DSL Prime: Content

Are telco networks ready for the coming content cornucopia? Bit Torrent sites continue to provide great content, making books and television shows readily accessible, even as the RIAA trumpets triumphs against other P2P networks.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [October 12, 2005]

Mininova as honey pot, "Free Kevin", and other tales of the shared net
"Why haven't the record companies shut down Mininova and several other great Bit Torrent sites?" The RIAA used information obtained by logging on to popular torrents to threaten lawsuits, and some online enthusiasts are therefore switching to networks that are more private. Perhaps the companies are not confident in the law or their ability to intimidate lawful entities with the multi-million dollar cost of defending lawsuits.

(Intimidation worked again—E-Donkey is ready to shut down because he cannot afford the lawyers to fight. Hollywood knocked out TIVO's main competitor, ReplayTV, with a barrage of lawsuits.)

Alternately, the RIAA may be allowing a few publicly visible sites to continue, because it's easy then to see who's sharing files, and put the law after them. When you join a torrent, you see the IP addresses of everyone sharing with you. It is easy to figure out which carrier an address is in, from whom the record companies extract the person's name. The effect on total downloading will be small, just the hassle factor of connecting to more private networks. However, the torrent (sic) of lawsuits convinces the companies to keep spending millions on their lawyers.

It took only seven minutes to download Kevin Mitnick's very interesting book The Art of Deception. "Free Kevin" was the hacker's call, led by my friend Emmanuel, while Mitnick was in jail. On release, after a symbolic parade down Broadway, Mitnick has become a consultant doing Sarbanes-Oxley testing and well-paid speeches. While reported as a cracker, Kevin's greatest strength is social engineering. Charming fellow, actually.

Verizon's connection was hot one night, with The Daily Show coming over in 19 minutes on a fast torrent that averaged around a megabit and a half per second. That is the first video download I noticed faster than real time—the cut is 21 minutes without the commercials. Only the most popular torrents go that fast, however. Weeds is building a following, but a similar length episode took two and a half hours. Typical video downloads currently take 3 to 10 times the length of the program, one reason only 5 to 10 percent of TV watching will move to the free web in the next few years.

Copyright 2005 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

"The power of the printing press belongs solely to those who own the presses"
—A.J. Leibling

The Internet is the cheapest printing press ever invented.

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	[July 16, 2004]	Company Releases Real World Data on File Sharing