Bit Torrent Rents Movies

The BitTorrent Entertainment Network will debut with major film and TV rentals. The downloads are secured with Microsoft DRM. They expire within 30 days of purchase and 24 hours of first viewing.

BitTorrent co-founder and COO Ashwin Navin said the studios had offered to allow BitTorrent to sell digital downloads but they declined. "We don't think the current prices are a smart thing to show any user," he said. "We want to allocate services with very digestible price points."

Digestible? New release rentals are $4, older releases $2, and TV episodes $2. These are the same prices offered at direct download web sites with the same DRM. There is one difference. The user is now contributing HIS bandwidth, HIS storage, and HIS CPU to help distribute the files. Those prices are hardly digestible when the customer receives no incentive in return for helping Bit Torrent sell its flicks.