Essentially the title. I was trying to download a file and my colleagues told me that I should use uTorrent. I did some research and figured that this was very popular a while ago, but since then has decreased in popularity. How does it work and why did it decrease in popularity?
In: Technology
BitTorrent is a protocol that is used for filesharing and rapid downloads.
When it comes to bandwidth upload bandwidth is usually considerably smaller than download bandwidth and therefore considerably more expensive. So if you want to send files to your users this can amount to a considerable expense.
BitTorrent was ostensibly created as a solution to this problem. Users participating in a Torrent both download a file and upload simultaneously.
This allows you to leverage the upload bandwidth of all the users downloading the file so that you can deliver your files more quickly and efficiently to your users.
One practical application for BitTorrent is video game patching. Blizzard specifically uses a form of BitTorrent for deploying it’s rather large video game patches for games like World of Warcraft. You can actually thank them for forcing ISPs to not block or throttle BitTorrent traffic!
Another example is most Linux Distros are downloaded using BitTorrent.
BitTorrent though was and is extensively used for illegal file sharing. Tracker sites exist all over the web to share illegal movie and TV shows using BitTorrent.
BitTorrent has been criticized because participating in a Torrent forces users to upload files (at least by default). So users downloading an illegal file are also uploading them by default even if they are not aware of it, which not only makes them liable for the illegal download but also for distribution.
Several BitTorrent clients have also added in-app advertising to generate revenue (for less than desirable advertisers), or have been caught mining BitCoin on users computers.
Media companies have also been caught monitoring or even creating their own torrents so that they can provide lists of IP addresses of illegal sharers to ISPs to have them punished or to take legal action against them. This is arguably entrapment.
Using BitTorrent for media piracy fell out of favor for a long time because Streaming sites became ubiquitous and easy to use, so online piracy slowed down considerably. It turns out that large numbers of users were perfectly willing to pay reasonable fees for legal content, BitTorrent wasn’t being used necessarily because it was free but rather downloading TV shows was far more convenient than recording them using VHS or waiting for them to appear on TV.
BitTorrent was also used extensively to get around Geo-fencing, where cable providers wouldn’t allow a particular show to air outside the US for example. Game of Thrones famously had twice as many users watching it on BitTorrent than on HBO Max because HBO was either not available in a particular country or was considered far too expensive.
However BitTorrent use has been on the rise again due to the market now being saturated with Streaming Sites.
There are now so many streaming sites that users are refusing to pay for all of them due to the overall expense and lack of in-demand content on each platform. Streaming sites are also starting to add advertising and the quality is dropping as well. So Piracy is once again on the rise.
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