BitTorrent, the company that created this year’s hottest p2p file sharing software, is raising $8.75 million in venture capital from Menlo Park (Calif.)-based Doll Capital Management in order to create a legal digital distribution system using the technology. According to the business plan, content from big names and independent producers alike (Games, videos, films and music) would be gathered and licensed for distribution, and BitTorrent would make money by either charging for the content or by using client-side advertising. This doesn’t sound very different from anything that’s out there now, with the exception of the licensing bit.
If Bram Cohen (pictured), creator of BitTorrent, and his partner ex-Yahoo employee Aswin Navin manage to convince content suppliers to play ball, they’ll have achieved a pretty big win. But reassuring the licence holders of the safety of their content once on the network will be a challenge, despite Cohen agreeing to use any DRM technology the license holders require. More challenging still, will be convince a public used to the BitTorrent free ride that it’s time to part wish some cash. Hystorically, that’s where most customers turn away.
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