Friday, January 26, 2007

BitTorrent tries to combat piracy with new entertainment box

How are consumers going to get their video entertainment? The options are just proliferating online. They can download video from Apple's (aapl) iTunes, the can stream them online for part of a DVD-rental subscription with Netflix, they can buy or rent them on Amazon's unBox, they can watch clips on Google's YouTube, they can go to CinemaNow, or they can buy a Netgear entertainment box and watch movies collected by BitTorrent. BitTorrent is one of the pioneers in peer-to-peer technology to deliver videos. Today, there are still a number of BitTorrent users - the company has 135 milloin members, I'm told by co-founder Ashwin Navin -- who use the site for illegal downloads. In my interview with Navin, he talks about how BitTorrent is trying to combat piracy with its new partnership with Netgear. The store launches on Feb. 5, and will cost $200 per box. Now, selling boxes isn't the easiest business. So, how will BitTorrent succeed in this market?

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