Hollywood signs deal with BitTorrent creator

23 November 2005 16:58 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Hollywood has signed a deal with the creator of the file-sharing software BitTorrent in what it hopes will cut down the spread of illegal movie file sharing on the internet.

The deal, which was signed with the Motion Picture Association of America means that bittorrent.com must remove any links to pirated films made by seven Hollywood movie studios.

It also means that the creator of the software, Bram Cohen, will be able to pave the way to use the software for legal movie downloads with the studios rather than being know mainly for illegal activities.

Un-savvy internet users will now have to search a little harder to find the illegal BitTorrent file they are looking for.

But, in what some believe is only dealing with part of the problem the deal does include any other site that lists illegal download files.

Currently many other websites let people search for "torrents" or simply list the most popular ones for people to download and these sites could be unaffected by the deal.

The service is presently used by an estimated 45 million people and allows group sharing of certain files like music, video and games without the need for the source file to be stored on a single machine.

Instead downloads are pulled from multiple machines allowing for a more efficient service.

Full tags

Software, Online, Video downloads, BitTorrent