C
Chad Harris
I watched with amusement as people railed against Beta (free) versions of
Vista or Office being downloaded via torrents, and tried to point out how
many 30 million dollar torrent startups there are in Silicon Valey and other
areas now--musing that it would only be a matter of time until MSFT goes
into the Torrent business and I believe this.
No one thinks of MSFT as a major web advertising outfit, but it's trying to
become just that among other things. Part of this shift in attitude was
catalyzed by Google's eraning about 10X what MSFT earned in advertising last
quarter on the web via MSN.
On November 28, 1006 Wal-Mart announced a new means of delivering content,
via Bit Torrent with HP providing the web technology.
Bit Torrent, a company with 35 employees also announced partnering with 8
media content companies including 20th Century Fox, Paramount and MTV
Networks.
These Bit Torrent files are going to use protection from a small, obscure
company in Redmond Washington. I hope I get the spelling right--it's called
Microsoft or I call it MSFT.
The files are going to be protected by MSFT CMS or Content Management Server
which has partnered with Share Point Server 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/cmserver/default.mspx
With all the varied content at MSFT Press Pass this event was somehow not
announced. Nor was it discussed in an article on the future of CMS:
http://www.microsoft.com/cmserver/roadmap.mspx
The article was interesting to me and it is here from the NY Times November
29, 2006:
November 29, 2006
Wal-Mart Plans to Test Online Films
By BRAD STONE
The decade-old DVD moved two small steps closer yesterday to technology's
endangered-species list.
Wal-Mart, the country's largest seller of movies, announced that next year
it will begin testing a video download service on its Web site. Wal-Mart did
not reveal its partners, but media executives involved in the deal said that
all the major studios are either on board or in active talks with the
retailer, and that Hewlett-Packard is providing the technology for the
download site.
In another sign that the race to put video content online is accelerating,
the Internet firm BitTorrent, once a pariah for enabling vast unauthorized
video file-sharing, plans to announce today that it has struck distribution
deals with eight media partners, including 20th Century Fox, Paramount and
MTV Networks.
Beginning in February, the companies will begin selling TV shows and movies
through BitTorrent's Web site, bittorrent.com.
It is a strange juxtaposition: BitTorrent, with 35 employees, and the
company whose dominance in video sales is so threatened by online file
trading, 1.8-million-employee Wal-Mart.
DVDs are not going away any time soon. A vast distribution system is still
built around them, and downloading can still be slow and cumbersome. But the
latest steps show that studios and retailers have concluded that the future
of home-video sales lies online.
That conviction has been reflected this year in a flurry of deals; Apple,
Google, Amazon and AOL have all rolled out video stores. Apart from Apple's
iTunes, the online stores have enjoyed limited success so far, but that has
not stopped the momentum.
Media companies have even become willing to strike partnerships with firms
whose popular technology is primarily used for trading unauthorized content.
For example, YouTube, the video sharing site now owned by Google, reached
rights agreements with the music labels Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and
some TV networks - despite the relative freedom users had during YouTube's
early days in uploading and watching copyrighted material.
The media companies are not only attracted to the large online audiences of
companies like BitTorrent, but also want to enlist their support in
eradicating unauthorized content. The media companies in the BitTorrent deal
say that the Internet firm has pledged to police its network for illegal
trading.
"They are making a big commitment to us to filter the site," said Jamie
McCabe, executive vice president at 20th Century Fox. "When anything is up
there that is not legitimate, they've pledged to take it down."
For now, at least, the move by Wal-Mart, which accounts for 37 percent of
the country's video sales, is likely to make the larger splash.
Though its video download store will officially open for business next year,
Wal-Mart took a tentative first step yesterday. Customers who buy the
physical DVD of Warner Brothers' "Superman Returns" in a Wal-Mart store will
have the option of downloading a digital copy of the film to their portable
devices for $1.97, personal computer for $2.97, or both for $3.97.
The dual approach, marrying downloads to the purchase of an actual DVD in
the store, reflects the retailer's commitment to protecting its bottom line.
"We feel like it is really important that the DVD business stays healthy and
stays quite central to consumers' lives," said Kevin Swint, a divisional
merchandising manager at Wal-Mart.
Not every movie studio has yet formally signed onto Wal-Mart's effort.
According to two studio executives involved in the negotiations, some
studios are grappling over the extra charge of $1.97 to $3.97 for DVD buyers
to download the movie. Some studios feel that it would be better to provide
the downloads free to DVD buyers, making them clearly a promotion, so that
those prices do not become fixed in customers' minds as the going rate for
movies online.
While Wal-Mart's coming effort might get more scrutiny, BitTorrent's
approach to selling video online represents a more radical departure from
current video stores on the Web - and an attempt to fix some of the problems
that have plagued online video purchases, like excruciating download times.
BitTorrent's founder, Bram Cohen, 31, introduced the network in 2001 at the
height of the legal battles over Napster, the peer-to-peer pioneer. His
service was remarkably efficient; when a user tries to download a media
file, the network fetches pieces of that file from the computers of nearby
users on the network and reassembles them on the user's computer.
Fat video files that might take over an hour to download over iTunes can
take just minutes over BitTorrent if other, nearby users have the file on
their hard drives.
BitTorrent's software currently sits on 80 million computers, and Internet
service providers say that file trading on the service - most of it
illegal - now accounts for 40 percent of all online traffic.
The company, which incorporated in 2003 and raised $9 million in venture
capital, has recently gotten more serious about policing its network. Last
year, it reached a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America to
remove infringing content from the search index on its Web site. And in May,
Warner Brothers agreed to sell its TV shows and movies through BitTorrent's
network, though the effort was delayed until more partners were enlisted.
Other partners in the deal to be announced today include Lionsgate, the
technology cable channel G4 and Starz Media, a programming production and
distribution company owned by Liberty Media.
Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent's president, said that as the firm built a business
in authorized distribution, it viewed piracy as a competitive threat. So it
plans to build a more attractive alternative that will convert its
traditional users while luring those who have not yet waded into the world
of digital downloading, he said.
In the new service, BitTorrent's partners will upload authorized versions of
their TV shows and films onto the network. No pricing details have yet been
announced. Files will be protected by Microsoft's content management system,
and files will play right inside the user's Web browser. Users who buy
content will have to enter a special encryption key before watching the
movie, and they will only be able to view it on two computers - say, a
desktop and a laptop they might bring with them on a business trip.
Mike Goodman, an analyst at the Yankee Group, says networks like BitTorrent
shift bandwidth costs to users. "You can argue that peer-to-peer will
ultimately be the cheapest way to distribute this content," he said.
Studio executives agree, and think BitTorrent will take its place alongside
the giants like Wal-Mart in the emerging digital download world.
"I think everyone is going to do a BitTorrent deal," said Thomas Lesinski,
president of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment. "You have to be in a
position where you make your content available everywhere the consumer is
interested in downloading it."
Laura M. Holson contributed reporting.
CH
Vista or Office being downloaded via torrents, and tried to point out how
many 30 million dollar torrent startups there are in Silicon Valey and other
areas now--musing that it would only be a matter of time until MSFT goes
into the Torrent business and I believe this.
No one thinks of MSFT as a major web advertising outfit, but it's trying to
become just that among other things. Part of this shift in attitude was
catalyzed by Google's eraning about 10X what MSFT earned in advertising last
quarter on the web via MSN.
On November 28, 1006 Wal-Mart announced a new means of delivering content,
via Bit Torrent with HP providing the web technology.
Bit Torrent, a company with 35 employees also announced partnering with 8
media content companies including 20th Century Fox, Paramount and MTV
Networks.
These Bit Torrent files are going to use protection from a small, obscure
company in Redmond Washington. I hope I get the spelling right--it's called
Microsoft or I call it MSFT.
The files are going to be protected by MSFT CMS or Content Management Server
which has partnered with Share Point Server 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/cmserver/default.mspx
With all the varied content at MSFT Press Pass this event was somehow not
announced. Nor was it discussed in an article on the future of CMS:
http://www.microsoft.com/cmserver/roadmap.mspx
The article was interesting to me and it is here from the NY Times November
29, 2006:
November 29, 2006
Wal-Mart Plans to Test Online Films
By BRAD STONE
The decade-old DVD moved two small steps closer yesterday to technology's
endangered-species list.
Wal-Mart, the country's largest seller of movies, announced that next year
it will begin testing a video download service on its Web site. Wal-Mart did
not reveal its partners, but media executives involved in the deal said that
all the major studios are either on board or in active talks with the
retailer, and that Hewlett-Packard is providing the technology for the
download site.
In another sign that the race to put video content online is accelerating,
the Internet firm BitTorrent, once a pariah for enabling vast unauthorized
video file-sharing, plans to announce today that it has struck distribution
deals with eight media partners, including 20th Century Fox, Paramount and
MTV Networks.
Beginning in February, the companies will begin selling TV shows and movies
through BitTorrent's Web site, bittorrent.com.
It is a strange juxtaposition: BitTorrent, with 35 employees, and the
company whose dominance in video sales is so threatened by online file
trading, 1.8-million-employee Wal-Mart.
DVDs are not going away any time soon. A vast distribution system is still
built around them, and downloading can still be slow and cumbersome. But the
latest steps show that studios and retailers have concluded that the future
of home-video sales lies online.
That conviction has been reflected this year in a flurry of deals; Apple,
Google, Amazon and AOL have all rolled out video stores. Apart from Apple's
iTunes, the online stores have enjoyed limited success so far, but that has
not stopped the momentum.
Media companies have even become willing to strike partnerships with firms
whose popular technology is primarily used for trading unauthorized content.
For example, YouTube, the video sharing site now owned by Google, reached
rights agreements with the music labels Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and
some TV networks - despite the relative freedom users had during YouTube's
early days in uploading and watching copyrighted material.
The media companies are not only attracted to the large online audiences of
companies like BitTorrent, but also want to enlist their support in
eradicating unauthorized content. The media companies in the BitTorrent deal
say that the Internet firm has pledged to police its network for illegal
trading.
"They are making a big commitment to us to filter the site," said Jamie
McCabe, executive vice president at 20th Century Fox. "When anything is up
there that is not legitimate, they've pledged to take it down."
For now, at least, the move by Wal-Mart, which accounts for 37 percent of
the country's video sales, is likely to make the larger splash.
Though its video download store will officially open for business next year,
Wal-Mart took a tentative first step yesterday. Customers who buy the
physical DVD of Warner Brothers' "Superman Returns" in a Wal-Mart store will
have the option of downloading a digital copy of the film to their portable
devices for $1.97, personal computer for $2.97, or both for $3.97.
The dual approach, marrying downloads to the purchase of an actual DVD in
the store, reflects the retailer's commitment to protecting its bottom line.
"We feel like it is really important that the DVD business stays healthy and
stays quite central to consumers' lives," said Kevin Swint, a divisional
merchandising manager at Wal-Mart.
Not every movie studio has yet formally signed onto Wal-Mart's effort.
According to two studio executives involved in the negotiations, some
studios are grappling over the extra charge of $1.97 to $3.97 for DVD buyers
to download the movie. Some studios feel that it would be better to provide
the downloads free to DVD buyers, making them clearly a promotion, so that
those prices do not become fixed in customers' minds as the going rate for
movies online.
While Wal-Mart's coming effort might get more scrutiny, BitTorrent's
approach to selling video online represents a more radical departure from
current video stores on the Web - and an attempt to fix some of the problems
that have plagued online video purchases, like excruciating download times.
BitTorrent's founder, Bram Cohen, 31, introduced the network in 2001 at the
height of the legal battles over Napster, the peer-to-peer pioneer. His
service was remarkably efficient; when a user tries to download a media
file, the network fetches pieces of that file from the computers of nearby
users on the network and reassembles them on the user's computer.
Fat video files that might take over an hour to download over iTunes can
take just minutes over BitTorrent if other, nearby users have the file on
their hard drives.
BitTorrent's software currently sits on 80 million computers, and Internet
service providers say that file trading on the service - most of it
illegal - now accounts for 40 percent of all online traffic.
The company, which incorporated in 2003 and raised $9 million in venture
capital, has recently gotten more serious about policing its network. Last
year, it reached a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America to
remove infringing content from the search index on its Web site. And in May,
Warner Brothers agreed to sell its TV shows and movies through BitTorrent's
network, though the effort was delayed until more partners were enlisted.
Other partners in the deal to be announced today include Lionsgate, the
technology cable channel G4 and Starz Media, a programming production and
distribution company owned by Liberty Media.
Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent's president, said that as the firm built a business
in authorized distribution, it viewed piracy as a competitive threat. So it
plans to build a more attractive alternative that will convert its
traditional users while luring those who have not yet waded into the world
of digital downloading, he said.
In the new service, BitTorrent's partners will upload authorized versions of
their TV shows and films onto the network. No pricing details have yet been
announced. Files will be protected by Microsoft's content management system,
and files will play right inside the user's Web browser. Users who buy
content will have to enter a special encryption key before watching the
movie, and they will only be able to view it on two computers - say, a
desktop and a laptop they might bring with them on a business trip.
Mike Goodman, an analyst at the Yankee Group, says networks like BitTorrent
shift bandwidth costs to users. "You can argue that peer-to-peer will
ultimately be the cheapest way to distribute this content," he said.
Studio executives agree, and think BitTorrent will take its place alongside
the giants like Wal-Mart in the emerging digital download world.
"I think everyone is going to do a BitTorrent deal," said Thomas Lesinski,
president of Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment. "You have to be in a
position where you make your content available everywhere the consumer is
interested in downloading it."
Laura M. Holson contributed reporting.
CH