TorrentFreak

The BitTorrent-powered VODO network has released what is arguably its highest-quality film to date. ‘A Lonely Place For Dying’, with Hollywood star James Cromwell as Executive Producer, prefers the BitTorrent community over Hollywood’s own funding mechanisms and debuts online before making its way to various movie theaters. A new distribution model is born.

BitTorrent Inc., the makers of uTorrent and the BitTorrent Mainline client, have been sued for infringement of a file-sharing related patent. According to the complaint, the BitTorrent clients infringe on the rights of San Francisco-based company Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network. The company demands compensation and if the court agrees, this case could have a disastrous impact on the BitTorrent landscape.

A new dimension was just added to the ongoing stream of BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. A Canadian BitTorrent user has been ordered to pay $60,000 by a U.S. District Court judge. The Calgary resident, who did not defend himself, was ordered to pay the damages for sharing two films on an adult-oriented BitTorrent tracker.

A new Internet traffic trends report released by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that BitTorrent traffic is on the rise globally. More than half of all upstream traffic during peak hours in North America and Europe now comes from BitTorrent. The report further signals that the shutdown of LimeWire killed traffic generated by the Gnutella P2P network.

BitTorrent Inc. has released a major update of their mainline client. After introducing Apps about a year ago, the latest beta version of the popular client now adds ‘personal content channels.’ These channels function as small social networks that allow users to easily share content with a group of friends. An interesting concept, but also one that may eventually come at a cost.

While it’s Hope City by name, this is a town filled with degenerates, sadists and scum, so what better way to bring them into line? Have a hobo shoot them in the face with a shotgun of course. From out of nowhere, a movie with this unlikely story is currently a smash hit on BitTorrent and while few in Hope City have a moral compass, the director behind the Grindhouse flick Hobo With a Shotgun is hoping that this unexpected download-fest translates into some cool sales.

Record labels are generally not too fond of BitTorrent. Just a few months ago the RIAA reported several BitTorrent sites as “rogue sites” to the US Government. It therefore comes as quite a surprise that the independent record label Adamant Records is featuring a BitTorrent tutorial on its homepage, right next to the ‘download on iTunes’ links. Why would they do that? Have they gone mad?