Peter Griffin: New master speeds up free music downloads

COMMENT

You've got to take your hat off to the people behind the file-sharing revolution. Their ability to survive and evolve matches that of the cockroach - a comparison the Recording Industry Association of America would probably consider appropriate.

Millions took to Napster, filling their hard drives with music, video and software. When that service was strangled, they moved to the sons of Napster: the Groksters, KaZaAs and Gnutellas.

As the lawsuits piled up, they kept downloading, using tricks to cover their tracks, and then dispersed to the more intimate "Direct Connect" sharing hubs that are still going strong and demanding a hard drive full of sharable files on entry.

During it all, the illicit file trade carried on apace in internet newsgroups.

But the new file-sharing king is what's known as BitTorrent (bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent). Well, I say new, but by the time the masses have discovered this way of sucking down free content, the geeks behind the technology will have grown bored and moved on to their next thing.

But BitTorrent is enjoying its spot in the sun, a fact borne out by statistics that show more content is now being downloaded through BitTorrent sites than through KaZaA, a file-sharing network that often has 3 million simultaneous users online.

So what is BitTorrent?

It's still "peer-to-peer" file-sharing - that is, you don't connect to a central server to download a file as you do with Microsoft or antivirus updates - but to other users connected to the internet and holding the desired file on their computer. But it's a lot more efficient than other systems, due to BitTorrent's underlying feature - as you download a file to your hard drive, the data is simultaneously being uploaded to another user.

So a 100-megabyte file will basically cost you 200 megabytes or more if you subscribe to the sharing nature of the service and leave your upload stream open after you have finished downloading.

While you can limit the speed at which other users upload files from your machine, you can't just take files and not give any away.

As the official BitTorrent website explains, "downloaders engage in tit-for-tat with their peers, so leeches have very little success downloading".

Where BitTorrent is coming into its own is with big, popular files. That's because, as more people obtain the file, it is spread through the mandatory uploads.

Ultimately, you need a good broadband connection to be a serious BitTorrent user. Don't even go there if you're on a 1- or 3-gigabyte broadband package. You're likely to blow your cap relatively quickly.

BitTorrent is fast and reliable - I was getting download speeds of up to 80Kbps (kilobits per second) albeit over a blistering 2-megabit wireless internet link from the Wired Country service ihug is selling.

A Jetstream, TelstraClear or Woosh connection will also accommodate reasonable download speeds.

You can download a BitTorrent client that sits invisibly on your computer but allows you to make the downloads through your regular web browser. The spyware blitz that is turning users off KaZaA has not hit the BitTorrent software yet, but it will.

The BitTorrent phenomenon proves what its predecessors have already shown - that file-sharing is almost impossible to limit or legitimise. As soon as you close one network, another more sophisticated version will spring up in its place.

BitTorrent will eventually collapse under its own weight, but users will take their digital booty to the next service.

The latest albums are already circling the globe as torrents of bits.

Movies still screening in US cinemas are readily downloadable.

The BitTorrent website www.suprnova.org claims to have accommodated 17 million downloads.

Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 is already floating around, a fact that seems to please its creator.

"I don't agree with the copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people - as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that," he told the media.

All the entertainment industry can do is take heart from an event that happened in the early hours of Monday morning.

Kansas college student Kevin Britten unknowingly downloaded the 100 millionth song sold through Apple's iTunes Music Store.

For his US$1 purchase he got a call from Apple boss Steve Jobs and a stack of free Apple gear.

It was an impressive milestone and one that shows that, if offered a fair deal, music lovers will stump up for their tunes. When the industry as a whole discovers that, it will spend less time in court and more time selling its artists' creations.

* Email Peter Griffin