19
March
2007
|
06:13 AM
America/Los_Angeles

BitTorrent.Com founder Says It Is Ahead of Online Video Competitors

(From the keynote of the New Video Summit in San Jose: Andreas Kluth from the Economist interviews Bram Cohen, founder of BitTorrent.)

Bram Cohen, founder of BitTorrent, says his company is ahead of other online video sites and has made headway in licensing content with Hollywood.

"BitTorrent.com has ten times more Hollywood content than iTunes. We have been talking with Hollywood for a long time and we have the jump on things," said Mr Cohen.

Mr Cohen invented the BitTorrent technology which allows peer to peer systems distribute files. This works well with large files such as for audio and video. He founded BitTorrent.com as a site for distributing high quality online video and audio content.

He said that other online video sites are hampered by outdated licensing agreements. For example Netflix has a streaming licensing agreement which has different conditions.

"We've pioneered a new online licensing model and that is where a lot of innovation has taken place," he said.

I asked about YouTube and the online licensing rights. Mr Cohen said: "Yes, YouTube could make use of some of the online download rights but they need to get Hollywood's trust and that will be hard because You Tube is coming from an already bad situation."

Mr Kluth pointed out that Mr Cohen was not in Hollywood's good books a few years ago, because the BitTorrent technology was often used to share Hollywood copyrighted content.

BitTorrent.com uses Microsoft's DRM technology but Mr Cohen said he is not happy  with the product because of performance issues.