This is good news:

BitTorrent Inc., makers of a technology often used to trade pirated copies of Hollywood movies, is launching a Web site that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios... The service is squarely aimed at young men and boys who regularly use BitTorrent to trade pirated versions of the same films and who more often watch such files on their computer instead of on a big screen TV in the living room... To help wean users to paying for content, BitTorrent is featuring content and pricing that appeals to its target demographic - males between the ages of 15 and 35. TV episodes are $1.99 to download to own, which is typical for competitor sites such as Apple Inc. iTunes. The new site will rent movies for a 24-hour viewing period for $3.99 for new titles and $2.99 for older films, but the site has decided not to sell films for now because the prices demanded by the studios were too high.

I'm sure they are going to try to control people from keeping versions of the software they rent, but good luck with that -- someone will find a way to break it. But, hey guys, you know what this means, don't you? That BitTorrent is not just for stealing music and downloading porn anymore.

Labels: bittorrent, downloading movies, downloading porn, stealing music