This Bit of Torrent Is a Big Deal
One of the biggest revolutions taking place on the Internet has, strangely, caused barely a ripple. It's called BitTorrent.
If you've ever heard of BitTorrent it's probably alongside a word like "evil." After all, isn't BitTorrent the Internet protocol of choice for online video, music and software pirates swapping their illegal wares? Well, yes. That's true. But it's only part of the story.
BitTorrent, in fact, is the thin end of a big wedge that will pry open the way television, movies and lesser things such as software find their way into your home. This makes trying to close down BitTorrent a little like banning photocopiers because people can copy books on them. Getting upset about BitTorrent ignores the No. 1 rule about new technologies: Don't shoot the medium.
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So what is this thing called BitTorrent? BitTorrent is a standard devised by a young American named Bram Cohen as a way to move large files around the Internet efficiently -- for free. Your average Web page or email is only a few kilobytes. Even an MP3 file is about three megabytes, which takes only a minute or two to download, even on a crummy connection.
But what about bigger files? Imagine you have a 100-megabyte file -- a short home movie, say -- you want to make available to 100 of your acquaintances. You could email it to them, clogging up their inboxes and losing their friendship forever. You could post it to a Web site, and then send them a link so they can each download it, one by one. This is obviously better than email, but it still means that 100 people have to download the file from your Web site. It may not crash the computer hosting your Web site, but it'll slow it down, especially if all those 100 people want to try to download it at the same time. It's a bit like inviting them all to come around and simultaneously use your ice machine. They may get their ice, but they aren't going to be happy to have to wait.
Thoughtful Sharing
Now imagine you break up that 100-megabyte file and let people download different bits of it to their computer, then share bits with each other until everyone has the whole file. Dude A, say, downloads the first bit, Dude B the second, Dude C the third, and so forth, and then Dude B can grab the first bit off Dude A and the third bit off Dude C, etc., until everyone is sharing what they have with anyone who hasn't. It's a bit like in the ice machine analogy, the ice is split up and dumped off at different houses, so anyone can pick up what is needed and share it with others until everyone gets ice. In short, everyone becomes both a customer and a distributor. This is what is called a peer-to-peer (or P2P) approach -- the peers are sharing the files with other people, as well as the workload of moving them around the Internet.
This is what BitTorrent does -- amazingly efficiently. It divides up the task of moving files around. This means not everyone needs to download the file from one place in one go, taking the pressure and expense off the guy trying to distribute the file. And it means everyone gets the file much faster, because they are spreading the job over dozens of computers. This is the BitTorrent protocol -- a standard that makes this kind of transfer possible. And this isn't a pipe dream. Since Mr. Cohen wrote a piece of software (also called BitTorrent and also free) to use this standard in 2002, it has been hugely popular. Depending on who you talk to, it accounts for around half of Internet traffic at any one time.
Going Straight
Of course, not everyone likes this. This is a big load for the Internet to bear. And most of the traffic isn't exactly legitimate. Big files are usually video files, which take up a lot of space. And many of them are TV programs or pirated movies. BitTorrent is good at moving these files around, which is why movie moguls don't like it. But this doesn't stop it being a powerful medium, which is why BitTorrent is also now a company and seeking to be a legitimate concern. "The challenge for them is how to shrug off the perception that it's a tool for piracy and instead be regarded as a legitimate and acceptable distribution technique," says Andrew Parker, founder and chief technology officer of United Kingdom-based CacheLogic Ltd., which provides tools to ease the load on Internet service providers coping with all the extra traffic BitTorrent creates. The company seems to be convincing the industry of its viability: Last week BitTorrent Inc. landed $8.75 million in venture capital financing.
So why might this all change our world? Simply put, suddenly anyone can be a broadcaster. No longer do you need a network to get your product out. Just compress your show into a computer file, add the BitTorrent protocol, and put it on the Net. Users just click on a link and download it to watch when they want. Ashwin Navin, chief operating officer of BitTorrent Inc., says he's already persuaded media companies to sign up. He sees BitTorrent spawning lots of new TV programs as small and big producers alike make use of its low-cost distribution channel. "This tool empowers the creative folks, especially those that don't want to pitch their idea for years before they get their big break."
Indeed, things already are moving in this direction. The British Broadcasting Corp. in August announced plans for MyBBCPlayer, a system that uses a similar P2P protocol and that would let viewers legally download some BBC TV programs. Mark Pesce, a lecturer in interactive media at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, has no doubt it's going to change not just the way TV is distributed, but how TV programming is made. "BitTorrent is here to stay," he told a conference of filmmakers in Montreal last month, "and what it does changes everything about everything in the creative industries."
Sounds like a revolution to me.
“BT”潮流不容忽视
互联网上正在发生的一场大革命，出人意料地，几乎没有激起一点波澜。它叫做BitTorrent。
如果你曾经听说过BitTorrent，那么它很可能是和“邪恶”这样的词语一同出现的。毕竟，BitTorrent不就是网上音频、音乐和软件盗版者用来交换其非法文件的互联网协议吗？恩，不错。这是真的。但这只不过是冰山一角。
实际上，BitTorrent是一把楔子锋利的一端，这把楔子可以撬开电视、电影和软件等进入你家庭的方式。这样看来，试图禁用BitTorrent就有点像禁止使用复印机，因为人们可以自行利用复印机复制书籍。对BitTorrent的这种惶惶不安让人们忽略了对待新技术的头号规则：不要将矛头对准工具手段。
那么，BitTorrent到底是什么呢？BitTorrent是由一位名叫布莱姆?科恩(Bram Cohen)的美国年轻人发明的一种标准，它可以用来免费地在互联网上有效传输很大的文件。你普通的网页和电子邮件只有几千字节。甚至一个MP3文件也只有大约3兆字节，即便是在网络连接非常糟糕的情况下，也只需一两分钟就可以下载下来。
但是，如果文件很大怎么办呢？假设你有一个100兆的文件－－比如说是一个短片，你想让100个朋友都能观赏。你可以通过电子邮件发送给他们，使他们的邮箱爆满，从而永远失去他们的友谊。你也可以把它贴在一个网站上，然后给朋友们发去链接，以便他们可以自行单独下载。后者显然要好于电子邮件的方式，但它仍意味著，你那100个朋友必须从你的网站上下载文件。这样做可能不至于令网站的服务器崩溃，但是会减慢它的运行速度，尤其是如果所有这100个人都希望在同一时间下载短片的话。这有点像把朋友们邀请过来，同时使用你的制冰机。他们可能能获得冰块，但他们肯定不高兴要排队等候。
现在，假设你把这100兆的文件分解，让大家下载不同的部分到各自的电脑上，然后互相分享各自下载的部分，直到每个人都拥有一个完整的文件。比如说，甲下载了第一部分，乙下载了第二部分，丙下载了第三部分，依此类推，然后乙就可以从甲那里获得第一部分内容、从丙那里获得第三部分内容，等等，直到每个人都与那些尚未下载到有关部分的其他人分享他们已经下载的部分。简而言之，每个人既是客户，又是分销商。这就是点对点(P2P)的模式－－大家与其他人共享文件，并分担在互联网上传输文件的工作。
这就是BitTorrent的工作－－令人称奇地高效。它分解了传输文件的任务。这意味著并非每个人都要一口气从一个地址下载全部的文件，从而缓解了试图传输这份文件的人的压力。而且，这也意味著每个人获得文件的速度要快得多，因为他们将下载的工作分散在十几台电脑上。这就是BitTorrent协议－－一种使这样的文件传输成为可能的标准。而这并不是白日做梦。自科恩先生于2002年编写了一个使用这种标准的软件（也叫做BitTorrent，也是免费的）以来，它已经受到了极大的欢迎。从某个角度来看，可以说它占据了互联网流量的一半左右。
当然，并非人人都欢迎这样的势头。对于互联网而言，这是一个沉重的负担。而且大多数的流量并不是真正合法的。大文件通常都是占据很多空间的音频文件。而其中很多则是电视节目或者盗版电影。BitTorrent很擅长传播这些文件，这也是电影巨头们不喜欢它的原因。但是，这并未阻止它成为一个强有力的媒介，这正是BitTorrent目前也成立了公司并在寻求成为一家合法企业的原因。 “他们现在面临的挑战是，如何摆脱人们把它当成盗版工具、而不是合法的和可接受的文件传播技术的认识，”总部位于英国的CacheLogic Ltd.的创始人兼首席科技长安德鲁?帕克(Andrew Parker)这样说。CacheLogic的业务是为互联网服务供应商提供应对BitTorrent制造的所有额外流量负荷的工具。BitTorrent Inc.似乎正在向科技界证明自己的生命力：上周，它获得了875万美元的风险投资。
那么，BitTorrent可能给我们的世界带来怎样的改变呢？简单地说，突然间，人人都可能成为广播电视公司。你不再需要广播电视网才能展示你的产品。只要把你的节目压缩成电脑文件，加入BitTorrent协议，把它放在互联网上就可以了。用户只要点击链接，把它下载下来，在任何时候都能观看。BitTorrent Inc.的首席营运长阿什维恩?纳文(Ashwin Navin)说，他已经说服媒体公司签约。他预计，随著大大小小的制片商纷纷利用这种低成本的分销渠道，将会有大量新的电视节目推出。“它赋予创作者、尤其是那些不想沉寂多年才能一跃成名的人一个强有力的工具。”
确实，事情正在朝这个方向发展。英国广播公司(British Broadcasting Corp.)于8月份宣布了MyBBCPlayer的计划，这个系统使用相似的P2P协议，观众可以合法下载BBC的部分电视节目。澳大利亚影视广播学院(Australian Film, Television and Radio School)互动媒体讲师马克?佩谢(Mark Pesce)称，BitTorrent不仅将改变电视分销的方式，而且将改变电视节目制作的方式，他对此毫不怀疑。“BitTorrent势必能生存下来，”他在上个月的蒙特利尔电影制片商大会上表示，“它的所作所为将改变创作行业的一切。”
在我听来，这就像是一场革命。
