Navin wasted years and millions of dollars trying to turn BitTorrent Inc. into a competitor to Apple's iTunes store. He struck splashy deals with Hollywood studios by paying them large upfront guarantees, which depleted BitTorrent's bank account but got Navin into the right parties. Meanwhile, BitTorrent's other line of business, which used file-sharing technologies to deliver content more efficiently for corporate customers, suffered from lack of focus, and more established competitors like Akamai moved in. Sometimes losing a founder is bad for a company. In this case, it's nothing but good.

Reporters tend to focus on Bram's potential Asperger's more that he does. He has never used it as an excuse, but used insight about it to understand himself and improve his communication skills. I've known Bram for 12 years and have worked on an off with Autistic spectrum children for 19 years. It was *me* who suggested to him that he might have it after knowing him for about 5 years. It is not a suggestion that I have made often or carelessly even though I have 100's of friend who are Bay Area tech geeks. Bram focuses on his individual strengths and challenges and works tirelessly to improve his communications and relationships with others. Having insight into Aspergers helped him immensely with this effort! He's honest about it because he's willing to be *humble* about not being good at somethings! Not as an excuse. I know very few people of *any* type who are as honest with themselves and others about their own shortcomings or who work as diligently to improve themselves as Bram. Over the last decade I have seen his interpersonal skills grow by leaps and bounds. We haven't sought a formal diagnosis, because we have nothing to prove and he has the support of his friends and family to continue working on perfecting some of the social and communication skills that don't come naturally to him. Despite his sometimes blunt comments and an inability to sugar coat his opinions... he is kind, caring, and down-to-earth. He's a loving playful dad, kind husband, friendly with neighbors, quick to admit his own faults (though not artificially humble about his few great strengths) I wish you would stop harping on those dumb stories... he just wrote them as a yung 'un to attract former goth girls like me ;) They were fiction.. duh! Let's see what we could deduce about *YOU* from *YOUR* porn collection! -Jenna Cohen

We would have asked what, precisely, Cohen does at the company, and why its investors still allow him to visit the office and waste employees' time. If the answer is that they feel sorry for a guy who claims to have a mental condition, but has never even tried to have it diagnosed, then you'll have a sense for their abilities to perform due diligence.

BitTorrent recently went through a round of layoffs. Its attempt to sell movies online has failed; its attempt to use file-sharing technologies to serve as a content-distribution network, which speeds up downloads for paying customers, is likewise faltering, as BitTorrent find itself overmatched by much larger, more professional competitors like Akamai Technologies. Cohen may well have Asperger's. He created an interesting technology in BitTorrent. But neither fact entitles him to keep drawing a paycheck from the company he founded.

Pirates are providing the highest-quality viewing experience for video-on-demand, with events being posted in HD even before they air on tape-delayed TV broadcasts in the United States. Torrents of the opening ceremonies, including a giant 5-gigabyte download of all four hours in HD, proved the most popular television programming available on file-sharing networks this week. And while event organizers and network operatives continue to play whack-a-mole with illegitimate live streams, where there's a will, there's a way on the Web. Want to know where to look? Check out our handy guide.

Online schedules: NBC's Olympics listings takes a bit of work (you have to enter your ZIP code and select a television provider, even if you just want online listings). However, once you've done the work, it'll send you notifications when events you've selected will be broadcast. Jason Kottke has found Google and iCal calendars, which will allow you a bit more flexibility in setting up alerts, and the New York Times has a schedule as well. And of course, there's an official schedule from the organizers in China, with times listed for Beijing's time zone (16 hours ahead of San Francisco, 13 hours ahead of New York) — probably the best place to go for daily updates, as smog and weather may upset the schedule.

Sling Media's Slingbox: For those with more money than time, the best solution might be a Slingbox. Then you can beam your home satellite or cable signal over the Internet to your laptop, desktop, or iPhone, and remotely switch between NBC and MSNBC.
Pros: You can get great quality, even HD, if your home Internet connection is fast. There is SlingPlayer software available for a range of not just operating systems but handheld devices as well.
Cons: Prices start at $129.99 and your selection of Olympics coverage is limited to what's available from your satellite or cable provider, which means missing early heats and niche events and having to put up with tape delays by the networks.

International proxies: It is possible to watch live streams from other countries, such as BBC Sports from the UK or CBC Sports from Canada, by configuring your browser to run through an anonymous proxy. I recommend using Mozilla's Firefox browser with the FoxyProxy add-on installed. Xroxy has a handy list of proxies which you can sort by country to find proxies in the UK or Canada — which must be anonymous, and preferrably running the SOCKS protocol. Your best bet is to get a geeky British or Canadian friend to install a proxy on their machine for you and your Yankee friends. The latency can be frustrating, but once you get a stream started it will work fine.
Pros: Quality streams from legitimate providers, and if you're accustomed to jingoistic U.S. coverage, the charming accents from the Beeb's announcers and the humble mien of the Canadians can be quite refreshing.
Cons: Takes some technical know-how to set up, and proxies come and go. You might miss an event because you're too busy fiddling with your settings or a proxy fails when too many people sign on.

Video on demand: If you're running Windows Vista, you can download events using TVTonic for "Olympics on the Go." Torrent client Azureus works on any system to help download events after the fact, especially the most popular ones like tennis, football, boxing and basketball — Torrentz cross-site search of multiple BitTorrent indexes should make it easy to find the Spain versus China women's basketball game you might miss tomorrow. YouTube's official channel is blocked — even using international proxies — though a reader came up with a crack that works for now. Other less thoroughly policed online video sites like Veoh, Metacafe, Dailymotion and Megavideo will also have videos.
Pros: Torrents will be high quality and work for anyone, while video-sharing sites will be easiest to use.
Cons: Nothing will be live, obviously, and no one knows how long video clips will remain on sharing sites.

P2P Streams: The way I'll be watching online will is through MyP2P, a site that catalogs live sports and television streams from around the Web, listed by event. It helps to run Windows, though not necessarily Vista, because many streams require software downloads — check out MyP2P's beginners guide for tips, including where to find software downloads and optimization settings. I ended up finding live BBC coverage of the opening ceremonies via Justin.tv, which ran just fine in my browser. If you can't find the channel you want in the media format you prefer, check wwiTV, TV For Us, TV Channels Free, Channel Chooser or BeelineTV among others.
Pros: Free and fairly easy once you've installed most of the media players listed by MyP2P. And it's fun to watch coverage from other countries — I'll be watching all my football with spanish-speaking announcers whenever possible.
Cons: Quality is hit-or-miss, stream links come and go, and you have to think ahead in terms of scheduling to make sure you've got all the necessary programs installed. Also, Mac users will want to install Windows XP through Parallels or Fusion for the widest selection of channels.

That's the second time I've heard that phrase from BitTorrent tipsters, so I'm guessing it's already widely used, if poorly understood, within the company. Anyone care to explain what an "Internet peace corps" is — and how this plan will pay back BitTorrent's investors, who have invested at least $24 million in the company? Our tipster also says Walker's trying to raise a third round of financing amidst this uproar. Here's his detailed recounting of BitTorrent's woes:

Owen-

I read your posts on BitTorrent and here is my take (you can guess as to whether I'm an insider or not).

I feel it boils down to two young and inexperienced founders, one a wanna-be Internet celebrity in Ashwin Navin, the other a reluctant Internet celebrity in Bram Cohen, wielding too much power over the company. They executed a coup that doesn't bode well for the new CEO staying much longer. Sound familiar?

Torrent Entertainment Network

Ashwin's grand idea that new CEO Doug Walker put the kibosh on may very well end up being sold to Best Buy, but nowhere near $15M (unless BitTorrent is incredibly lucky or Best Buy foolish). Best Buy's idea is to OEM a white box set-top TV box, put the Best Buy logo on it and bundle it with BitTorrent to download the content. This is what Ashwin dreamed of...sort of to do for movies what iTunes did for music; a seamless end to end solution for renting and buying movies online. Its just been poorly executed and with Apple TV nearing perfection, TEN will be an albatross with whoever ends up with it. BitTorrent is on the hook for licensing deals (that Ashwin's brother Alvir put together) that were not favorable to the company at all, especially since the store has not done well with consumers. Apple has more leverage here too. You've probably already heard the nightmares TEN has had with Windows DRM so I won't rehash it here.

SDK

Their SDK business was attractive to device manufacturers in part because of the ability to leverage the TEN. With TEN going away or at least changing dramatically, device manufacturers are not as excited to partner with BitTorrent. The FCC ruling that will likely force ISPs to cap bandwidth and charge for overage makes it that much worse. Why would Buffalo, D-Link, Netgear, etc want to bundle and pay royalties for the BitTorrent client on their device when their own consumers may end up having to pay more to their ISP for the behavior of that client passively sharing files? Talk about a tech support nightmare.

DNA

Probably the brightest part of their business, they had the model wrong. They were charging per GB to match CDN pricing schemes. What they should have done is given DNA away for free from the start and charge for the help and support people will end up needing (like what Red Hat did for Linux). Of course, BitTorrent had absolutely no post-sales support put together so even when the now laid-off sales and marketing team started to get traction in the market, supporting those customers became a headache. Not to mention that Eric Klinker and the engineering team had no desire to support what product marketing said customers were asking for. Mac client? Good luck...the engineer working on that left in May and they have no plans to pursue that project. Live streaming? Bram tried to figure this one out but gave up after becoming increasingly frustrated over not figuring out a way to make it work easily. Bundle the DNA client into the next release of uTorrent in order to propagate it? Too much of a sacred cow. They feel the uTorrent users would leave in droves if they were to do such a horrible thing as attempt to commercialize uTorrent. Seems like the solution here was to just let everyone in sales and marketing go to make the people causing these issues go away. At least they got to keep their laptops as a consolation gift.

So now Doug Walker is left trying to cobble together a C round of funding as they desperately cut expenses. They are not renewing the lease on Floor 9 of 201 Mission St in December (rumor is Google is interested in the space, as well as several other floors in 201 Mission). 40 people in an office with room for 150 never does well for morale. Word is they are going to go back into stealth mode, turning into an "internet Peace Corps"...whatever that means. To me it sounds like they are turning into a non-profit which can't be attractive to for-profit minded investors. I'd hate to be one of their VCs right now.

There have been inaccurate reports published this week regarding layoffs at BitTorrent, Inc. We would like to clarify that BitTorrent remains focused on generating the most value for our partners and customers to drive long-term success. While layoffs are always a difficult course of action, we have reduced our staff to better align our resources around our core content delivery infrastructure business. Contrary to published reports, we reduced less than 20% of our team and those impacted were distributed across our organization, rather than focused on a single department. Also contrary to published reports, the layoffs were unrelated to any ongoing discussions to divest a portion of our business. That claim is irresponsible “journalism” and outright false. While it is our policy to not comment on rumors, the company has indeed been involved in strategic discussions with potential partners who are interested in the BitTorrent online store. These discussions continue.

With the explosive growth of online video, peer-to-peer technology will continue to be an integral part of the Internet infrastructure as it enables the most efficient distribution of large files. Not only is BitTorrent the global leader in the P2P space with the largest client footprint, but we are working closely with the world’s leading ISPs, including Comcast, and standards bodies such as the IETF to implement solutions that will provide the best P2P user experience to accommodate all network topologies.

BitTorrent is seeing healthy demand for its Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) service and its Software Development Kit (SDK), which brings rich Internet media to the TV. We are working with many online video, gaming, software and hardware companies to integrate BitTorrent technology. As such, our top priority is to deliver the most valuable and efficient solutions to the BitTorrent community and technology marketplace.

1. Set a limit on your upload speed so it doesn't interfere with downloads.
2. Set your client to use at most 60 connections total, 35 per torrent.
3. Don't try to download more than two items at a time.
4. I'll add: Configure your network router to not block any BitTorrent ports.

The problem for Comcast and other Internet service providers is that they can no longer block file-sharing traffic from their networks. And yet file-sharing usage is consuming more and more bandwidth, which they must pay for. Broadband providers are businesses, not charities. So they are increasingly considering charging their users by the bit for bandwidth over a certain level. Most users won't be affected, but file-sharing downloaders will be.

The prospect of pay-by-the-bit bandwidth had immediate consequences for BitTorrent's two main businesses: an online-media store delivered via file sharing, and a content-delivery network which competed with the likes of Akamai and Limelight Networks.

For users who would have to pay bandwidth fees to their ISPs on top of paying the usual charges, BitTorrent's Torrent Entertainment Network store would soon look uncompetitive with the likes of Apple's iTunes Store and Microsoft's Xbox Marketplace — which prompted Best Buy to back out of talks to acquire TEN for $15 million.

As for BitTorrent's content-delivery network, it was premised on the notion that BitTorrent would negotiate with ISPs to get privileged delivery for their file-sharing packets, while Comcast blocked others. With the FCC forcing Comcast to treat all file-sharing traffic equally, the promise of that business evaporated.

Which leaves BitTorrent with not much of a business. As the first Napster showed, peer-to-peer file sharing is easy to make popular — and surpassingly hard to make profitable. BitTorrent may have improved on Napster's technology. But it never solved the fundamental business problem.

What brought down Revision3's network wasn't the security hole, however. It was MediaDefender's response after Revision3 technicians noticed the breach and shut it down. MediaDefender's servers, in what that company told Louderback was an automated response, started trying to contact Revision3's servers through the now-closed hole. That turned into a flood of traffic that overwhelmed Revision3's network.

MediaDefender has worked for Sony Music, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down illegal file-sharing networks. But Revision3's use of file sharing for its own content was entirely legal; to the extent its servers pointed to any illegal files, it was only because of MediaDefender's hacking, Louderback tells me.

Revision3 has asked the FBI to investigate MediaDefender's alleged abuses. For years, the music and movie industries have been telling us that sharing files is criminal, and that blocking file-sharing networks is proper. For millions of file-sharing users, it would be quite satisfying to see the opposite proved in court.

For starters, Comcast will still throttle its heaviest users; it just won't discriminate by protocol. Secondly, the BitTorrent client isn't exactly the P2P prom queen — Azureus has held that distinction for some time. The nut? You still won't get unlimited bandwidth at the promised speeds that you paid for, and will be forced to use inferior software for the privilege of downloading the new season of Battlestar Galactica. Comcastic!

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I (2008)

Hello from Nine Inch Nails.

We're very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label, we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It's licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

We've also made a 40 page PDF book to accompany the album. If you'd like to download it for free, visit http://ghosts.nin.com/main/pdf

Ghosts I is the first part of the 36 track collection Ghosts I-IV. Undoubtedly you'll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if you're interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5. You can also order it on CD, or as a deluxe package with multitrack audio files, high definition audio on Blu-ray disc, and a large hard-bound book.

We genuinely appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the new music. Thanks for listening.

http://ghosts.nin.com

Boucher basically told Comcast to cut the crap:

Comcast has made a major mistake in attempting to hinder peer-to-peer file sharing as an aspect of its network management. The inability of customers to [share files] significantly diminishes their ability to utilize the Internet for one of its most important applications, which is user-to-user content.

We're not big on regulatory solutions, and apparently, neither is Boucher. Surprisingly for a Democrat, he rejected calls for net neutrality regulations and wants to fix the problem through competition and market forces. That's about right. You don't like it? Go lay your own fiber, bub. Or, better yet, dump them for another ISP. That's Comcastic!

(Photo by AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

Thank you for your message. My name is Lindsay, and I appreciate you taking the time to contact Comcast.

I understand you have some concerns over recent web gossip that has suggested Comcast is blocking or hindering customer access to BitTorrent. I will be happy to assist you. We do not block access to any P2P (Peer To Peer) applications, including BitTorrent. We respect our customers' privacy and don't monitor specific customer activities on the Internet, or track individual online behavior, such as which websites are visited. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.

Additionally, Comcast does not "throttle" bandwidth (limit throughput on the network). Comcast also is not traffic shaping or packet shaping. We have a responsibility to manage our network to ensure that our
customers have the best broadband experience possible. That means we use the latest technologies to manage our network to provide a quality experience for all Comcast subscribers. This is standard practice for network operators around the world. I do not have specific information to provide to you regarding the details of how we manage our network, or vendors that may be used.

If you have any more questions feel free to reply to this e-mail, or you can chat with one of our Online Customer Support Specialists who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at

http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

To assure the proper tracking of this issue, we have created the following customer service ticket: ####.

Please refer to this number should you contact us regarding this same issue.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Lindsay
Comcast Online Customer Support

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the New York State Attorney General's office are two possible candidates for a fraud lawsuit. A fraud charge could hinge on the manner in which Comcast is disrupting traffic. The technology, provided by a company called Sandvine, tricks computers into shutting down BitTorrent connections. Comcast is, in effect, pretending to be the customer in order to prevent data from being transferred. In New York, it is criminal impersonation in the second degree to "(impersonate) another and ... act in such assumed character with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another."

Somehow we doubt if Comcast will cave to mere bad press — they get kind of a lot of it. Nor are mass customer defections likely. A lawsuit is probably the only measure that would stop Comcast.

Unlike our blog brethren at Gizmodo or The Consumerist, we'd be all in favor of a broadband provider doing anything it likes with its pipes. You don't like it? Go lay your own fiber, bub. And I'm sure AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the rest are doing all kinds of naughty things with their customers' Web connections. The problem here? Comcast got caught. That's the real no-no.

Last night, almost as if to out-LA LA, SF company BitTorrent had a small party at fluid to celebrate the launch of their CDN network (brilliant business move!). They apparently arranged in conjuction with a local radio station for Ashanti and Sean Kingston to perform to the tiny crowd. I took a picture of BitTorrent's founders Bram and Ashwin to memorialize the moment, sensing that it denoted SOMETHING.. whether it's a sign that the bubble is getting bigger, or the more likely conclusion that techie work is now getting more main stream and therefore a lot cooler remains to be seen! :)

One wonders if Kingston is familiar with Cohen's written work. Violent misogyny — it's not just for rap lyrics anymore!

(Photo by Pierre Joubert)

Comcast is apparently using technology from Sandvine to prevent uploading of "torrents," the special file format used by BitTorrent. Comcast sends faked packets of data to interfere with the transfer. While not illegal, it is a bit sleazy — and in this case, makes Comcast look like it's against the spreading of the Gospel.

Said BitTorrent COO Ashwin Navin to the AP, "They're using sophisticated technology to degrade service, which probably costs them a lot of money. It would be better to see them use that money to improve service." Navin should consider himself lucky, though. The AP could have run the test by trying to share the violent fiction of former BitTorrent CEO Bram Cohen. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

Cohen seems to have fancied himself a writer for a time. His "parody" of a pirate's manifesto created some controversy for his company in 2005. But other fiction, not widely known, was available on his personal website at the same time. And had it been publicized then, it would have been far more controversial. Here are excerpts from the two pieces of violently misogynistic fiction depicting rape and murder:

"A Torturer's Account":

It says here that you are to be subdued and violated. I don't like fucking bitches like you so don't count on not getting seriously hurt. I do what it says right here, and it doesn't matter if I like it.

"It Happened":

She is a whore. The only thing she has is her body. Just because she flirts and doesn't give it away doesn't mean she isn't a whore. And just because she lets some guy fuck her because it will be a good source of melodrama doesn't mean she's in love. I hate that bitch.

Now that BitTorrent is trying to transition from its file-sharing roots into a legitimate online-media business, his Sand Hill Road investors and Hollywood partners may want to take another look at the company's chief scientist.

Cohen is now married with kids, and one hopes he's grown past the ravings of his youth. But the fact that he kept the stories up on his site as late as 2005 is curious. A person is entitled to his fantasies. Sharing them in public, though, is another matter. One wonders if, had his writings become public sooner, Cohen would have been able to strike deals with Hollywood moguls and raise money from venture capitalists — let alone remain BitTorrent's CEO for so long. At the very least, if Cohen is to remain at BitTorrent in any capacity, one would think he'd offer an explanation of what he wrote, and why he published it for all to see.

Update: Comcast says it does not throttle BitTorrent traffic. A representative told Silicon Alley Insider that Comcast does use various technologies to manage its network, but the company does not throttle or block BitTorrent or any application.

I don't know if you remember downloading music before Napster came along, but it was an experience not dissimilar to the BitTorrent experience today. And remember when you tried out Napster for the first time.

All I remember thinking as I was stealing massive amounts of sharing with close friends Metallica albums was, "This can't last." If Paul really wanted to create a Napster moment give the tv networks the Bird, let them bankrupt the company with lawsuits and then turn the animatronic corpse of TapeItOffTheInternet.com into the corporate apologist for DRM-hobbled content. Worked for Shawn Fanning.

A 'Napster Moment' [TorrentFreaks]
[TapeItOffTheInternet.com]

So you know Dixon Doll? He invested in Bram [Cohen]'s BitTorrent business. Anyway, a Texas law firm is putting together a huge patent infringement case that will likely screw up the company's plans. Two - three months is the timeframe.

Nothing else about this story has come together yet, so don't go picking sides just yet. But if you know more of the story, tell tips@valleywag.com.

Craig (you know, Craigslist Craig) just posted the first known photo of Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen together. As Craig says on his blog, the Napster founder and BitTorrent founder had never met until last night's Wired Rave Awards. Craig captured the historic meeting on his Treo.

"It's funny," said BitTorrent spokeswoman Lily Lin, "because papers would always call and say, 'We're doing a story on Shawn Fanning. What does Bram think of Shawn?' And I told them, 'Well, he's never met Shawn.'"

For the record, Shawn's slimmed down and toned up since we last reported his weight. You should see this guy in a tee — the boy's got BFGs.

Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen at Wired Rave party [Craig Newmark's blog]

BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen reportedly helped nudge his brother Ross out of his CTO spot. Om connects Bram's move to the p2p tool's recent VC round, which might call for some legitimization of BitTorrent.

Is BitTorrent quietly Napsterizing itself by purging the old staff? That would explain why Bram got so touchy with GETV correspondent Irina Slutsky at his convention, CodeCon. Said Bram to Irina: "Can you ask me about something other than BitTorrent? I actually do other stuff other than BitTorrent."

Cohen vs. Cohen at BitTorrent [Om Malik]
Don't ask Bram Cohen about BitTorrent [GETV]

Saturday
Hackers and sysadmins from CodeCon gather at House of Shields to brag about exploits and make fun of Web 2.0 logos. Your $35 ticket supports non-profit Internet access. [Upcoming]
Flickr turns two and throws the most photographed party EVER at Adaptive Path. Seriously, make sure you look good, cause that shit's gonna be all over the Internets by Monday. [Upcoming]
Nerd Salon takes over the VIP room at Annie's Social Club. Saying "nerd salon" at the door gets you three bucks off entrance to the club's mashup night. [Nerd Salon]