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"You didn\u2019t think the BitTorrent diehards would take Comcast\u2019s conviction, as stated quite publicly this past week to filter out file sharing from its network, sitting down, did you? Of course not. It would be highly unusual for them to remain motionless on the sidelines.\nTorrentFreak\u2019s Ernesto reported yesterday evening that \u201Cseveral BitTorrent developers have joined forces to propose a new protocol extension with the ability to bypass...interfering techniques used by Comcast and other ISPs.\u201D So, you know, transfer troubles may confront you now, but the so-called kings of peer-to-peer will have you torrenting at quick and leisurely speeds real soon. Probably.\nAnd just to clarify, we do refer to online transfers of legally \u201Ctorrent-able\u201D goods. Like Linux distros. And a number of independent films and music releases. (Radiohead\u2019s In Rainbows and the digital copyright documentary \u201CSteal this Film 2\u201D are two recent examples that gained relative prominence in recent months.)\nIt certainly goes without saying that the efforts of developers of peer-to-peer systems generally have proven effective at subverting blocks placed in their way by various well-financied agencies. Time and time again, use of the BitTorrent protocol has managed to proliferate greatly, despite some corporations\u2019 and officials\u2019 efforts to deter such growth.\nYet it is nonetheless unfortunate that the vehicle (BitTorrent) upon which both legal and illegal data transfers are made is the target of ISPs and copyright owners and protectors. (RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, etc.) It has been labeled an unsavory and illegitimate platform, regardless of its clear benefit to the promotion of efficient data distribution on the Web. Indeed, the network operators should ideally be seeking ways to integrate their own systems with that of the BitTorrent protocol. If the health and efficiency of their respective networks is in fact their primary concern, they should have no reason to so openly denigrate the invention.\nWhat drives the \u201Cfair use\u201D point home further is that there is legitimate business being conducted through the use of BitTorrent. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network is an example. Vuze, a Web-based storefront for video programming derived from sources all over the globe, is another. Both are profit-seeking ventures. And yet they are relegated to an Internet demographic by ISPs that simply \u201Cdoes not pass go.\u201D\nPerhaps legislation recently introduced by a US House representative, Ed Markey, written to bring added legitimacy to the Net neutrality effort in all its various forms and motives, will help grant BitTorrent a better name in the seasons ahead. Perhaps not. Whatever the case may be, there\u2019s reason to give the protocol its due. As something that promotes efficiency on an Internet whose infrastructure is being pressed with greatly increasing amounts of media each and every day, it certainly carries some worthwhile technological merit, and should not be allowed a tarnishing by corporations."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/02/16/bittorrent-developers-respond-to-comcast/>