Posted by Migo on Aug 10th, 2007
BitTorrent, Inc. has made the source code its file-sharing client BitTorrent. Source code from versions 5 and below are still available under the open source license.
President of BitTorrent, Inc., Ashwin Navin, explained why they made the decision to go closed source on their mainline client in an interview with Slyck.com.
“There are two issues people need to come to grips with. Developers who produce open source products will often have their product repackaged and redistributed by businesses with malicious intent. They repackage the software with spyware or charge for the product. We often receive phone calls from people who complain they have paid for the BitTorrent client.”
He went on to say that keeping the source code closed creates a “certain amount of distinction” between BitTorrent and repackaged software. It will also stay a free download product, free as in free beer not as in free speech.
Still want to get your hands on the specifications for the protocol extensions? Well, all you have to do is pick up BitTorrent’s Software Developer Kit (SDK). The protocol extensions still remain open, it seems to be just the client that has closed off. The decision isn’t going to go over well with a lot of people. However, for the casual user or those who want to contribute to BitTorrent development, most probably won’t notice much of a change.
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Devin de Gruyl
August 12, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Does anyone still even use the canonical BT client? o_O I would’ve thought we’d all migrated to better clients like Azureus, μTorrent, or Deluge by now…
August 12th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Actually, uTorrent is owned by BitTorrent and it’s always been closed source. This just means that any improvements or features that are added to the BT client will not be viewable in the source. This might keep people from making the same features available on their clients, but most people won’t notice much of a difference at all.