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Future BitTorrent Protocol To Be Closed

From perousing Slashdot today it would seem that BitTorrent Inc have decided to make all future releases of the BitTorrent client and protocol closed source. While a number of the clients are already closed source, I suppose this will create difficulty in the future with file format changes, or modifications to the scrape protocol which will affect my BitTorrent library. Any serious effects on my PHP library from changes should be some time in the future since I'm certain most of the modifications to the clients and protocol will be contained to the transmission of the actual data. However, it is kind of a shame that such a great product is not able to be freely examined, particularly considering that uTorrent (which is now the main client for BT) is such a model of good software. The BitTorrent Inc. cited "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."

The full article is available here.

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Tags: BitTorrent Library, Community, Open Source Software