BitTorrenting: Pirates of Today

Hello!  Over the last three posts, we've discussed some older sites and programs that were used for internet piracy.  Today, we'll talk about a modern improvement on those technologies:

BitTorrent

A BitTorrent website

The name "BitTorrent" can mean several different things, such as files downloaded using BitTorrent technology or programs used to set up BitTorrents.  However, "BitTorrent" technically refers to a specific type of modified peer-to-peer (P2P) network.  Most networks are eventually faced with a problem: their servers can only distribute files to so many people at a time.  If enough users request a file from a server simultaneously, the download speed may slow to a crawl or the server may crash.

BitTorrenting solves this problem by distributing the task of distribution along with the files.  When multiple users request a file, the server gives a different part of the file (or "bit") to each user.  Then, the users' computers swap their bits back and forth across the BitTorrent network until each has a complete image.  This speeds up download speeds tremendously, as the server no longer has to distribute a complete version of the file to each computer that requests it.  In fact, BitTorrents speed up as the number of downloaders increases, because the file is broken up into smaller bits and more computers are involved in its distribution.

Since its creation in 2001, the BitTorrent technology has been one of the major influences on the rise of internet piracy.  Its flexibility, ease, and speed has made it tremendously popular for sharing large files.  Additionally, many BitTorrent clients are open source, making it possible for many different people to create different versions and improvements (and for BitTorrents to stay one step ahead of the law).  Some modern BitTorrent clients/sites include The Pirate Bay, μTorrent, and Frostwire.  If time permits, we may talk about some of these sites and programs later.  In the meantime, if you're interested in more information about BitTorrent, check out this site or this video.  Until next time!