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Paul Keller

How a company made infamous by piracy is trying to reinvent itself

‘There was a while when folks didn’t even realise we were a company.’

RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY, BitTorrent’s image problems aren’t going away.

Over more than a decade, the name has become a byword for internet piracy and as recently as August the US record industry was publicly blaming its technology for being behind the continued wholesale illegal downloading of music.

In the past few years, however, the company behind the controversial peer-to-peer file transfer system has been going on a public-relations drive in an attempt to seize back the BitTorrent ‘brand’ from its detractors.

This month, representatives from the 10-year-old tech firm were at the Web Summit to push its credentials as an artist-friendly way of distributing music and other material.

“(BitTorrent) is one of the most-loved brands on the internet, it’s very recognisable, but as a company of engineers we probably haven’t done a great job of owning our brand,” the company’s head of brand and communications, Christian Averill, told TheJournal.ie.

Others have certainly defined what BitTorrent can mean … in the past three or four years there has been a very concerted effort to reclaim that back.”

Screen Shot 2015-11-14 at 12.46.21 BitTorrent's Christian Averill YouTube YouTube

A bad reputation

At the root of BitTorrent’s bad reputation are so-called clients, programmes like the company’s own uTorrent which use the freely available code its founder Bram Cohen first released in 2001 to carry out data transfers.

Fourteen years on, the system remains the most popular internet-wide for peer-to-peer exchanges – ephemeral networks through which computers connect directly with one another, rather than via a central server that stores files, making them a fertile and elusive conduit for pirates.

In the late 2000s, BitTorrent clients accounted for about one-third of all internet traffic in the US, although the share has dropped significantly with the rise of data-hungry video-streaming services like Netflix and YouTube.

report out last year from Digital Citizens Alliance, a coalition of various interest groups, said sites based on BitTorrent distribution systems were “synonymous with content theft”.

A TORRENT OF BITS BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen in 2004 Associated Press Associated Press

But while the name is invariably linked to sites like The Pirate Bay, where users can accessing all forms of illegal downloads as easily as browsing the supermarket shelves, BitTorrent is at pains to distance itself from those platforms.

“The word for certain audiences has become a euphemism for piracy and it’s really important to understand that we have no affiliation with those entities that are pirating or moving pirated content,” Averill said.

They use an open-source version of BitTorrent as the back-end. So The Pirate Bay is The Pirate Bay, it’s nothing to do with BitTorrent.”

BitTorrent Download A BitTorrent download nrkbeta nrkbeta

Privacy and artists

Instead, the company has begun to more-proactively present itself in a different light – as a champion of online privacy, as well as for the creative industries.

That has been helped in no small part by leaks from former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden, who revealed the US agency’s widespread spying on people’s personal data via tech companies that relied on centralised storage systems.

“Suddenly we went from maybe a bit misunderstood, and maybe heretics, to becoming visionaries,” Averill said.

One example of the company’s shift is Bleep, a peer-to-peer chat client alternative to Snapchat and Messenger that promises “total privacy” through encrypted messages. It also has a server-free take on file-transfer services like Dropbox, called Sync.

Then there is the BitTorrent competitor for Apple’s iTunes and other music-download sites, Bundle.

It got its biggest publicity boost last year when Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke released his album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes as a video-and-audio package on the platform.

Music Thom Yorke Thom Yorke Associated Press Associated Press

Fans had the option of downloading limited files for free, or paying $6 for the full package. It easily topped 4 million downloads, although the company didn’t reveal what share involved any money changing hands.

In return for handling Bundle sales, the company keeps 10% of the income, compared to 30% on iTunes.

However it’s not clear how, if at all, the new products have translated to any more cash flowing to BitTorrent.

As a privately held company, it doesn’t publish figures on its income or any profits, although in December it said over 6.5 million people “engaged” with its paid bundles that year.

After a period of rapid expansion, it suddenly laid off a reported one-third of its US workforce in April – although the company insists it has been turning a profit.

BULGARIA BIT TORRENT USERS PROTEST A Bulgarian man protests BitTorrent networks being shut down in 2007 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

One of BitTorrent’s main revenue streams remains advertising, which is part of most of its products. There has also been money coming in from selling premium versions of software, like its original client, and from licensing its technology out to other companies.

Meanwhile, on the image front, Averill said he and others were telling people about the “intended use cases” for its software, while being “aggressive” in dealing with any perceived misuse of the name BitTorrent.

“Not in a defensive way, just really clearly explaining ‘OK, you’ve picked up a story from some gossipy blog that has described this activity as BitTorrent activity and it’s not – it’s piracy, so call it piracy’,” Averill said.

That’s been very successful … you know, there was a while when folks didn’t even realise we were a company.”

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27 Comments
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    Mute Sos
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    Jan 24th 2021, 8:43 AM

    The bravery of Navalny returning to Russia cannot be understated. This is how change is made by building up the resistance within the state and not running away. His bravery is putting Putin under a very uncomfortable spotlight and not only outside Russia.

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    Mute SC
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    Jan 24th 2021, 1:46 PM

    @Sos: he would be more useful to the left if he was murdered and it could be pinned on Russia. There is no way he’d win an election there. His policies are too right wing for Russians.

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    Mute SC
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    Jan 24th 2021, 1:46 PM

    @SC: to the west I meant

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    Mute Bala mc blaha
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:37 PM

    @SC: you dont get more right wing, Orthodox church appeasing, “family values” preaching, wrestling macho man than Putin.

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    Mute ▪️
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:48 PM

    @SC: Aw yeah cause it’s Putin’s left wing policy

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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:50 PM

    @SC: *his left wing policy of building a massive billion dollar mansion off the back of Russia’s enormous wealth, that must be what makes him so popular with the proles

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    Mute Glenn Halpin
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:31 PM

    @Sos: reminds me of the Cork Mayors who died on hunger strike in the War of Independence. Such bravery and sacrifice for country is a thing of the past in our comfortable existence today in the west. All relative of course.

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    Mute Michael Drennan
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    Jan 24th 2021, 10:43 AM

    Such a hero and an example to all of Russia and the world. I just hope and pray he doesn’t become a martyr. A braver man than I.

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Jan 24th 2021, 10:55 AM

    Trump not gone a week and more trouble starting all over the world

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:23 AM

    @Michael Maher: yeah.. much better to lie down and be quiet and do what your told.

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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:27 AM

    @Michael Maher: Perhaps because the signals that dictatorship will be tolerated aren’t coming from the US any more.

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Jan 24th 2021, 12:25 PM

    @Martin Byrne: Dictator ! Brilliant By the end of 2021 you will eat your words.

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    Mute RogersRabbit
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:42 PM

    @Michael Maher: How would you describe him? Russia elections are rigged.

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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:19 PM

    @RogersRabbit: Rigged like the American one?

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    Mute Kieran Woods
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:25 PM

    They criticise Russia for unfair treatment of Navalny while they push for the locking up Julian Assange for exposing war crimes. Just as you would expect.

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    Mute Jay Tea Planters
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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:09 AM

    Navalny is no saint. An ultra nationalist. And why would this have anything to do with Trump leaving office? Russia has form in the persecution of journalists, activists, LGBTQ groups, NGOs, oligarchs and anyone else who dares challenge the authority of a kleptocratic regime.

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    Mute JC O'Connachain
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    Jan 24th 2021, 3:43 PM

    @Jay Tea Planters: I’d say anyone up against Putin is painted as no saint by media there and Putin himself could be called ultra nationalist. I imagine to reach a point of rivaling Putin you have to be vociferous so I understand if he’d had to be daring in the past. Clue me up on why he’s no saint

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    Mute Tom Ripley
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    Jan 24th 2021, 8:39 PM

    @JC O’Connachain: if he is no Saint and none of use are he is still an incredibly brave man to go back. He must be prepared to die. Maybe he thinks they mightn’t martyr him. But it’s Russia if they want you dead they will try. Used to be if they wanted you dead you were dead but they seem to have gotten very sloppy in modern times

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:12 PM

    I’ve often wondered will true democracy ever flourish in Russia. I really hope it does someday soon but history would suggest that the Russian people prefer a ‘strongman’ in charge, someone who will make decisions without hesitation while invoking the spirit of ‘Mother Russia’. I’m not sure how different Navalny would be in this regard but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to believe that he could slip into the role quite easily…

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    Mute SJF
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:49 PM

    @William Tallon: “true democracy” meaning people handpicked by the western establishment to push a neoliberal, pro big buisness ultra capitalist agenda. Got it.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:01 PM

    @SJF: The ultra capitalist fits Putin and his corrupt oligarchs…

    “Since the start of Putin’s term in power, the share of extreme wealth in the private sector has been steadily increasing. Th is is in part because nationalizing some strategic assets has made their private owners rich—for example, the owners of Troika Dialog and oil company TNK-BP became billionaires over-night. Rising commodities prices in the past decade have also converted ownership of such assets into vast fortunes. Finally, two dozen businessmen with close connections to Putin made fortunes by winning infrastructure projects.”

    “There are more billionaires residing in Moscow than in any other city in the world (Freund 2015). Recent economic sanctions on Russian financial institutions and some sectors of the economy have reduced this number—many Russian billionaires have shifted their domiciles to Tel Aviv, London, or Zurich and have transferred their money abroad. Economic sanctions are, however, a reason for the rising share of extreme wealth in Russia. When the ruble was substantially devalued in December 2014, the super rich could afford to shift their assets into foreign currency so that many of their assets did not decline in value.”

    Russia’s Economy under Putin: From Crony Capitalism to State Capitalism
    https://www.piie.com/publications/pb/pb15-18.pdf

    I think you like his as he’s ultranationalist and anti-liberal, xenophobic, and promotes a strong military and a police state.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:03 PM

    @SJF: Also, how did you manage to get 5 upvotes on an article posted 10 hours ago in 10 minutes?

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:37 PM

    @SJF: Errr… No, not really…

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    Mute SJF
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    Jan 24th 2021, 8:47 PM

    @David Jordan: ah ok. So what you’re saying is corruption, cronyism, unequal distribution of wealth and shady af tax practices?….sooo… exactly like the west… except of course when it happens in a country which is hostile to western imperialism it’s “undemocratic” if those oil oligarchs toed the line when it came to the US/EU agenda and foreign policy good ol Russia would be a paragon of free speech and a shining example of the democratic process….I never claimed Russia was some sort of utopia, nor that they are in any way shape or form less corrupt than the West I just find it ironic that people such as @William Tollon unironically throw about phrases like “undemocratic” when describing a mirror of our own electoral process, government and economic system (albeit an opposing one) evidently just parroting what is the extraordinary hypocrisy of the mainstream media in the West … as for how I got so many upvotes… clearly I’m a Russian bot….

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    Mute SilexFlint
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:25 PM

    Those tricky Americans building $1,400,000,000 palaces on the black sea!

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    Mute Ron Kingston
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:47 PM

    Russia is a federation of very different people and republics, many of whom desire independence and many of whom wouldn’t hesitate to have a go at their neighbours without a the threat of a very hard slap from Moscow, all the ex Soviet and Yugo states are ridden by corruption and old quarrels, any destabilisation can lead to some mighty flare ups. Better the devil you know maybe.

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    Mute DarraghLD
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:10 PM

    @Ron Kingston: I’m glad I googled before challenging you, I was going to say “are you sure you’re not thinking of what was the USSR or then the CIS?”, but I see you are right, there are 22 republics in Russia (including the one they stole from Ukraine – Crimea), as well as the regular Russian part of Russia. Thanks for making me look!

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    Mute Ron Kingston
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    Jan 24th 2021, 8:12 PM

    @DarraghLD: check out the YouTube channel bald and bankrupt, he is a Brit that speaks Russian, he travels to remote parts of Russia and gives a good mini history of the areas, he’s a bit tw*ttish sometimes but overall entertaining and informative.

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    Mute John Keane
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:22 PM

    US Meddling! Pot calling the kettle black here.

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    Mute Mislav Smok
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:14 PM

    USA and west you will never beat Russia

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    Mute Tom kenny
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    Jan 24th 2021, 7:46 PM

    @Mislav Smok: many have tried.

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    Mute Mark Gough
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:56 PM

    The hypocrisy of the west is unbelievable. Americans fighting each other and only one side battered by the state forces. Assange imprisoned in the uk for exposing western corruption. France battering any protestors there. All trying to divert away from our own troubles and the sheep falling for it

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Jan 24th 2021, 6:23 PM

    Hey Joe, Hey Joe, off to war we go.

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    Mute Tom kenny
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    Jan 24th 2021, 7:48 PM

    @Michael Maher: no one wins that war.

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    Mute Eugene Norman
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    Jan 24th 2021, 5:53 PM

    The US has every right to interfere in Snyder country it wants.

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    Mute Vaidas
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    Jan 24th 2021, 7:03 PM
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    Mute Vaidas
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    Jan 24th 2021, 7:04 PM

    Listen The Big Steal Podcast

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    Mute James Grant
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    Jan 24th 2021, 9:55 PM

    Hypocrisy from russia as usual and no mention of them infiltrating the nra and far right groups pushing trumps agenda for last few years at least

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    Mute Liam Mernagh
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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:23 PM

    The kettle calling the pot, black!!

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    Mute Liam Mernagh
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    Jan 24th 2021, 11:27 PM

    What is happening to my comments???

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