Over the last few years, we've seen a huge decrease in piracy thanks to the advent of affordable streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. However, torrenting is without a doubt the preferred method of piracy for those who continue to do so. It's the key that makes everything possible. If you're unfamiliar with torrenting, it's essentially a file-sharing service. Which makes it very difficult to put a stop to piracy. Torrents allow you to download a file from a remote location rather than from a central server. From the tens of thousands of other users who have already downloaded the file. As a result, piracy sites like The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents are not required to host the files. So, if prosecutors shut down a piracy website, the website's hosts just have to do one thing: to post the links to a new website that is only a few megabytes in size. They don't have to move the exabytes of data associated with the links. Because of the ease with which Websites can be moved, huge websites like The Pirate Bay are unable to be shut down. Bay, since torrents allow them to shift websites regularly. Prosecutors and copyright holders, as you might expect, aren't big supporters of the man. Bram Cohen, the inventor of torrents, can't do much about it.
Early Life
It was evident from a young age that Bram was not like other children. His interests were more mature, and he excelled in STEM-related competitions. He attempted to master the programming language when he was only 5 years old, for example. Let's not forget that Bram was 5 years old in 1980. A 5-year-old mastering computer science would be astonishing even today, but considering the circumstances, It would make a lot more sense given how much technology today's children are exposed to. Apart from programming, Bram has competed in several competitions, including as well as the Math Olympiad in the United States of America. Despite his educational leanings, Bram doesn't appear to have been convinced of the concept of a school. Like many other geniuses, he didn't pile up degrees after degrees. Instead, he enrolled in the University of Buffalo, and as soon as he had job offers, he accepted them. He walked away without looking back. However, Bram's career did not remain consistent during the 1990s. It's unclear if Bram would be qualified for a job at a large computer firm like Microsoft or Cisco, or if he was hoping to make it big with a startup, but in any case, this compelled him to make a decision. As each startup he worked for failed, he was forced to change jobs regularly. While Bram's time in the startup sector wasn't easy, it did offer him some unusual ideas. This was especially true during his last workplace at MojoNation, where he had a lot of freedom and ideas. Mojo Nation was attempting to develop a decentralized system for securely storing and disseminating music files that are kept private. The goal was to spread encrypted parts of the original file among multiple computers. To download the complete file in this manner, you'd need the assistance of all of the machines. So a hacker couldn't just break into one of these machines and steal everything. It's unclear whether this decentralized encryption solution ever gained traction, but it did inspire others. Bram, who thought it was ideal for file sharing, agreed.
BitTorrent
Bram decided to leave Mojo Nation in April of 2001. And was determined to make his file-sharing concept a reality. Over the next year, he developed the first Python-based BitTorrent client. Bram quickly developed a beta version of the software that worked reasonably enough, however was well aware that persuading individuals to participate in the program, not the program itself, was the key to success. To look at it he collaborated with his roommate, Len Sassaman, to organise a tech conference that you may have heard of CodeCon. Even well-known figures like Sergey Brin and Elon Musk have given talks at CodeCon since then. Bram and BitTorrent, on the other hand, were the stars of the first CodeCon. Bram was able to generate some buzz in the tech industry thanks to this presentation, but it was not enough exactly who he was aiming for. As a result, Bram devised a new strategy for attracting users.
Bram went out and got several adult pictures in the summer of 2002 and offered them for free on the BitTorrent protocol. This method worked very well, although Bram didn't want to be associated with an adults film distributor. So, after establishing a strong user base, he ceased seeding these films. However, by this time, many BitTorrent users had begun to see the service's actual potential. Today's cloud storage services, such as Google Drive and Mega, are incredibly dependable. It allows users to download hundreds of gigabytes of data in a handful of minutes. However, in the early 2000s, transporting such enormous files was not only difficult but also dangerous. Because of the storage and bandwidth needs, it is costly. As a result, no one wanted to host these files. However, with BitTorrent, no single person was required to host the data. Instead, they may be hosted by hundreds or even thousands of users. Given that most people aren't taxed for their bandwidth usage, this was essentially a no-brainer. For the most part, most hosts are free. Given these advantages, I doubt you'd be surprised to see that BitTorrent has grown in popularity. The place to go when you need to share or download huge files. And, of course, no one required BitTorrent to share 4 GB of word docs or spreadsheets in excel. No, the most prevalent files large enough to require BitTorrent were movies, music, and other large files. And as people saw how simple it was to exchange such files through BitTorrent, the service grew in popularity. The application swiftly established itself as the sole source of piracy.
Stance On Piracy
Given BitTorrent's significant role in piracy, It's unsurprising that prosecutors made BitTorrent a major focus. However, they were unable to charge BitTorrent or Bram with copyright infringement. Bram has stated that he did not build BitTorrent for the purpose of piracy. His main goal was to make it easier for consumers to share and download enormous files at a lower cost and in a more effective manner than before. And it just so happens that the community has begun to use it for illegal purposes. So, given that there was no conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, prosecutors can’t do anything. It'd be the equivalent of the FBI taking action against Facebook because scammers use WhatsApp to carry out Bitcoin swindles. However, piracy is a far more significant aspect of BitTorrent than Bitcoin fraud is of WhatsApp. As a result, prosecutors were always looking for new ways to make a case against BitTorrent. Bram, on the other hand, was well aware of this and was determined to play it safe legally. He didn't pirate himself, didn't encourage others to pirate, and he was always trying to make BitTorrent more suitable for a broader range of applications. So, this was Bram’s legal stance on the piracy issue. His moral perspective, on the other hand, is rather different. Copyright holders, according to Bram, ought to develop a life and stop going after every media. Inadvertently, this facilitates piracy. He claims that if copyrighted content was made available in a cost-effective and easily accessible manner, People would have no motive to pirate content in this manner. And given what happened in the music industry, this makes sense. It was very common in the 2000s to pirate music to put it on MP3 players and iPods. However, with the rapid expansion of services such as YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music, music has never been more accessible and piracy decreased dramatically. Why would you want to visit dubious websites and risk contracting a virus if you can avoid it? Listen to any song for free with commercials or for a reasonable fee on YouTube or Spotify. So, while I believe Bram's argument makes a lot of logic, it didn't stop copyright holders from trying to fight back.
Retaliation
Because copyright holders couldn't shut down or punish BitTorrent directly, they turned their attention to the people who were sharing the content. Because there were links to the copyrighted material on BitTorrent's official website, BitTorrent was initially involved in this. However, in 2005, Bram agreed to delete all piracy-related links from the website in exchange for a contract with seven American companies. Sites like The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents arose as a result of this.
Seeders are the tens of thousands of hosts around the world who make pirated content available. Because copyright holders were unable to shut down BitTorrent, they turned to seeders. Copyright holders began tracking down seeders' IP addresses and contacting their internet service providers. Copyright holders began tracking down seeders' IP addresses and asking their internet service providers to disable their access. With these effects in mind, you might be wondering why someone would seed content. It's customary etiquette in the piracy world to seed for as long as you downloaded. Even if you don't seed out of the goodness of your heart, you'll be seeding as you download the content. For example, if you’re pirating Eternals and your progress bar is at 60%, this means that you’ve already downloaded the first 60% which you could be seeding as you’re downloading the last 40%. Copyright holders have been fairly good at identifying seeders and blocking their access to the internet, forcing most pirates to use VPNs, which is ironic. You'll need a premium VPN if you're pirating any significant amounts of stuff. The cheapest ExpressVPN plan is $100 per year. Disney+, on the other hand, is only $80 per year. So, if pirates are more prepared to pay for a VPN than a streaming service, as Bram mentioned, there's certainly some sort of imbalance here. Despite this, copyright holders have continued to put up significant effort to shut down seeders.
Life After Torrent
After starting the piracy website, many founders in the piracy community have no life. Most of them are facing several charges, owing millions in royalties to copyright holders, and/or are wanted fugitives. But, because Bram has always been able to stay on the legal side of the law, he has no restrictions, and he has taken use of this flexibility to advance beyond BitTorrent. Bram established Chia Network, a cryptocurrency startup, in 2017. One of the company's key goals was to transition bitcoin from proof of work to proof of stake. If you're not sure what that means, it effectively means that miners will no longer be needed.
Chia's coin was released in May of 2021, and it hasn't fared well. It's down 95% from its high point. However, because Chia was launched at the height of the altcoin bull market, overall crypto conditions haven't been good to it. However, given the existence of much more popular projects with similar ambitions, such as Solana and Cardano, it's unclear whether Chia will ever gain traction. Given his projected net worth of $15 million, I don't suppose Bram is too bothered. At the end of the day, Bram was the brains behind the file-sharing protocol that gave rise to today's piracy. Despite his high profile in the piracy world, prosecutors have little legal recourse against Bram because he did not establish BitTorrent with the goal of infringement, and he does not encourage or support piracy. In comparison to other piracy monarchs, this has allowed him to live a relatively free life, although none of his other initiatives has yet to attain the same degree of popularity as BitTorrent.
And such is the narrative of the torrenting king, which the FBI is powerless to stop.
Have you used BitTorrent before?