I had no idea about this, but BitTorrent is now the dominant transfer protocol in terms of bytes transferred over the internet.

But now that I think of that it makes sense: HTTP/FTP is designed mostly to be lightweight. BitTorrent is specifically designed not to be. And as a distributed system, it’s amazing. I think I’ve probably downloaded at least ten or twenty gigabytes of television programs (mostly Gilmore Girls re-runs), all of which I’ve deleted due to sheer ease of just downloading them again should I need them.

You know, if Hollywood thought about it, it’s a great idea. Use a customized BitTorrent client to transfer television that people can keep as long as they want. I’d even be willing to put up with some DRM if the price was right. If it was cheap for me to watch ad-free television, I’d do it a lot more.

Dan (Freedownloading since 1997…)

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