TorrentSpy's Quest for Legitimacy

February 8, 2006

Thomas Mennecke

Slyck.com: Let' say TorrentSpy reaches an agreement with a movie studio. What will that mean to the end user? How much will their current experience change?

TorrentSpy: The plan is for the user experience to remain the same - there will simply be authorized downloads in the search results. So far the studios have been resistant to this idea...which is unfortunate. However, they resisted the VHS tape if you remember and that has been a massive success for them. Heck, they even resisted the DVD too if I recall. Eventually they will realize the huge opportunity they are missing out on and hopefully we will be there to make great things happen.

Slyck.com: In response to legal threats, TorrentSpy has been filtering results for nearly a year now. How has this affected your daily traffic?

TorrentSpy: Actually we have always filtered by following the procedures of the DMCA. We may not have grown as fast as some of the sites that don't filter, but that is OK with me.

Slyck.com: Is it the duty of torrent search site owners to police the torrents their search engine finds?

TorrentSpy: It is not the responsibility of a search engine to monitor content indexed and I am not sure how such a thing would be possible in the first place. The system simply searches the web and lists the torrent files it finds. We make it pretty easy for rights holders to remove torrents of their content and many companies (such as Microsoft) use it all the time.

Slyck.com: Is there a danger legitimate content, such as parodies and spoofs of copyright woks, could get caught up in a filter?

TorrentSpy: No filter is perfect and most are very, very far from it. Napster was never able to develop a good filter and I don't believe anyone else has either. Here is a good example of the danger with inadequate filtering: At one time AOL tried to filter websites for parental controls or something. A girl knew someone had breast cancer so she tried to learn more about it on the web.

Unfortunately AOL said naughty, naughty, "breast" is porn so you cannot learn about this horrible disease your friend has. These examples happen all the time, and while parental controls can error on the side of being too restrictive, the Internet at large cannot subject itself to inaccuracies of this nature.

Then there are things like "Star Wars: Revelations" which is a fan film that is allowed by Lucas. What is the automated filter to keep that in but other stuff out? I have no idea and neither do my developers. It is a giant mess that nobody has figured out how to do well yet.

Slyck.com: Is the plan to filter out all unauthorized copyright material over night, or is this going to be a gradual process?

TorrentSpy: We have had a filtering policy in place since the site began and it seems to be working well for both rights holders and our users, so we have no plans to change it.

Slyck.com: Have you begun talks with content owners/providers yet? How receptive have owners/providers been? What types of media will you index, music, movies, and games?

Our goal is to index all media types, movies, music, games, and software. We have talked with a number of movie companies, music labels, and individuals to figure out something that can work for everyone. The reactions range from "get out now" to "love it! I want your baby" so there is still a lot of work to be done. We believe what we want to accomplish will benefit everyone so remain hopeful it will all come together.

Slyck.com: TorrentSpy has aggravated users by including adware in "free" screensavers. Is this any way for an internet business to behave? For example, sites like iTunes or CinemaNow would never be caught distributing ad/spyware. It is a very "warez" thing to do. Can you be taken seriously with this history?

TorrentSpy: Haha, well that is not exactly a fair comparison since iTunes and CinemaNow charge for their downloads.

Those screensavers were a giant pain since we had to license all the pics - The company wanted money, then the girls wanted money, then the photographers wanted money. So how do you pay for that? Besides, we were careful to pick a product that allowed an easy uninstall. Don't like it? Fine, uninstall it with a few clicks. I guess I don't see what everyone is so upset about when it is that easy. Of course I am sure to get flamed for that opinion :-D

Slyck.com: If you could look into the crystal ball for a moment, when do you foresee the first authorized content appearing on Torrent Spy?

TorrentSpy: There already is authorized content on TorrentSpy. Some people have uploaded torrents of their own stuff to get it distributed. We do intend to include additional material as well though. As for movie and recorded music content, I hope we'll have something up in the next 30 days.

Slyck.com: What are your thoughts on DRM and how will such technology play a role on the future Torrent Spy?

TorrentSpy: Right or wrong, people are used to the concept that buying something means they own it and can do whatever they want with it. DRM gets in the way of that perception so people don't like it very much.

The thing I hate about DRM is that if you upgrade your computer, have a hard drive crash, get your MP3 player stolen, etc. all the purchased DRM protected media you have is gone with it. I don't know about you, but that kind of stuff happens to me all the time so losing all my DRM content is not good.

So DRM has both technical and social barriers to adoption and has a long way to go before people accept it, especially with the restrictions the media companies want to implement with it.

Slyck.com: Given the low cost of bandwidth compared to the cost of downloads, how can P2P play a serious role in the distribution of video content? If people want to go through the hassle of getting to grips with P2P, would they not just pirate the content?

TorrentSpy: iTunes has shown that people are willing to pay a reasonable price for music and now TV. They have done hundreds of millions of downloads. Music has been easily obtainable on p2p networks for years and if everyone was obsessed with piracy, iTunes would not be the success it is today.

There are some compelling reasons for authorized content. The first is download speed. BT is great, but it is still slower than a direct download. Another is assurance that the media is not some sort of virus or trojan (that recent Microsoft exploit with image files was scary!) Another is to support the artist who made the work. There are a few more, but those are the big ones.

Slyck.com: Any other thoughts, comments, observations?

TorrentSpy: I believe the efforts of the MPAA and especially RIAA to date have been shortsighted and that fanatical filtering (and lawsuits) of everything in sight has not been a success for them in the 6+ years they have been doing it (and I don't see that it ever will). They are blinding themselves to the larger opportunity of providing viable alternatives to illegal downloading by end users. We can help if they will only allow us the opportunity.

-- As TorrentSpy moves forward with its plans, it will try to force the reconciliation of two ideals. One, content owners must accept that the Internet, for all its short comings, will be the distribution medium of the future. Second, those who have refused to accept the viability of paid content must now find a way to live along side it.