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If you can't lick them, join them. Warner Bros has come to terms with BitTorrent, whose publishing platform may have enabled online piracy. Warner Bros has arrived at an arrangement to allow BitTorrent to distribute its films and television shows online - the first major studio to provide legal video content on the net. BitTorrent has developed a revolutionary "file-swarming" technology to transfer massive video files from a web site on to a PC. Its technology is designed for the delivery of large files like TV programmes and films and is claimed to be faster as compared to conventional downloads, depending on the number of individual computers in the network have the file. Warner Bros will use this technology to allow users in the US to download content ranging from blockbusters to old television series. Initially, the service will feature more than 200 Warner Bros' new releases, catalogue favorites, and TV series. The distribution agreement between the two companies will ensure guaranteed availability, high-quality video, and rapid download rates, and also provide a platform to offer consumers in the US with legal content on both video-on-demand (VOD) and electronic-sell-through (EST) to coincide with DVD releases of Warner Bros' productions. Warner Bros also plans to sell permanent copies of television series and films online, that can later be burned onto backup DVDs. However the burned copies can be played only on machines that are used for download and not on standard DVD players. This service would enable the motion picture studio to allow it to extend its where content would not have been available legally and that too at costs that would strike at piracy.
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