BitTorrent to offer movies legally, using Microsoft's DRM

By Jack Schofield

BitTorrent will launch a download service offering movies, music, TV programmes and games tomorrow (Monday), according to the New York Times.

The programming comes from studios, including Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Brothers, that previously announced their intention to work with BitTorrent. There is also a new partner: the 83-year-old Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which will take part by making 100 films available on the site from its 4,000-movie library.

The story says:

The BitTorrent store will work slightly differently than rival digital media offerings like the iTunes Store of Apple and the Xbox Live service of Microsoft. BitTorrent will commingle free downloads of users' own video uploads with sales of professional fare. And while it will sell digital copies of shows like "24" and "Bones" for $1.99 an episode, it will only rent movies. Once the films are on the PC, they expire within 30 days of their purchase or 24 hours after the buyer begins to watch them.


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