood delivers summer flops instead of money makers, i.e. Mission Impossible 3 and Poseidon, savvy people in the entertainment business seem to be moving ever closer to changing the way we go to the movies. Bram Cohen, the founder and inventor of the Bit Torrent application, which enables extremely fast downloads of large files, like movies, has been slowly establishing a relationship with some of the Hollywood studios over the past year; and last week it was announced l he had signed a deal with Warner Brothers studios to use his software, bit torrent, to distribute movies and TV shows. Warner is going to sell the movies and TV shows for about $1, under cutting ITunes price for similar downloads.

Bit Torrent has been used by P2P community for years and although it is legal to use the Bit Torrent application it has been widely used to download pirated movies, TV shows and videos.

Perhaps the real significance of this deal with Cohen and Bit Torrent, is that it will begin the process familiarizing more people with the software. Why is this significant? because the rumor is the next step will be the simultaneous release of movies in all formats. That would mean the simultaneous release on DVD, video on demand via cable and or direct TV, and via computer download. Many people say that is not the future for movies and that computer download in particular would not would not allow for viewing on your home TV. However Netflix has just applied for permission to make movie downloads available to it's customers in the future. So there must be something happening somewhere in Hollywood. As for the download aspect I'm sure there is an easy fix either by a Tivo type box or by a software application, after all why are all the big companies like Microsoft, Dell and Gateway focusing on home media PCs.