Leopard to have built-in Bittorrent like P2P sharing system?
MacRumors is reporting that “10.5 “Leopard” to employ a system-level, encrypted BitTorrent client and a sharing-reward system?“. And while I see this as being a pretty cool idea, for distributing content such as being suggested, I doubt we’ll see it happening as they state.
One of the reasons that P2P is still a rather “underground” type of activity, is because of the legal ramifications of using any P2P services in an illegal way. Sure, sharing files in a bittorrent type of way is a very good way to distribute content, but this could definitely be used against Apple.
If they do include some type of P2P content distribution network, it will come in the form of iTunes balancing the load of content distribution between anyone and everyone that has that same content, and has turned on preferences to share that content.
However, I don’t see this as an important feature for Apple’s iTunes Music Store. I see this as a vital feature for podcasts and vidcasts that Apple helps distribute inside of iTunes. Podcasts and video casts are becoming increasingly popular, and as such releasing a podcast can cost some serious hosting money. Not only to host the raw audio and video files, but also for the bandwidth to distribute those files. I can see some type of P2P sharing implications from within itunes for user contributed content as being a great addition to iTunes.
But, Macrumors is saying that it will be part of the underlying OS. I suppose this would be most useful for software update distribution, which is fine. That will be a closed system and it will allow any developers of the Mac OS to plug that ability into their own programs to make software updates easier than ever. Lets hope it is a new API that can be used for that specific purpose.
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I predicted this back when the 10.4.6 update came out. Everyone thought I was on drugs, including Josue. Seems either I was right, or I’m not the only one smoking the good stuff.
Daniel Nicolas on May 1st, 2006 4:06 pm
I’d love to believe this is going to happen, but unfortunately Mac OS Rumors is just not a reliable “source.”
I agree with you though about excellent idea of incorporating P2P-like technology inside the iTunes application. A user preference could be introduced that allowed the user to ‘donate’ about 250 megabytes per day in exchange for 10% off all content in Apple’s music store. Obviously the numbers are arbitrary, but it’s a unique solution to a problem that will become more apparent as more and more companies/mediums transition to a digital distribution method.
Adam on May 1st, 2006 6:48 pm