Spring Break
The Daily OrangeBitTorrent offers means to download TV shows - just not legally
By Jared Novack
Posted: 4/13/05, 12:02 AM EST Section: News
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It's Sascha Herzig's Friday morning ritual. After rousing himself from slumber, the junior finance major goes online to download the previous night's episode of "The O.C."
"I have night classes when it airs, so I want to catch up on the last episode," Herzig said. "It's high-def, widescreen. I've got a good LCD monitor so the quality is amazing."
Herzig is not alone in his habit-about 18 percent of ResNET's download traffic is used by BitTorrent, said Lee Badman, network engineer for Computing and Media Services.
"We have to slow it down a little bit; if (BitTorrent) were unthrottled, there would be no room for http or e-mail," Badman said.
Continuing the line of Napster, AudioGalaxy, Morpheous and KaZaA, BitTorrent has become a predominant peer to peer program. Where its predecessors were havens for music, software and movies, recent television shows never took hold. TV, however, has become BitTorrent's forte. Hits like "24," "South Park" and "Lost" fly around the world literally minutes after they finish airing (and sometimes before).
One may think television networks would be shaking in their shoes.
If only they knew about it.
"Wait, these are network TV shows?" asked Ed Harrison, director of CBS press information. "Like 'CSI'?"
Yes, just like "CSI," available in the original, New York and Miami versions right now on sites like btefnet.net or tvtorrents.com, major portals for BitTorrent TV shows.
And after consulting others at the network, CBS Vice President David Katz refused to comment on any plans to combat or monitor BitTorrent use, citing "sensitive legal issues" surrounding the technology.
The strategy employed by the networks thus far has been to remain quiet. Bob Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, notes the backlash that companies like Apple have suffered when aggressively pursuing those who may have infringed on their intellectual property rights.
"They risk looking like the big bad evil corporation for suing the poor guy who just wants to download an episode of 'Jake and the Fatman,'" Thompson said.
Badman notes that those very episodes have been coming through SU's ResNET at greater and greater volumes. In the last six months, BitTorrent has overtaken KaZaA and Gnutella as the top file-sharing program on campus, with gains every week.
"When (BitTorrent) first came out we thought it was just another p2p," he said. "Then you take another look and it's just out there in the wild: full movies, TV shows, games ... "
