忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开。BT的流行速度实在令人瞠目结舌。今天你BT了吗？如果你现在还不知道BT，似乎你在Internet上销声匿迹的时候也到了。要不然会在网络上被讥笑成“菜鸟级”的小虾哦！好了好了，小虾米们也别着急，为了避免大量网络新人的流失，以及促进祖国IT行业的繁荣。大家就一起来简单地了解一下这个俗称的变态下载吧！^0^
(Tracy)
Movie studios hate it. File-2)swappers love it. Bram Cohen’s 3)blazing-fast 4)P2P software has turned the Internet into a universal 5)TiVo. For free video-on-demand, just click here.
Bram Cohen is the creator of BitTorrent, one of the most successful peer-to-peer programs ever. BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download 6)enormous amounts of data—files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3. Analysts report that BitTorrent 7)traffic 8)accounts for more than one-third of all data sent across the Internet. Cohen showed his code to the world at a 9)hacker conference in 2002, as a free, open source project aimed at 10)geeks who need a cheap way to swap 11)Linux software online. But the real audience turns out to be TV and movie 12)fanatics. It takes hours to download a 13)ripped 14)episode of 15)Alias or 16)Monk off 17)Kazaa, but BitTorrent can do it in minutes. As a result, more than 40 million people have downloaded the BitTorrent 18)application. If any one of them misses their favorite TV show, no worries. Surely someone has posted it as a “19)torrent.” As for movies, if you can find it at 20)Blockbuster, you can probably find it online somewhereÑand use BitTorrent to 21)suck it down.
In fact, the problem with P2P file-sharing networks like Kazaa, Cohen reasoned, is that uploading and downloading do not happen at equal speeds. 22)Broadband providers allow their users to download at superfast rates, but let them upload only very slowly, creating a 23)bottleneck: If two peers try to swap a compressed copy of 24)Meet the FokkersÑsay, 700 25)megs, the 26)recipient will receive at a speedy 1.5 megs a second, but the sender will be uploading at maybe one-tenth of that rate. Thus, one-to-one swapping online is 27)inherently inefficient. It’s fine for MP3s but doesn’t work for huge files. So Cohen realized that 28)chopping up a file and handing out the pieces to several uploaders would really speed things up.
29)Paradoxically, BitTorrent’s 30)architecture means that the more popular the file is the faster it downloads-because more people are 31)pitching in. Better yet, it’s a 32)virtuous cycle. Users download and share at the same time. The more files you’re willing to share, the faster any individual torrent downloads to your computer.
With so much 33)illegal traffic, it’s no surprise that a 34)clampdown has started: In the earlier 2005, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) began 35)suing downloaders of movies, in order to, as the MPAA’s 36)antipiracy chief John Malcolm put it, “avoid the fate of the music industry.” “We consider it a regrettable but necessary step. We saw the 37)devastating effect that peer-to-peer piracy had on the record industry.”
However, the one person who hasn’t joined the 38)plundering is Cohen himself. “Give and ye shall receive” became Cohen’s 39)motto. He says he has never downloaded a single pirated file using BitTorrent. Why? He suspects the MPAA would love to make a legal example of him, and he doesn’t want to give them an opening. He’s the perfect candidate for downloading, though, since he doesn’t care if he sees TV live, doesn’t 40)subscribe to basic cable, and already sits at a computer all day long. The only shows he watches are those he buys on DVD.
“41)All hell’s about to break loose. It’s a technology that is changing the landscape of broadcast media,” says Brad Burnham, a venture capitalist with Union Square Ventures in Manhattan, which studies the impact of new technology on traditional media. “BitTorrent does not require the wires or 42)airwaves that the cable and network 43)giants have spent billions constructing and buying. BitTorrent transforms the Internet into the world’s largest TiVo.”
Let’s look at a good example: Gary, a graduate student in computer science at Stanford, became 44)fascinated with Outfoxed, the documentary critical of Fox News, and thought more people should see it. So he convinced the film’s producer to let him put a chunk of it on his Web site for free as a 500-45)Mbyte torrent. Within two months, nearly 1,500 people downloaded it. That’s almost 750 46)gigs of traffic, 47)a heck of a 48)wallop. But to get the ball rolling, Gary’s site needed to serve up only 5 gigs. After that, the peers took over and hosted it themselves. His bill for that 49)bandwidth is only $4. There are drinks at 50)Starbucks that cost more. “It’s amazingÑI’m a movie distributor,” he says. “If I had my own content, I’d be a TV station.”
Meanwhile, the lawsuits place Cohen in the 51)cros-shairs. The record industry sued 52)Napster into 53)ob-livion. Could the MPAA do the same thing to him? Legal experts doubt it. The courts have argued in recent years that a file-sharing technology cannot be banned if it has “54)substantial 55)noninfringing uses”Ñin other words, if it can be used for legal purposes.
Cohen seems curiously
unmoved by the storm raging around him. He doesn’t
want to talk about piracy and the future of media. “With BitTorrent, 56)the
cat’s
out of the bag.” he
shrugs.
电影公司恨它。文件交换者爱它。布拉姆·科恩的超快点对点软件已经把国际互联网络变成了一个世界范围内的自选预定交互式电视系统。想要免费的录像点播吗？在BT上点击一下就行了。
布拉姆·科恩是BT下载的创始人。BT下载是迄今为止最成功的点对点程序之一。它可以让用户们快速地上传和下载庞大数量的数据，也就是那种比一个MP3文件大几百或几千倍的文件。分析师报告说目前在BT上交换的数据量占到了整个国际互联网络上传送的数据的三分之一强。科恩在2002年一次电脑黑客会议上展示了他的编码。这些编码作为一种免费的、开放式的源码程序，主要是针对那些需要一种便宜的在线交换Linux软件的方法的电脑奇客们。而真正关注此编码的人结果却是那些电视和电影迷们。用Kazza软件下载系列剧《双面女间谍》或《神探阿蒙》的盗录版的一集内容需要花几个小时，但用BT下载却能在数分钟内搞定。于是目前已有超过四千万人下载了BT软件的应用程序。如果他们中的任何人错过了自己喜爱的电视节目，不用担心—因为绝对有人把它上传为一个扩展名为torrent的文件了。至于电影，如果你可以在百世达租赁连锁店里找到它，那么你很有可能在网上某处能搜到它——并使用BT下载把它给“吸”下来。
诸如Kazaa这类的点对点文件共享网络的问题，科恩分析，其实是上传和下载不是同一速度进行所造成的。宽带供应商允许他们的用户以超快的速率下载，却只让他们以非常慢的速度上传，这样就产生了一个瓶颈：如果两个用户交换电影《拜见岳父大人》的一个压缩复制文件，比如有700兆，那么接收方将以1.5兆/秒的速度接收，但是发送方将只能以这个速率的十分之一上传。因此，一对一的在线交换注定是低效的。对于MP3来说，这种交换方式还可以，但对超大容量的文件就不行了。所以科恩意识到分割一个文件，然后把文件碎片发送给几个上传者，这样将会大大提高上传速度。
BT的程序设计意味着一个文件越受欢迎，下载它的速度就越快。这种设计看似矛盾，却十分合理。因为文件越受欢迎，关注并投入精力的人就越多。而且这也是一个良性循环。用户可以同时下载和共享文件。你愿意共享的文件越多，那么你的电脑下载任何torrent的文件的速度就越快。
有了这么多的非法数据流通，自然地一个取缔行动也已经开始：在2005年年初，美国电影协会(MPAA)就开始控告电影下载者，正如MPAA反盗版总监约翰·马尔科姆所说，“这是为了避免重蹈音乐工业的厄运。”“我们认为这是一个无可奈何但却非常必要的举措。我们已经看到了点对点盗版共享对唱片行业所造成的致命影响了。”
然而，有一个人并没有加入到这场盗窃中，这个人正是科恩自己。“给予便能获得” 成为了科恩的座右铭。他说自己从来没有用BT下载过一个盗版文件。为什么呢？他怀疑美国电影协会正想通过法律手段惩罚他以儆效尤。他当然不想给他们这个可乘之机。要不是这样，他应该是最有可能进行下载的，因为他并不在乎自己是否是在看现场直播，也没有订阅有线电视，而只是一整天坐在电脑前。他观看的唯一节目就是那些他买回来的DVD。
“所有事情全都乱套了！BT是一种正在改变传媒格局的技术。”布拉德·伯哈姆说道。他是纽约曼哈顿的一家风险投资公司的创业基金投资者。这是一家研究最新科技对传统媒体所造成的影响的公司。“BT不需要电线或者电波，而这些正是大型的有线电视和网络公司斥资上十亿购买和建造的。BT把整个国际互联网络变成了一个全球最大的自选预定交互式电视系统。”
让我们来看看一个很好的例子吧：加里，一名斯坦福大学计算机科学专业的研究生，曾一度迷上评论福克斯新闻的一个记录文献片《解密福克斯》，并且认为应该有更多人看到这个节目。于是他说服影片的制作人允许他把影片的一个片段作为500兆的torrent文件放到自己的个人网页上。随后的两个月时间里，将近1500多人下载了该节目。数据容量达到了750G，这简直就是一股极大的冲击力。但是加里的网站却只需提供5G的容量便可以让整个项目运转。而他的宽带费用也只花了仅仅4美元，比一杯星巴克咖啡还便宜。“这太让人惊讶了！我成了一名电影发行员。” 他说，“如果我有自己的栏目内容，那我不就是一座电视台了。”
与此同时，针对科恩的官司一触即发。唱片行业已经控告Napster网站侵权，使Napster焦头烂额。美国电影协会会不会也效仿此举，起诉科恩呢？法律专家对此表示怀疑。近年来，各个法院都争论过，认为如果BT是用来进行大量非侵权性的用途，是不能被禁用的。也就是说，如果BT合法使用，将不会被取缔。
科恩似乎对身边咆哮的这场暴风雨显得异常地无动于衷。他并不想谈论盗版的问题以及媒体的未来。“BT的出现，公开了数据交换的秘诀。”他耸耸肩说道。