Phoenix Network Forums

I think that the invention of the bittorent protocol was a milestone in file sharing.I think that everyone knows what bittorent is ,if not visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bittorent.

But what do you think are the negative and positive effects of this invention?

In all honesty it depends on what you use it for. If you use it to pirate things then it becomes a curse if you use it as a way of sending out your own progams then its good. Its a faster way of sending files in my opinion.
i say its good.

I believe bittorent itself is a great protocol, of course it is used in majority for piraticy and it makes it difficult to enforce law since the tracker doesnt store any copyright protected material and only the initial seed distributed a whole copy.
But at least you have confidential logs on the server to know who downloaded how much and who uploaded how much, which is still better than in edonkey/guntella networks .

It's very good! Even 4 warez

I think it is great. One of the best P2P protocols invented so far. The whole tracker system is a great idea and I like the way it is really efficient. Makes good use of your upload time etc.

Also it is efficient with a small swarm or very large ones.

What do you think are the main features of the bittorent protocol?

Quite possibly the most bandwidth-efficient method of downloading large files. With no central server, you can share your files (or the files of large businesses) for free. Also, how often do you use your full upload speed compared to your download speed? Personally, I max out my 300kbp/s cap daily between downloading patches for games, downloading applications from http and ftp, etc. while I rarely ever use my 100kbp/s upload speed. Why pay for that upload stream if you aren't going to use it? And since you can't not pay for it to save money, why not seed torrents all day long? Keep the bittorrent technology going! SEED!

Yes that`s true but some people are using it in wrong places ,like on bussines mission critical office computers...

It is awesome.

it's obviously a good thing. most linux distributions are using it to keep the load down on their mirrors.

Far from protocols, and the technology it implements, it's so welcomed for millions of people, because you find what you need, and there are so many people who couldn't buy software, for example in the third world countries, which in some way, it would be some refreshment for them, and the privilege of accesing new technologies.
But at the other side the people who works with the software are losing.

BitTorent is cool, but it's usually used for piracy and stuff like that... eh well, what can we do about it >_<

You don`t have to go to 3rd world countrys to see that dvd`s and other copyrightet matirial are very expensive ,probably not worth that much ,this makes pirating ,cause many people would buy all that if it had an accessible in other words realistic price ,and bittorent is an exelent way of distributing ,cause everyone with a reasonable internet connection can use this.As for legal use of bittorrent ,it makes distributing linux distributions much easier ,cause many people like me choose bittorent way to download a distribution ,because it`s fast ,it doesn`t slow down the ftp server ,and I have a chance to help other people download it by seeding ,wich is a chance of some way saying "thank you".

But do you think that companies calculations of "how much money bittorent stole from them" is ethical/correct?
For example if 100000 people download a film ,and the film has a price of 10$ then they they say that bittorent "stole" 100000x10$ from the company ,meaning that this is the loss of income that bittorent made to the company.I think It`s ridicolous ,because I don`t think that all the 100000 people would have bought it ,if there wasn`t bittorent.

You said it's fast, but you know, bittorrent is usually slower than a FTP or a normal download...

Raziel wrote:You said it's fast, but you know, bittorrent is usually slower than a FTP or a normal download...

Ok you probably comapare a torrent with one seeder who`s bandwidth is very small with gigantic ftp mirrors ,but let`s compare a an avarage torrent download speed on a private tracker(with lots of fast seeders) with an avarage ftp....