BitTorrent creators to enforce trademark

BIT TORRENT'S creator Bram Cohen is considering enforcing the trademark for his software as his outfit moves into legal movie and music distribution.

BitTorrent President Ashwin Navin said that while Cohen has allowed other people or companies to use his work freely under an open-source software license that is all set to change soon.

Cohen's policy has resulted in a huge number of software programs that claim they are compatible with BitTorrent downloads.

Navin said that now Cohen wants to use BitTorrent to distribute movies and other media legally, all that software with his company's name on it is looking a bit risky.

The company says that any trademark clampdown will be done in the name of trying to protect users.

BitTorrent is apparently concerned about people calling their software BitTorrent to achieve a certain level of popularity in order to distribute spyware and adware.

Under the scheme people who want rights to use the BitTorrent trademark will have to pay a 'nominal' fee to the company, which will review the software to ensure it is in compliance with a set of security standards.

Navin said that he didn't expect the new policy would make BitTorrent much cash, but it would keep users safe.

More at ZD Net, here. µ