(AP) — BitTorrent Inc., makers of a technology often used to trade
pirated copies of Hollywood movies, is launching a Web site that will
sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios.
The BitTorrent Entertainment Network was set to launch Monday with
films from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate and episodes of TV shows such as “24”
and “Punk’d.”

The service is squarely aimed at young men and boys who regularly use
BitTorrent to trade pirated versions of the same films and who more
often watch such files on their computer instead of on a big screen TV
in the living room.

The San Francisco-based company is betting that at least one-third
of the 135 million people who have downloaded the BitTorrent software
will be willing to pay for high-quality legitimate content rather than
take their chances with pirated fare.

“The vast majority of our audience just loves digital content,”
Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent, told The
Associated Press. “Now we have to program for that audience and create
a better experience for that content so the audience converts to the
service that makes the studios money.”

Reported by the Assoc. Press, found on http://www.physorg.com.