BT is really interesting because it defies the notion that all information has to be free and broadly available. I'm seeing a number of consumer internet services built on the concept that users are rewarded for increasing the quality of the network, either by paying or by uploading. Jigsaw is an example of a service that favors quality over quantity by creating a market for contacts.
In the case of BT, there is leech resistance built into the network that increases bandwidth as a user uploads files thereby rewarding users who contribute rather than simply take. If you just download and don't give back, well either your place in the queue will drop or your bandwidth will constrict. BT is also an incredibly unique P2P network because of the way that it is architected, which guarantees high performance as network load increase because files are distributed through random paths and reassembled by the client. As users join BT the aggregate bandwidth increases and the aforementioned leech resistance ensures that bandwidth is provisioned rationally to the users that provide the greatest value to the network by increasing it's content.
With the current popularity of podcasting one would have to ask the question of how they compete or cooperate. As it turns out, there has been some talk to include a broadcast feature in BT that would use RSS to "pay out" BT content to subscribers who could then kick off the full download. This makes a lot more sense than podcasting as it currently exists because of the aforementioned network architecture that BT brings to the party. In other words, podcasting is nothing more than delivering big files through small pipes.
Link: broadband � News � BitTorrent: VC's Wanted - If podcasting is getting millions, BitTorrent deserves more.
BitTorrent had about a dozen VC's put out feelers. Om concludes by saying that if VC's are pumping millions into podcasting, than BitTorrent deserves a whole lot more, since "It has actual technology that will help grow the open media.
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