Joltid, the Swedish peer-to-peer software company formed by KaZaA founder Niklas Zennstrom, has launched PeerEnabler, a secure content distribution technology that utilises users’ own PCs to disseminate content for publishers.
PeerEnabler essentially uses peer-to-peer software to get content even closer to the edge of the network that content distribution services like Akamai.
So if a software company, say, ships an update via the PeerEnabler network, users may actually download the code not from the developer’s server but from a nearby user who has already grabbed the file.
Joltid’s pitch is that this ensures users get a better experience and publishers “dramatically reduce bandwidth usage”, presumably saving them money because they won’t need to buy and operate as many servers in future.
Naturally, you have to agree to this, specifically to “grant permission for the Joltid software to utilise the disk space, processor and bandwidth of your computer to provide and re-distribute content”, as the licence terms put it.
It also says the utilisation of your computer will be “unobtrusive”. That may be so, but the licence still grants Joltid the right to use your computer whenever it wants to for the benefits of content providers.
It’s a bit like saying HP’s distribution team can use your car to deliver PCs to any of its customers just because you once went to a store, bought an HP PC and brought it home in said vehicle.
Joltid’s P2P Networking software does allow you to limit the maximum upload bandwidth the software can use, but we’d bet it’s set to Automatic as default.
But it’s not hard to imagine commercial pushing the software as a download mechanism without making the small print as obvious as perhaps it should be. How many users will merrily click the ‘I Accept’ button on the P2P Networking installer without reading the Ts&Cs? Rather a lot, and while that’s the case the 99.9 per cent of the software they install, this code’s Ts&Cs require them to offer up rather more than the usual EULA.
Joltid is no charity, it’s a commercial operation out to make money selling PeerEnabler upload licences to content publishers. And by selling PeerCache, server-side software that more effectively manages all the P2P traffic at the ISP end.
“More than 50 per cent of all Internet traffic is caused by peer-to-peer applications,” says Joltid without a hint of irony. “This has led to huge costs for ISPs and other network operators… PeerCache will dramatically reduce bandwidth costs without blocking or throttling the end-user experience. Savings of up to 60 per cent of the P2P traffic are possible with PeerCache.”
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