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May 23, 2005
File Hoarders Get BitTorrent Win
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
BitTorrent -- now trackerless!
Good news (at least in the short term) for file hoarders.
Given that both sides in the Copyright Wars know about language and framing, I'm urging use of this new term for the heavy hobbyist users on peer to peer networks.
- Pirates (the copyright industries' term) is false. There is no economic motive behind most file trades. There is no assurance that, if trading ended tomorrow, sales would rise appreciably.
- Traders (the term favored by users) isn't correct either. Most traders are asymmetric. Most are downloaders, not uploaders.
I think the word hoarding says more about the motives of the users, and the way toward ending the practice, than anything else. Thanks in part to the industry's rhetoric, and in part to its actions, many lovers of music and other files are afraid they will lose access to the culture they crave. Thus they demand to have physical copies of its artifacts, and grab all they can. It's classic hoarding behavior.
But time is the limit here, not space. You can only listen to one song at a time, watch one movie at a time. It doesn't matter how big your collection is, the only way to get enjoyment out of it is to play the files.
Many hoarders today already "own" more files than they can play in their remaining lifetimes. When you get your arms around this concept, you begin to see how self-defeating hoarding is.
So how can hoarding be stopped?
- One step is already being made, unlimited rentals. Economically this is very similar to the concept being pursued in some quarters of taxing the media. The industry gets regular income and data that can be used to parcel it out.
- Tone down the rhetoric. All this talk about an industry "lock-out" of its users (if this keeps up we'll go out of business) is only increasing hoarding.
- Engage the market. The movie industry hasn't even begun to do this. BitTorrent has many legal uses, and could easily be used to take a service like NetFlix fully online. But as of now, while there are many non-infringing uses of BitTorrent we're short of economic models for it.
I'm sure you've got some ideas. If you're hoarding files right now what might cause you to stop? What economic models would you accept?
It's time for file peace, and an end to file war, in order to stop the waste of file hoarding.
Comments (6)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Models | Consumer Electronics | Copyright | Internet | personal
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. w00t on May 23, 2005 09:24 AM writes...
well to support the theory of traders, simply think of the BT motto, "give and ye shall receive". With bittorrent, as you download you are sharing with others, therefore the term trader would become correct.
Permalink to CommentThere is no way that either side will ever agree to anything, the corporations want money for everything, traders/hoarders/pirates will give nothing. This war will never end until the corporations offer something better than what can be found right now from file swapping.
2. bobby on May 23, 2005 03:16 PM writes...
I have noticed my d/l speed is appreciably higher than my u/l speed (w/ bt), and, for that reason, as well as just liking the 'sharing' concept, I leave my connection open for quite a bit longer than it takes me to d/l an item. As my computer is 'luggable' (a la Compaq), it is not practical to leave it on line continuously. Altho I agree with Dana that it is likely most people wish for the d/l portion, it seems to me that the nature of bt (I am unfamiliar with the others.. I use bt for distros etc.) 'forces' them to 'be nice'. Of course, Dana's article is about the audio/video industry more so than the p2p industry so my comment is essentially off-topic! It is interesting to note that the industry is now defending a model that they previously cried would destroy them (remember the hue about vcr's).. Shortsightedness seems to be the norm in the boardroom.. (last comment (partially) on-topic ;-))
Permalink to Comment3. Mark Frazier on May 24, 2005 02:53 AM writes...
Viral Video Solutions has teamed with BitTornado.com to create an online TV network providing free-legal-downloads of movies & TV shows. Dozens of professional producers have already joined the network, with more joining everyday. The goal of is to give companies a vehicle to harness the power of viral marketing and peer to peer sharing networks.
Advertisers will commission producers to create branded entertainment or integrated product placements. The emphasis on embedded advertising satisfies customers' desires for uninterrupted pleasure while assuring advertisers the most value and guaranteeing artists get paid. Hundreds of millions of people already use programs like BitTorrent to share movies and TV shows.
This is a huge win for everyone.
The network combines BitTorrent and RSS so viewers can subscribe to shows and automatically download new episodes.
Producers are encouraged to apply at VideoGourmet.com
Advertisers are invited to register for a conference call, at ViralVideoSolutions.com
Permalink to Comment4. Anon on May 24, 2005 11:50 PM writes...
Thanks for the advertisement n00b!
Permalink to Comment5. Steve on May 25, 2005 02:28 PM writes...
Dana, In all the talk about p2p and the movie and music cartels, you are one of the few to say something insightful.
I'm probably what you would call a "hoarder". But it is not for the sake of my own enjoyment. Rather it is to preserve culture for future generations. The copyright cartels are not just restricting content, they are destroying it. (a) destructive over-mastering of re-released music - setting the level so high the dynamics are blotted out (b) they publish a remix and remove the original version from the market and (c) DRM which will increasingly never be unlockable in the future after these robber-barons have gone away.
I would be glad to be able to get all the same content legally, and pay for it. However, it must be available for long term archiving and copying at will, and unencrypted, otherwise it is useless.
It is only the hoarders who will enable popular culture to survive the coming years and be available for the future.
Permalink to Comment6. Steve on May 25, 2005 02:33 PM writes...
Dana, In all the talk about p2p and the movie and music cartels, you are one of the few to say something insightful.
I know some who are what you would call "hoarders". But it is not always for the sake of their own enjoyment. Rather, in some cases it is to preserve culture for future generations. The copyright cartels are not just restricting content, they are destroying it. (a) destructive over-mastering of re-released music - setting the level so high the dynamics are blotted out (b) they publish a remix of music and remove the original version from the market (c) video is re-edited and originals yanked off the market (d) DRM which increasingly will never be unlockable in the future after these robber-barons have gone away.
I would be glad to be able to get all the same content legally, and pay for it. However, it must be available for long term archiving and copying at will, and unencrypted, otherwise it is useless.
It is only the "hoarders" who will enable popular culture to survive the coming years and be available for the future.
Permalink to Comment