And The Most Downloaded Torrent of 2013 is…. Completely Legal For many people BitTorrent is synonymous with piracy, but the popular file-sharing technology has much more to offer. Over the past year BitTorrent Inc. has intensified its efforts to help artists reach millions of new fans, and not without result. A bundle of tracks from Moby's latest album Innocents, which can be downloaded for free and completely legally, is the most-shared torrent of 2013 with an impressive 8.9 million downloads. Earlier today we published a list of the top 20 most-pirated artists. BitTorrent Inc., the company behind the immensely popular file-sharing client uTorrent, has just released an overview detailing the successes of its “bundles” program alongside a list of the most-downloaded legal content. The company regularly teams up with artists to release free content. According to BitTorrent Inc., this bundle with free tracks was the most-shared torrent of 2013, with a staggering 8.9 million downloads. That can be considered quite a success.
Are Torrent Sites All About the Money? One of the claims of anti-filesharing groups is that the people behind file-sharing sites and services only run them to make money. Those who believe in sharing for sharing's sake believe that the opposite to be true. But in actual fact, and in common with so many facets of the piracy debate, the truth lies hidden behind many shades of gray, somewhere in the middle. Imagine a scenario in which all file-sharing, streaming, linking and hosting websites are completely drained of cash, their revenues throttled by relentless anti-piracy company pressure. Free content and online piracy more or less comes to an end – right? If the rhetoric coming out of industry bodies like the RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BPI and FACT is to be believed, that’s exactly what would happen. But is that the case? Entertainment companies nearly always offer a resounding ‘YES’ to each of the above while uncompromising pro-piracy advocates throw in a blanket “NO”. Everyone needs at least a little money Then what?