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more on Opera integrates BitTorrent in upcoming browser
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:13:38 -0500
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [IP] Opera integrates BitTorrent in upcoming browser Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:05:21 -0500 From: Adam Fields <ip20398470293845 () aquick org> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> CC: ip () v2 listbox com References: <43E75D5D.4080408 () farber net> For IP, if you wish: On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 09:29:49AM -0500, Dave Farber wrote:
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Opera integrates BitTorrent in upcoming browser Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 04:07:38 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org> To: dave () farber net, Ip ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
[...]
The following is a press release from Opera Software. According to the release, the company is integrating BitTorrent into its browser. Unfortunately, this could cause adverse effects; Opera users may experience slow Internet performance because the BitTorrent software will saturate their Internet bandwidth allocations without their knowledge or consent. (The BitTorrent protocol is, as you may know, designed to try to use every scrap of available bandwidth not only to receive content but also to redistribute it.)
This assertion is patently false. BitTorrent can be throttled to limit upload bandwidth usage, and because of the way the protocol encourages sharing, download bandwidth is dependent on (though not equal to) upload rate. To my knowledge, there isn't an explicit download saturation setting, but most people do want to download things pretty much as quickly as they can, so I think that's less of an issue. Since this project has the participation of Bram Cohen, I'd think that adding one would be trivial if it becomes a problem. Also, most people don't use very much of their upload capacity under normal conditions.
Also, because BitTorrent is one of the preferred protocols for downloading of pirated movies and similar fare, the software will also doubtless turn many Opera users' computers into illicit sources of copyrighted material and subject the users to lawsuits from movie studios and sanctions from their ISPs.
And yet, BitTorrent continues to exist and has plenty of legitimate uses. If you're not looking for copyrighted content to download, you won't have any problems. Having ready access to a BitTorrent client in Opera isn't additional incentive to do so.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I fear that the move will backfire very badly for Opera.
I fear that too. I hope that it raises the bar on the rationality of the copyright discussion instead. -- - Adam ** Expert Technical Project and Business Management **** System Performance Analysis and Architecture ****** [ http://www.everylastounce.com ] [ http://www.aquick.org/blog ] ............ Blog [ http://www.adamfields.com/resume.html ].. Experience [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/fields ] ... Photos [ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ].............Wiki [ http://del.icio.us/fields ] ............. Links ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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