BitTorrent Defends Itself

During the recent CRTC net neutrality hearings, BitTorrent was mentioned many times, usually in a less than favourable light, by the ISPs who wish to confuse net neutrality with network management. The thing is, BitTorrent is actually a trademark owned by BitTorrent, Inc, a company started by Bram Cohen, the creator of the protocol. Although some might say that BitTorrent, Inc, is getting too cozy with the content producers, it also demonstrates that the protocol can be used for legitimate distribution.

I suppose BitTorrent, Inc felt the need to defend its name because they filed a late submission to the CRTC, that pokes holes in many of the points raised by the ISPs. Micheal Geist's summary is here. BitTorrent, Inc's client gathers a lot statistics about transfers that allows the company to understand the affect of the protocol on the network. The problem is that the CRTC will likely pay more attention to their cronies from Bell, Rogers, etc., rather than look at real technical facts.