TMCnet Feature
February 14, 2012
BitTorrent Inventor Bram Cohen Wants to 'Kill Off' TV
The creator of the popular and controversial file-sharing protocol BitTorrent, Bram Cohen (News - Alert), has said that he’s working on a way to “kill off television.”
Cohen is working on a streaming video protocol that he says will allow live video to be streamed without a central server, as YouTube (News - Alert) and other services currently do today. It would be possible to watch large live events like the Super Bowl without any hiccups.
He gave a demonstration of his new project at the San Francisco MusicTech Summit on Monday.
He says that the BitTorrent (News - Alert) and the current Internet protocols are too slow for streaming live video, so he’s been working on a new peer-to-peer live streaming system. So far, he and his BitTorrent, Inc. have been quiet over what the product will actually be like.
BitTorrent did test a live stream at the NAMM show in January with a series of live streaming concerts at the annual musician’s trade show.
"Live streaming continues to be a challenge for musicians to do at scale over the Internet and it can be a very expensive undertaking at a business and tradeshow level. BitTorrent is building a solution not only for massive events, but to make live streaming available and accessible to anyone," said Curse Mackey, Director of Marketing at Dean Guitars, who co-sponsored the event.
Cohen said the new service could be used for videoconferencing and streaming of live gaming tournaments as well as sporting events. He avoided, however, mentioning of one of BitTorrent’s most popular uses: distributing copyrighted material.
Cohen’s announcement comes after widespread protests of legislation sponsored by the TV and movie industries that would attempt to hamper unauthorized distribution of copyrighted TV shows, music and movies but, Internet activists like the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue, at the expense of censoring the Internet.
Last weekend saw widespread protests in Europe over ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a treaty meant to protect intellectual property but one such example to hamper free expression on the Internet, the protestors say.
David Delony is a Bay Area expatriate living in Ashland, Oregon. He combines his lifelong love of both words and technology in his career as a freelance writer. David holds a B.A. in communication from California State University, East Bay.
Edited by Rich Steeves
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