14 DAY TRIAL // BitTorrent has been running an interesting and bold ad campaign. For the past week or so, it's been running billboards in several major US cities – San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, with some stark messages, both literally and figuratively.
The billboards say things like "The Internet should be regulated" or "Your data should belong to the NSA," and "Artists need to play by the rules."
No one was quite sure who was behind the ads, though they've been gaining some attention. Now, BitTorrent, the company behind the technology with the same name, has come out to reveal that it masterminded the ads and is now running ones with a few additions.
The ads now say "people-powered" instead of "regulated," "options" instead of "to play by the rules," and "you" instead of "the NSA."
"These statements represent an assault on freedom. They also, for the most part, represent attitudes Internet culture has accepted. Chips we've traded for convenience. Part of the allegiance we've sworn to the web’s big platforms and server farms. That’s what you get for going online," BitTorrent explained.
But, BitTorrent argues, it doesn't have to be that way. We do have a choice in the matter and we can take back control over the Internet.
"This is the generation that will decide whether the Internet is a tool for control, or a platform for innovation and freedom. We have an incredible opportunity. We can shape the next one and one hundred years of human connection. A free, open Internet is a force for change, creativity; the backbone of a society where citizens are stakeholders, not data sets," the company added.
Obviously, BitTorrent believes its technology has the power to bring about this open and free Internet. And, while the messages are self-serving, it may be right. While BitTorrent is still very much associated with piracy, in essence it's a technology that empowers people to share whatever they want with whoever they want for free.
There's no fee to have something available on the web, not even the "fee" of giving up your personal information. More recently, the company has been working on empowering artists by making distribution easy and cheap, via its BitTorrent bundles. It also unveiled BitTorrent Sync, which makes it possible to share data, like with Dropbox and other cloud storage companies, without it actually ever being stored on a third-party server subject to surveillance.
"BitTorrent is a people-powered protocol: the architecture of code deployment for the Internet’s dominant applications," the company explains. "BitTorrent is a decentralized, artist-owned publishing platform: a zero-cost alternative for media distribution. And BitTorrent is a secure, distributed response to the challenge of data surveillance: a way to sync and store information, free from the cloud."
