WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How BitTorrent Works 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.440 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.040 and I love all things tech. And now we are 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.280 going to listen to a classic episode. This episode originally 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.640 aired on August twelve, two thousand. It is called how 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.639 bit torrent Works. So we actually get down to the 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.520 bottom of how torrents work and what's the big deal 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.400 about it? And why is it so controversial? And is 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.720 it at its heart illegal? All those sort of questions 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.199 are the things we ask and try to answer in 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.880 this episode. Hope you guys enjoy it. To start off, 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.800 we kind of need to talk about just how you 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.839 would typically get a file right, how how files are 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.480 transferred period at all? Under so the normal process by 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.080 either by by any of the protocols that you to 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.640 use over the internet, be the FTP or htt P 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:08.360 that's file Transfer protocol or Hypertext Transfer Protocol excellent acronyms. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.679 So traditionally, your your computer, which in this scenario we 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.000 call the client, is going to contact a a host 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.120 computer a server in order to say, hey, I want 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.279 that thing exactly ye whether that thing is a web page. 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:26.880 So if your web browser can be a client. Yeah, 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:28.600 that thing could be a web page. That thing could 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.920 be a music file, it could be a movie file, 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.360 it could be uh an email. It all depends on content, right, 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:37.360 that that you want to get. Um. The server would 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.959 then send the file to your computer according to whichever 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.039 protocol you are using, right, And it's using the basic 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.000 set of rules that we all know from the Internet, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.360 the idea of everything's in packets. Those packets travel through 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.760 different routes and then they get reassembled on your computer. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.640 But yeah, it's essentially a one to one relationship, right, 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.160 I'm asking the server to send me something, the server 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.760 send something to the client. Done, done, and and you know, 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.200 and the speed with which this can happen depends on 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:04.920 the amount of traffic on the server, the size of 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.680 the file. Yeah. So let's let's boil this down to 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:12.240 an analogy. Alright, So, Lauren, you are a server, I 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.640 am yea. So now you have entered into the uh 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.120 the service industry. You are a server in a coffee shop. Okay, 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.920 you served terrible at that job, alright, but let's let's 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.000 imagine Lauren, that this is a reality where you're not 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.359 terrible at your job. You're actually pretty good. You can 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:35.600 serve up to three people simultaneously, so amazing, but only 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.440 three people and uh, and the amount of time it 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.079 takes you to produce the order for the customer depends 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.280 upon what they ordered, like what size of it and 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.240 how complicated is the drink. Obviously these things will factor 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.280 into how long it takes you to prepare it. But 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.560 you can still handle up to three. But then there's 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.639 a rush, right like, uh, I don't know, there's some 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.239 hipster band is in town and everyone needs their coffee, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.880 so they all rushed the coffee shop at the same time. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.480 And now you've got twenty people asking you to make 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.240 very complicated drinks, but you can only serve three at 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.640 a time, and these drinks are getting progressively more complicated 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.520 and larger. Things start to slow down, so that person 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.920 who's you know, seventeen people back feels like they're waiting 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.600 forever to get a coffee, and they're thinking, what's the 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.480 big deal. It should only take It's just a coffee, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.280 You should just take two minutes. I should be in 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.160 and out in two minutes, and instead I've been sitting 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.040 here for fifteen minutes and the lines barely moved. That's 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.280 the same thing we experience with this traditional approach. If 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.720 you're talking about a single server hosting a lot of files, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.800 a lot of clients contacting the server for the files, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.240 and those files are big, it just means that things 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:45.600 can get bottlenecked and slow down. So there were some 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.160 different approaches to trying to figure out how to make 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.840 this uh more streamlined, and but one way is to 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.400 just increase broadband speed. Right, So essentially, if you're talking 0:03:55.440 --> 0:04:00.120 about the Internet being a series of tubes, that's it. Bigger, bigger, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.840 longer tubes, more tubes, bigger tubes, and more tubes. Yeah, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:05.760 those are your two choices, right. You make them bigger 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.160 so that you can shove more stuff through the tubes, 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:09.560 or you make a lot more of them so that 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.760 there are a new ways for it to pass through. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.240 But you're still kind of ball necked by the the 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.400 server itself and how quickly it can respond to requests. Sure, 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:25.280 so if this approach is really slow, then one alternative 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.760 is to distribute a file across a network so that 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.080 you have lots of different options when you need to 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.840 get that file. Right, So in this instance, instead of 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.640 saying that Lauren is the only person who can serve 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.040 coffee within a twenty mile radius. And that's why we're 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.960 all kind of uh, you know, up the creek when 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.719 we walk into the coffee shop and we see there's 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.359 fifteen people ahead of Instead, we have a coffee shop 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.240 on every corner and across the street from each other, 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.479 and next door to one another. Their coffee shops everywhere. 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.560 So really I just have to walk into any coffee 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.800 shop and I can stand in the middle of the 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.680 street and shout coffee and someone will bring one. Right. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.560 So that's that's kind of the idea of the peer 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:09.000 to peer network. In this sense, you have some form 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.960 of software that allows you to connect to a distributed 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.839 network where when you participate in this network, you're essentially 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.440 giving permission to access part of your hard drive. Yeah, 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.320 you just set aside a little folder on your hard 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.359 drive that is okay for this program to access, and 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:28.839 then everyone else who is running the same program also 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.960 has folders set up. Hopefully they have stuff in them, right, Yeah, 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:34.600 Because one thing you could do is you can set 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:36.600 up this folder and then immediately move stuff out of 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.920 the folder, and then you're leaching. That's the term, right, right, 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.839 it's it's considered a faux pas and in sharing circles 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.880 just because you're you're not putting anything back out into 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.320 the community. Right. So with peer to peer, let's say 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.440 you've got this folder that's designated as a shared folder, 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.960 and when you're connected to the software, anyone who's also 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.200 connected the software, when they're searching for a specific file, 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.279 if your file, if you happen to have that file 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.960 within your folder, you come up as an option to 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:09.359 connect to download from your computer. Now, the problem with 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:11.960 peer to peer, even it solves one issue, right, The 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.760 one issue is that if you go with the clients 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.839 server uh model, then you are limited by the server. 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.160 Like if the server is the only machine out there 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.960 that has an existing version of this file, then that's 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:26.840 the one destination you can go to, and you are 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.479 stuck with whatever problems that might have. In peer to peer, 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.920 you're adding more tubes, but you're not making them any bigger, right, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.720 So in other words, like I could you know, if 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.000 we're going back to our coffee shop, example, and we 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.600 have these coffee shops everywhere, I can walk to the 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.279 coffee shop. That's closest to me, But there's no guarantee 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.680 that coffee shop won't have the world's slowest server, or 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:49.960 you know, like that someone who's just they they are 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.839 very meticulous about the way they make their coffee, or 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:54.599 there might be two or three people in front of 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.120 me at that coffee shop and I have to wait 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.760 for them. Anyway, it gives me more options, it does 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.880 not necessarily mean it will be faster, and the really 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.919 good software will identify the person with the best connection 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:09.200 who has that file exactly. Yeah, So that way it 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.600 gives you the best chance of having a smooth transfer. 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.640 And it's also good to note that this creates more 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.360 stability when you're trying to get a file. So the 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.080 other big issue with the old clients server approach is 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.400 that if that server suffers a problem, if it goes 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.280 down for some reason, power outage or whatever, then you're stuck. 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.320 You know, you don't you do not get that file. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.080 And if you were trying to download a big file 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.480 and it was maybe seventy of the way done and 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:38.560 the power goes out, there's a chance that file could 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.760 get corrupted in the process, and then you have to 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.240 start all over again, right, which was a real bummer. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.800 When peer to pier was was really big back in 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:51.800 the early two thousands, like late nineties, um, because you know, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:56.240 it was about that modems that could that could handle 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:02.480 broader band than fourteen four it's became available for consumer purchase. 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.360 And after that, you know, when when people started getting 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.160 connected to the ethernet was really when peer to peer happened. Yeah, 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.960 and then you you were able to you know, one 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.560 of the downsides is that traditionally, with most Internet service providers, 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.160 your upload speed is a fraction of what your download 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.600 speed is. Right. The reason for that is that ages ago, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.720 when companies began to offer internet service, they looked at 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.360 the broadband that they had available, like the bandwidth they 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.400 had available to the size of the tubes. Essentially, they're saying, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:34.959 all right, here's here's what we are capable of delivering 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.360 to our customers. How are we going to determine how 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.679 much is down link versus uplink? And then they said, well, 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.920 you know, probably people aren't sending stuff up to the 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.959 Internet that frequently. They're mostly trying to consume stuff pull 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.080 stuff down. This was before we were uploading millions of 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.720 years worth of YouTube videos every second. Yeah, this was 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.400 This was back when that was not even a consideration. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.040 So the idea was that, well, you know, we can 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.200 just make it a fraction upload speeds will be a 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.440 fraction of download because you there's nothing as frustrating really 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.520 as sitting down. Well this is probably that's that's exaggerating, 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.840 but it's very frustrating to sit down and try and 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.680 get at some sort of content online and then just 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.679 see either a buffering thing or a loading screen and 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.040 it just goes on forever. If you're talking about the 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.679 old old days of the Internet, there's nothing like trying 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.920 to look at a picture of something and watch it 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.880 slowly load pixel line by pixel line, and you're just thinking, 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.040 I have no idea what I'm looking at. I won't 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.160 know for another forty five minutes. I would I would 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.160 like the record to state that I just used I 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.840 just gestured at Jonathan to help you guys understand what 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.839 he was talking about and exactly how ineffective that was. 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.600 That was a great visual representation on an audio podcast. Yeah, 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:49.280 so you know that this approach meant that we suddenly 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.040 had all these other options, this peer to peer approach, 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.840 and this is the way a lot of those file 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.840 sharing services back in the day worked because lime Wire, Napster, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:03.000 that kind of thing. Yeah, it's all about let's find 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.080 people who have the stuff you want and connect this 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:09.280 create a connection directly to them. Yeah, so it almost 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.440 becomes like a direct phone line in a way, where 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.720 the connection is between the host computer and your computer, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:17.960 so you can get the file and then of course 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.120 once you have the file, your computer can become a 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.480 potential host computer. So now an improvement on that was 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.199 bit torrents approach, right, and I think it will be 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.520 really interesting to get into the intricacies of how bit 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.920 torrent works. But before we do that, let's take a 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:45.600 quick break. Let's get back to the show. Alright, we're back, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.000 and Lauren, you alluded to bit torrent. Now, this was 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.280 a totally different approach in the sense that it was 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.520 someone coming up with the idea of how can we 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.800 make these download speeds faster, not just more reliable so 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.560 that I have more options, but how can I get 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.440 the stuff I want faster, particularly if it's a really 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.040 large file, you know, and if you're if you're like 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.600 Jonathan said earlier, if your internet connection is maybe not 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.760 the best and something cuts out somewhere that you won't 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.319 lose all of the progress on downloading a file you 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.880 had already made. So this was the idea of a 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.440 programmer named Bram Cohen. Now, Bram Cohen had worked for 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.920 several dot com startups that never really took off, and 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.160 it just kind of failed over and over, and he 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.040 really wanted to work on something that worked. That was 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:33.160 a big ambition of his understandable And in two thousand 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.640 one he was also getting really irritated by these problems 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.720 we're talking about the slow download speed of large files. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.960 He liked the idea of the peer to peer network, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.920 but he didn't care for the execution. So in two 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.200 thousand one he begins work on a new protocol. Now 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.720 we've used the word protocol several times in this podcast, 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:54.600 just to remind you. A protocol really is just a 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.000 set of rules. It's kind of a kind of seven 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.080 instructions for a computer to follow. So he designed a 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:05.800 protocol that he called BitTorrent. Now, this was an attempt 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.720 to solve that connection problem um and the speed problem 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:11.600 at the same time. So you know, peer to peer 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:13.920 adjusted the connection. He wanted to do speed as well, 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.120 So how do you do that? Well. His approach was 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.320 to create this protocol that would allow files to be 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.720 distributed in pieces, and as you receive a piece, you 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.040 are also able to upload that piece even before your 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.320 file finishes downloading. So I might have a file that's 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.480 at twenty seven percent as it's slowly downloading, that twenty 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.560 seven is completely available for other people on the network 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.120 who are also trying to get that file. You could 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.920 also get pieces of these files from multiple sources, so 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.560 as long as everyone had the same file, then you 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:47.719 could get, you know, a piece here and a piece there. 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.360 So imagine that everyone has at least some part of 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.960 a five piece puzzle, and one person down the street 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.640 is giving you pieces uh one through twenty seven, and 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.640 someone on another side of the street is giving you 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.520 pieces forty three through and you're just getting You're getting 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.360 the whole puzzle, but you're getting them from different locations 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.839 all at the same time. It's like it's like if 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.200 everyone in that in that coffee house street has a 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:17.520 cup of coffee and you just kind of run down 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.080 and they all pour a little bit into your cup. Right. Yeah, 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.720 it's similar to that, except except with less like gross 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.320 spittle contamination, and also there's a pretty design at the top. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:27.920 I don't know how they managed that while you're running 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.080 down the street like a crazy person, but you know 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.000 they're talented, that's all. So he was thinking like this 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.800 would be the way of solving this problem of slow 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:43.840 download speeds. Now, he did not necessarily go about testing 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:48.200 this in a very scientific, scientific PC way. Did you 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.840 see how he tested Okay, folks, here's how he tested it. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:57.120 He collected a batch of freely available pornographic material and 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.960 then invited beta testers to see about getting hold of 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:05.679 this stuff using the bit torrent protocol. Stay classy, cohen U. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.360 But he figured that this was kind of a sure 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.520 fire away and because it was freely available stuff, it 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.320 wasn't like it wasn't copyrighted. He didn't have to worry 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.240 about running into problems with torrent systems have having fact 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.640 run into lots of copyright issues. We'll talk about that 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:22.880 towards the end of the show. You know, that's that's 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.920 a that's a totally different discussion. But he he he 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.120 wanted to try and test it out, and apparently that 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.760 wasn't considered a terribly auspicious beginning. But he eventually did 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.760 launch a working version of bit torrent for the general 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.160 public in October two thousand two. Now two years later 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.360 in two thousand four, he had a five person company 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:48.200 working on a search engine that would work alongside his protocol. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.680 So he designed the protocol, but one of the issues 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.280 people were running into was how do you find the 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.080 torrent files which are pointer files. I'll talk about them 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.400 a little bit more in a second. How do you 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:03.080 find these files that the facilitate the downloading process when 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.920 you're you're actually using the bit torrent software, and this 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.280 is via a tracker server. Right, So he created he 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.640 worked with this five person company, actually five person company 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.680 worked for him to create the search engine that would 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.880 look for these torrents to help make this process work 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.000 more smoothly. Uh. He was also then looked at by 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:26.040 a little company called Valve. Yeah, so Valive. Valve is thinking, 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.000 you know, we want to do a downloadable distributed network 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.080 approach for our games. We want to have this ability 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.720 to deliver games to our users that is fast and 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:41.080 reliable and doesn't put a lot of pressure training on 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.280 our own servers. Right, we don't that way, we don't 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.400 have to build out a whole data center just to 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:50.280 support this this model, this distribution model. So they contacted 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.080 Cohen and they hired him to work on a platform 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.400 that we now call Steam. Cohen was one of the 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.280 people who helped build that program out, and it was 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.320 all because he saw what he was doing with bit torrent, 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.880 and they said, that's the approach we want to take. 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.840 And in fact, Valve and Blizzard are two companies that 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:13.120 use bit torrent for a perfectly legitimate means of distributing 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:18.080 their files. It's a good time to just mention there's 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.680 nothing illegal about torrent files. No, no, it's it's just 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.200 a matter of distribution. It's kind of like if you 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.560 were to say, yeah, but you can get illegal material 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.200 that way. You can get illegal material through the mail, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.760 But you wouldn't say that means we should shut down 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.240 the postal service. You might say we should shed down 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:36.600 the postal service for other reasons, but not for that one. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.560 And same sort of argument you could use for bit torrent, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.560 like to say, let's get rid of bit torrent because 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.280 some people are sharing illegal files, even lots of people 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.360 sharing illegal files, doesn't mean that the tool itself is wrong, right. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.920 The technology itself can be used for lots of really 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.440 cool things like yeah, like like letting people like Valve 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.520 put games up online without having to buy giant servers, 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.640 or independent artists put their music online, right right, Yeah, 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.720 And there there are a lot of reasons there their 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.639 entire you know, whether it's software or video files, music files. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:09.920 You know, there are a lot of reasons why you 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.680 would want to take this approach. And uh, one of 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.919 the big ones is that it, like you said, it 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.600 takes the strain off the provider. Right. So, if I'm 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.879 a small business or an artist, an independent artist, I 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.719 might not have the resources available to me to create 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.320 a dedicated server where people can come and download stuff, 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.359 especially if I'm having to pay lots of fees to 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.080 maintain that. And you know, I mean, you know, for example, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.320 if you post some music to your personal website and uh, 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.159 Neil Gaiman or Will Wheaton link it on Twitter, and 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.000 all of a sudden, you're completely overwhelmed. This, by the way, 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.560 is a complete invitation for both Will Wheaton and Neil 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.600 Gaiman to tweet about our podcast. We would love that. 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.400 That would be gorgeous. Um. Yeah, so I wouldn't even 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.600 know what to do with myself I would probably totally 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:57.640 flip out. No, I would totally flip out. I wouldn't 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.360 probably there, there's no probably there. Yeah, Hey guys, it's 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.800 Jonathan again. We're gonna take another quick break and we 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.240 will be right back to talk more about bit torrent 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.879 in two thousand five. Already by this time, okay, the 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.520 bit torrents only three years old from when it officially launched. 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.480 Even by then, Hollywood had taken notice and was not 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.639 terribly happy. Yeah, the Motion Picture Association of America and 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.439 also the Recording Industry Association of America. That's um, the 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.879 m p A A and the R I double A. Yeah, 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.600 r I double A is is like, that's music. Essentially, 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.639 an m p A is film. So m P A 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.320 A UH in particular was concerned because the bit torrent 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.040 protocol did make moving large files much easier, which meant 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:55.679 that suddenly people were able to upload and download large 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.840 files like rips of films. They take a DVD and 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.120 ripped the film from the DVD and then share it 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.040 and you would get illegal copies. Or if you were 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.080 working on a digital film and you were part of 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.840 a digital film production and you had access to the file, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.960 there were movies that leaked out. UM some famous instances 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.400 of movies that leaked out before they had even hit 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.720 the theaters, where people were getting hold of pirated copies, 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.920 and Hollywood was really taking him a bit torrent even 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.200 though again, as we said, bit torrents a tool, it's 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:31.000 not like it was specifically facilitating the illegal activity. However, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.880 on November twenty two, two thousand five, Bram Cohen had 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.359 a joint news conference with the chairman of the m 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.040 p A A. Dan Glickman, and announced that he had 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.479 agreed to prevent his own bit torrent website from linking 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:50.040 to torrents pointing to illegally available movies. Now, before that point, 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:52.879 their policy was that if they were alerted to a 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.359 torrent that linked to those pointing to they would take 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.120 it down. So that was there, that was their policy 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:01.199 all all long. But they said, well, now we're just 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.280 going to make sure that that's much more streamlined, which 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.240 if you've followed these kind of these kind of cases 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.280 not just with bit torrent, but with other providers, other 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:14.800 platforms like YouTube for example, there are examples of takedown 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:19.639 notices that were improperly UM dealt with Yeah, and probably 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.760 dealt with or improperly submitted people who didn't actually have 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.720 the rights to something demanding they get taken down, and 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.240 then it gets taken down um, and then there then 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.080 there's some embarrassing ones. I think Microsoft just recently issued 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:38.920 a takedown request to itself. Yeah, so sometimes these sort 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.080 of things can end up being kind of embarrassing. But 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.679 he was saying that we want to you know, we 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:51.320 don't want to up so um. Today you can find 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.919 bit torrent on lots of different platforms. In fact, bit 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.440 torrent today allows you to do things like produce content 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.879 and then distribute it. So it's design more now to help, 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.040 like I said, those small businesses, the independent artists to 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.639 create content, and then even to to enable it so 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:15.680 it'll perform properly on things like smartphones, tablets, consoles, creating 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.000 a huge distribution network that people wouldn't have had access to, 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.240 you know, ten years ago. So there are many reasons 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.639 why it's a very useful tool. So let's talk a 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.680 little bit about how it actually does what it does now. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.760 First of all, it's open source, which kind of tells 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.440 you that Cohen wasn't necessarily looking to create like a 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:42.000 a h multibillion dollar. This wasn't a commercial venture. No, 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.280 he wanted he really believed in this. And open source 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.879 means you can see the source code. You can go 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.160