Bittorrent, Inc buys uTorrent

[zachtib]

I'm sort of surprised that this hasn't been posted already, so I'll kick off the discussion:

Bittorrent, Inc., the company founded by the creator of Bittorrent, just bought out uTorrent. It was announced on uTorrent's forums, here: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=17278 and is currently being discussed in a Q&A like session on IRC.

So, to recap, in the last several days, we've got Mainline going legit with their 'movie store,' Azureus trying for legitimacy by starting their Zudeo web interface, and then Bittorrent Inc buying out uTorrent.

[potrick]

So, does this mean that the generic bittorrent client is going to be replaced with uTorrent? The generic client has a linux version. Might a utorrent for ubuntu be in the works? Not that running utorrent in wine is very complicated, but it's a thought.
It's really interesting seeing all the movements, though. I'll have to keep watch over these stories.

[potrick]

And wow, there are a lot of negative responses to the announcement on the forum like you gave there. Stark contrast from what I'd expect from this forum, I'd say.

[zachtib]

I'm not a fan of it. There's no way that this results in a Linux version of uTorrent, and BT, Inc. has already stated that they won't be open sourcing uTorrent.

<paranoia>
I'm guessing that BT, Inc may be looking for a closed-source torrent implementation for their new 'Movie Store' in case they need to implement any sort of copy protection or other sort of control over it.
</paranoia>

[maniacmusician]

this really f*cking sucks. uTorrent was my favorite client while on windows and I was looking forward to the author releasing a linux version, closed-source though it may be. This is really frustrating. it's also funny to think that BT, Inc, the fathers of BT, are going to be the ones to ruin the BT protocol by leaking DRM-happy commercial interests into the culture. This annoys me a lot. It always happens though. well-intentioned inventions go awry after turning into a corporation-controlled object. *sad*

[Rhapsody]

Q: How will uTorrent’s technology be integrated with the current BitTorrent client?

A: Although uTorrent is lightweight, it is missing the patented innovations BitTorrent has made at the protocol level. It is also lacking an implementation for Mac and Linux. We will improve uTorrent in these arenas.

What they give with one hand, they take away with another. Mac and Linux versions sound good, but 'patented innovations' sounds like Microsoft-style embrace, extend, and extinguish stuff.

[zachtib]

What they give with one hand, they take away with another. Mac and Linux versions sound good, but 'patented innovations' sounds like Microsoft-style embrace, extend, and extinguish stuff.

That's exactly what I see happening here. Any improvements uTorrent has over standard Bittorrent will be incorporated into Mainline, then development for uTorrent will suddenly drop off.

Another scenario, which I think is even _more_ likely is that Bittorrent, Inc. incorporates any of their 'proprietary' features into uTorrent, then Mainline as we know it is killed, and uTorrent essentially becomes the new Mainline. After all, Mainline's market share seems to be pretty low, I'm rarely on a torrent where Azureus and uTorrent make up less than 90% of the swarm, and given their recent deal with the movie industry, I'm sure the movie studios would love it if Bittorrent, Inc's official client was both: A) Extremely popular and widely used, and B) Closed-source and proprietary.

[PriceChild]

As a side note... has anyone read the comments to that post?

I love ubuntuforums.org - that place just sounds nasty

[Rhapsody]

Another scenario, which I think is even _more_ likely is that Bittorrent, Inc. incorporates any of their 'proprietary' features into uTorrent, then Mainline as we know it is killed, and uTorrent essentially becomes the new Mainline. After all, Mainline's market share seems to be pretty low, I'm rarely on a torrent where Azureus and uTorrent make up less than 90% of the swarm, and given their recent deal with the movie industry, I'm sure the movie studios would love it if Bittorrent, Inc's official client was both: A) Extremely popular and widely used, and B) Closed-source and proprietary.

Pretty much what I was thinking. Looking at the torrents I've seen, uTorrent would be among the top 3 in popularity (with Azureus and BitComet being the others). Porting uTorrent to Mac and Linux, then introducing patented changes to uTorrent which would be hard or impossible for others implement due to legal difficulties seems like a good way to kill the others off. Then the undisputed #1 BitTorrent client is owned and controlled by a company which has pledged to the MPAA to 'actively work against piracy'. The 'new' BitTorrent protocol is inaccessible to those the MPAA would rather not see use it, and it is gone to all but the minority that stay with the old protocol.

Unfortunately for BitTorrent Inc, I don't think this is going to work. The reaction on the uTorrent forum was generally violently against any of this, with only a small minority being in favour at all. The more likely probability is that uTorrent will become marginalized as everyone dumps it. Eventually, ludde will decide he's had enough and leave for a new project. uTorrent will become like Winamp. A previously well-loved but proprietary program that had the magic stripped out by corporate interests, serving as an example of the durability of free software.

I've started to wonder whether ludde planned on this from the start. The other big projects he's started or made major contributions to (ScummVM, OpenTTD) are both free software, but uTorrent was always proprietary. Did he always plan to be making a living from uTorrent some day? If so, I think he'll be about as popular as Novell soon enough...

[maniacmusician]

whatever the original plan was, the whole thing smells of corporate reek now. uTorrent used to be the toy of the people and now it won't be. Just today, I was introducing someone I knew to torrent downloads. Normally, I would steer them towards uTorrent, but in light of all this, I've advised them to go the route of Azureus instead.

Just as a little background info, this guy is a counselor at my school. I've started him off with torrents and open source, and I've got him thinking about Linux already. The impression I got from him was that if he can get the hang of torrents and stuff, and if he likes open source alternatives, he's going to risk the jump to Linux. He was also pretty impressed when I told him he could just set up a dual-boot (with detailed instructions from me, of course )

(sorry for getting off track a little. the point being, I'm not even advising people to use uTorrent anymore. This reeks; I was looking forward to a linux version from ludde. I won't consider one from BT, Inc.)