Thank You, BitTorrent

Wired News: Film and television executives no doubt wish the increasingly popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing system never saw the light of day. Thousands of consumers are using the software to download hundreds of movies and hours upon hours of television programming.
But one industry’s threat is another’s opportunity. There’s an upside to allowing viewers to transfer copyright material content over BitTorrent.
As noted by Japanese entrepreneur Joi Ito, fans of the Japanese anime series Naruto regularly post translated episodes of the show to BitTorrent, which attracts more fans to the series.
The relatively obscure program has spawned a global following in online forums, internet relay chat channels and fan sites.
With box sets and special edition DVDs, Ito wrote, the copyright holders can make a tidy sum from fans prepared to “spend thousands of dollars on one show.”
The Other Side of BitTorrent [Wired News]