BitTorrent to Sell Downloads of Feature Films

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

BitTorrent has signed deals with four independent movie studios that will give it the opportunity to sell over 1,600 video titles over the internet. The filmmakers that signed with BitTorrent are Hart Sharp Video, Egami Media (a subsidiary of Image Entertainment), Koch Entertainment and The Orchard.

Once distrustful of peer-to-peer technologies, Hollywood studios appear more willing to partner with companies such as BitTorrent and video-sharing site Guba.com, which last month partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute movie titles. BitTorrent, widely used to both legally and illegally swap copies of copyright movies, has been aiming to turn its technology into a tool used for legal services.

Under the deal with the independent movie studios, the titles will be for sale as part of a subscription service. This differs from the pay-per-title service that BitTorrent plans to use with Warner Bros.

BitTorrent is building a video store from which customers can download movies at speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, according to the company. The store is expected to launch sometime in the fall, company executives said. Source: News.com

We Say: 1 gig per second, ya right. Of course Hollywood is coming around, there could be a paycheck at the end of the rainbow. Sony Pictures has agreed to offer 100 of the studio’s feature-length films on Guba’s online store, so Guba is not the only one offering a means to legally download movies over the Internet.