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Azureus Inc. Moves Toward Commercialization

Posted by CowboyNeal on Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:11 AM
from the buy-this dept.
The Almighty Buck Software The Internet
SamBob writes "Future releases of the most popular BitTorrent client, Azureus, will come bundled with a 'platform' for media companies to promote their product to Azureus' multi-million users, reports Slyck.com. Azureus Inc., who are the newly formed company behind the Azureus software, plan to generate a profit from the platform in the future, but in the short-term are hoping to help independent film companies find their audience."

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[+] Azureus' HD Videos Attempt To Trump YouTube 117 comments
tedgyz writes "Wired has an article describing a high definition video service from Azureus. It looks like many of the highlights of our previous discussion about service commercialization are panning out. The new Zudeo site, made by the masterminds behind the bittorrent service, aims to be a platform for movie-makers and professionals. Will distancing itself from the homespun efforts of YouTube prove successful, or lead to the service being ignored?" From the article: "With high-definition video cameras available for less than $1,000, and with the rapid adoption of HDTVs in the home, it's clear that high-definition entertainment has a future. But the visual clarity of internet video tends to be less than stellar, mostly because the bandwidth costs associated with serving large, high-quality video files is prohibitively expensive. However, the BitTorrent protocol enables content distributors like Azureus to share large files using much less bandwidth."
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  • Above the radar (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nurb432 (527695) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:15AM (#15227927) Homepage Journal
    In the current anti p2p world, i dont think thats such a good idea. Now they will be a direct target.

    • Re:Above the radar (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Cat9117600 (627358) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:27AM (#15227986) Homepage
      They'll be a direct target if they offer copyrighter material without permission. If they do this the right way, and sign on independent movies (which the article mentions) with permission from the makers, we might finally see p2p distribution of movies and music become legitimate, and Azureus become a place to get good, independent legal media.
      [ Parent ]

  • "Platform?" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hunterx11 (778171) <hunterx11&gmail,com> on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:18AM (#15227938) Homepage Journal
    Am I the only one who thinks that this really means that it is going to be the next Kazaa?

    • Re:"Platform?" (Score:3, Informative)

      by BPinard (971384)
      Exactly what I was thinking. This is bad news. Good thing I've been using uTorrent for a while now.
      • Good thing I've been using uTorrent for a while now.

        I love utorrent. I just wish there was a Linux version or alternative. I used to use the btdownloadcurses, but it becomes cumbersome when you want to leech/seed several torrents at once.

        • Re:"Platform?" (Score:3, Informative)

          by nkh (750837)
          try launchmany-curses.py if you want to download many torrents at the same time, for example: launchmany-curses.py --max_upload_rate 5 . to download all the torrents of the current directory, and on Mac OS X, if you drag and drop new torrents in this direc

            • Re:"Platform?" (Score:3, Informative)

              by kv9 (697238)
              i'd prefer a platformed nongui version, preferrably written in C so i wouldn't even notice it running :)

              it's your lucky day. rtorrent is written around a very nice C++ library (hence the site name), so you can even hack your own client [rakshasa.no] pretty easily if yo

            • Re:"Platform?" (Score:3, Informative)

              by AnyoneEB (574727)
              Uh, azureus used SWT (native widgets; same as Eclipse) last I checked... which was a long time ago.

      • uTorrent Azureus (Score:3, Informative)

        by mriker (571666)
        I had been using Azureus for quite a long time, but recently started to look for an alternative because Azureus is such an enormous resource-hog. I wasn't optimistic; Azureus has a lot of great features that I didn't want to part with. Then I found uTorr
    • Absolutely.

      Actually the wider pattern is :

      Build company doing something cool for free to get users.
      Whore users off to advertisers.
      Users go to next company doing something cool for free.

      If you're really lucky you get to sell your company somewhere between s

    • Re:"Platform?" (Score:5, Informative)

      by Arker (91948) on Saturday April 29 2006, @03:45PM (#15229291) Homepage

      Am I the only one who thinks that this really means that it is going to be the next Kazaa?

      No, you're not alone, you're in the company of all the other commentors that couldn't be bothered to read the article.

      [ Parent ]

  • This will be a good thing... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Omicron32 (646469) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:19AM (#15227945) Homepage
    As long as there is no way the same media companies can track what you download elsewhere, I don't see the problem in this. Is Azereus open source? If it is there won't really be a way to hide snooping software in there.

    I believe it'll be a good thing that will help Bittorrent be seen in a better light. I just hope it'll remain as cross-platform as the bittorrent client.

    • Is Azereus open source? If it is there won't really be a way to hide snooping software in there.
      There's also no way to prevent someone from stripping out the content layer and offering up Azureus 'Light'.

      The bittorrent n00blets will use the content layered

  • Not a terribly bright idea. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Darlantan (130471) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:20AM (#15227946)
    If they make it annoying at all, what's to prevent people from switching to the slew of other BT apps out there? Given the fact that advertising is almost always made to catch the eye, it'll have a hard time not annoying users. Frankly, I'd switch to something else even if it was a static clickable banner.
    • Note that I'm assuming they'll have some more direct system tacked on than a screen with a URL in the new media. That may not be the case, but unless the new stuff is really awesome, I don't see it getting enough hits to make the people paying to have it t
  • I would have to say that I prefer the official BitTorrent client from Bram Cohen. It is a simple, elegant solution. I do notice that every time I look at a peer list it is filled with Azureus, but only a handful of the official client. Azureus is just t

  • Fork. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ph33r th3 g(O)at (592622) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:22AM (#15227960)
    The client is open source, no?

  • Ah, I see... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bacon Bits (926911) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:23AM (#15227961)
    BitTorrent + Steam + Multimedia content providers = profit.

    All you have to do is, say, convince Cartoon Network or Sci-Fi to publish their TV shows (with commercials intact) through Azureus. Users provide most of the bandwidth, content is delivered in a manner that earns providers money, and Azureus takes a slice off the top.

    And suddenly we won't see HBO suing for people downloading the latest Sopranos. We'll see HBO distributing episodes for $1-2 to anybody who wants on the private tracker. Or better yet, users simply subscribe to the HBO/Azureus service and can download any available content they want that month and view as they please. Keep the price reasonable and the only pirates you have to battle are the people who wouldn't pay for your service even if they couldn't decrypt your works.

      • Then they go under to the first business that does it right. Same as CD-ROM software instead of floppies. Same as cassette instead of vinyl, CD instead of cassette. Same as DVD instead of VHS.

        In 10 years, consumer demand for eminantly portable digital c

  • well (Score:5, Informative)

    by bwd (936324) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:25AM (#15227980) Homepage
    It looks like it's time to migrate to utorrent [utorrent.com] if you haven't already. There no commercialization associated with it and it's much faster. The only downside is that it's for windows only.

    • Re:well (Score:5, Interesting)

      by paulius_g (808556) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:49AM (#15228092) Homepage
      And for Linux, use TorrentFlux [torrentflux.com] which is a PHP torrent client which is controlable from the web.

      It's really sweet and it's way nicer than VNCing to a Linux desktop filled with BitTorrent clients opened.
      [ Parent ]

    • Re:well (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dis*abstraction (967890)
      And for the Mac, there's Transmission [m0k.org], an open source Cocoa-native client that looks and feels like it was actually written by a true-blue Mac user with a sense of taste. Caveat: it doesn't support distributed tracking (yet). But for most torrents, it's th

    • Giving up your freedom is too high a price to pay. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jbn-o (555068) <mail@digitalcitizen.info> on Saturday April 29 2006, @12:51PM (#15228657) Homepage

      In part, Azureus and the BitTorrent programs are attractive because they are free software—users are free to run, share, and modify the software. By contrast, uTorrent is non-free software—users can't be sure what they're really running because they can't inspect the program or get others they trust to inspect the software for them. If uTorrent doesn't do what a user wants, changes are difficult to implement (if not effectively impossible) and are not legally allowed besides. Don't think about helping your community by improving uTorrent and distributing the improved version, users can't legally do that either. Despite these restrictions, the uTorrent refers to the situation uTorrent users face as "support [utorrent.com]" in the uTorrent FAQ which frames the issue not from the perspective that users deserve software freedom, but the more narrow developmental goals of the Open Source movement [gnu.org] which merely shrugs slightly disappointedly at proprietary software.

      Apparently it takes so little to get some to give up their software freedom, even in circumstances where there are perfectly capable free software programs to do the same job.

      [ Parent ]

  • "Free" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ABoerma (941672)
    So, how long before someone will start an ad-free fork?

  • This does not mean advertising (Score:4, Informative)

    by anzev (894391) on Saturday April 29 2006, @11:02AM (#15228153)
    I'm not sure if all of you just want to post ASAP or can't read but this does not mean they will bundle azureus with adware of any sorts. AFAIK, a content layer will just provide a way of getting free content (they said in TFA that they have not yet analyzed any serious payment methods so this could mean it will be free, or not). Too bad they won't let the big distributors come into play:

    "Large movie studios and record labels will not be targeted for the project, as the Azureus team do not believe that they are ready yet. "You're not going to see Star Wars or Batman quite yet," joked Rohter."

    So basically everybody will be allowed to make a movie, then post it on this platform, and if I will like the "genre" I will just download it... Kindof :).

    Anyway, I think it's premature to judge anything until we see what they've got.

  • Azureus' source may fork here. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Andronicus (263666) on Saturday April 29 2006, @11:08AM (#15228178) Homepage
    I think this is a bad move for the Azureus team. The need to make some money is turning the team away from building the best generalized BitTorrent implementation, so that it can become something that can generate some cash. I think that will ultimately kill it in it's new form, but it's present for may live on under new developers.

    I don't mind that the team has this desire to profit from their work, they should. But this new development is unfortunate (for we users of current Azureus).

    The community who has made Azureus popular has done so because the program is a really novel and effective implementation of the BitTorrent protocol for general purposes. It's supremely useful.

    What they (the Azureus team) want to do with it now is very different and more narrowly defined. I don't think they understand that the audience which made their program popular is not necessarily the same (not at all the same IMHO) audience that might enjoy a P2P client with pay-per-download content.

    I think many will bail to other general BitTorrent clients, and/or the source of Azureus will fork and a new crop of developers will continue to carry forward the original mission of the program: to make it the best and most portable general BitTorrent implementation.

  • BT clients with RSS? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Johnso (520335) on Saturday April 29 2006, @11:17AM (#15228221)
    Are there any good clients besides Azureus that provide RSS functionality? It's nice to be able to automatically syndicate downloads. In fact, the RSSImport plug-in for Azureus [sourceforge.net] is the only reason I still use that bloatware.

    Do any other BT clients offer RSS functionality?

    • Re:BT clients with RSS? (Score:4, Informative)

      by gooseserbus (802066) on Saturday April 29 2006, @12:26PM (#15228557)
      Why not try one of the following:

      LH-ABC [freeforum101.com] or ABC_OKC [dyndns.org]

      Borh of these are forks of the popular python-based open source bittorrent client ABC [sourceforge.net] which runs on Linux (and is itself based on BitTornado which extended from from Original Bittorrent Core System, coded by Bram Cohen). These forks should therefore also in turn run on Linux. LH-ABC and ABC_OKC both have support for RSS.

      uTorrent [utorrent.com] a very small and popular closed source Microsoft Windows based bitorrent client. Has extensive support for RSS and can be run on Linux using Wine (I don't know how successfully but I know it can and has been done).

      G3 Torrent [sourceforge.net]Another open-source Python based bittorrent client the Original Bittorrent Core System, coded by Bram Cohen. It has support for RSS and runs on Linux (I think).

      Rufus [sourceforge.net] Another open-source Python based bittorrent client (based on G3 Torrent) with support for RSS and runs on Linux (I think).

      ZipTorrent [ziptorrent.com] Another closed source (and supposedly small) Microsoft Windows based bitorrent client. Has support for RSS, other than that I don't know anything about it.
      [ Parent ]

  • Ok, time to search for a new bittorrent client. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zangief (461457) on Saturday April 29 2006, @04:01PM (#15229355) Homepage Journal
    Thank you very much Azureus. Good luck.

  • Typical Slashdot response (Score:3, Insightful)

    by petrus4 (213815) on Sunday April 30 2006, @12:17AM (#15230730) Homepage Journal
    Whenever it's learned on here that someone wants to actually get paid for what they do, they're immediately branded as the spawn of Satan.

    I dislike a lot of what corporations do as much as the next person, but do we really need this kneejerk response that anybody who wants to make *any* money at all is declared soulless, ravening evil?

    People need to eat, and they generally also want to do a lot of other things...and last I checked, food and most of said other things usually cost money. That has to come from somewhere, and what I really think is wrong is the idea that the only morally legitimate means of earning it is sitting in a cubicle like a battery chicken for eight (or however many more) hours a day.

    If you're going to come back at me with the "donation" response as well, don't bother. I'm aware that the only real reason why 98% of the readership of this site believe that making money from software is evil is because Richard Stallman said so...not because they themselves actually have a reason for said belief.

    Yes, the corporate rampage in a lot of different areas is a problem...but kneejerk, mindless Communism is too. They're both extremes, and they're both equally undesirable. RMS is as much a destructive fanatic in his own way as Gates or Ballmer are in theirs. Both sides want to remake the world in *their* own image, and to hell with what anybody else wants.

    A lot of people here pride themselves on being intellectuals...but sometimes, some of you really don't act like it.

    • Re:I can only hope (Score:5, Informative)

      by TheRaven64 (641858) on Saturday April 29 2006, @10:33AM (#15228019) Homepage Journal
      I've only used it on OS X, and here it is a travesty. The GUI doesn't do live resizing (unlike every other OS X app). You often need to do a small resize to persuade the GUI to actually draw in the right place. The widgets don't behave quite like the ones that look the same in other apps. After an hour or so of use, it climbs to over 0.5GB of RAM usage (in-core size, not just VM size). It somehow seems to leak CPU - after a couple of hours it will be using 100% of my CPU for no observable reason.

      I am not sure how much of this is due to Azureus and how much to SWT, but whatever the cause the result is a completely unusable product.

      [ Parent ]

      • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Hackeron (704093)
        Yes, you're right, but what do you use instead? - What else supports encryption (absolutely must for most UK users these days to avoid throttling) and allows you to prioritize files in a collection? And has all those other useful features like decentralise

          • Virtual PC? (Score:3, Informative)

            by tepples (727027)

            On other systems... uTorrent running on Wine? Virtual Machine?

            Do you seriously think Mac OS X + Microsoft Virtual PC + Microsoft Windows XP + uTorrent has a smaller footprint than Mac OS X + JVM + Azureus?

      • although i have no concrete proof, i believe it sucks on osx because the ppc java virtual machine is poo. (i dont have an intel mac so i cant say if its any better on osx/intel). i have an old 1GHz windows pc with a mere 1/2 GB of ram that i do my torrenti
      • There are numerous OS X Bit-torrent apps, but it took me a while to find one that's fast and connects to as many peers as Azureus. Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/) seems to be the ticket. It's simple and Cocoa-based. I'm using a recent SVN build

          • Re:Replace Azureus (Score:3, Insightful)

            by ScrewMaster (602015)
            Maybe, but it does go to show why Java's "write once run anywhere" philosophy never really took off on the desktop. I really shouldn't need to double my computer's memory to run a communications program, and while one might be tempted to think that "well,

      • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Interesting)

        by MoonBuggy (611105)
        Problem is, what else is out there for the Mac? I'm still using Azureus with pretty much the same problems as you simply because I can't find anything that offers the nice 'traditional P2P' two pane interface with the close-up detail windows for each torre

      • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hackstraw (262471) *
        I've only used it on OS X, and here it is a travesty. The GUI doesn't do live resizing (unlike every other OS X app). You often need to do a small resize to persuade the GUI to actually draw in the right place. The widgets don't behave quite like the ones

      • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Informative)

        by Arker (91948)

        Your experience is not congruent with mine.

        I use it on OSX, have been for 3 years now. The GUI isn't perfect, yes, that's true, but I don't much care. It has the features I want exposed, even if it did take slightly longer to find them all. The interfac

          • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Arker (91948)
            Honestly, why should I care?

            This is a utility program, not a beauty pageant contestant.

            It's got a job to do. It does it, as well or better than any other option.

            The GUI isn't pretty, but it is superbly functional. Just about anything you might ever need to

    • Re:I can only hope (Score:3, Interesting)

      by todd10k (889348)
      "They don't belong in the most used BitTorrent clients list."

      Lies. Azureus is great for what i use it for. Upnp support, encryption, graphical swarm trees, the ability to download only from specific seeders/peers, the ability to throttel my speeds at wi

    • Re:missing a step (Score:3, Insightful)

      by chrispl (189217)
      I use an old celeron running windows with azureus and a bunch of plugins as a remote downloader. The web interface and automatic queing are huge time savers. The system's uptime is measured in weeks with Azureus running 24/7 with no slowdowns. No complaint
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