For the BitTorrent file-sharing system, Achilles's heel might be the association of addresses and sites for every transmitted file. Once those sites are shutdown, users will be unable to find the desired files.

Still, thanks to BitTorrent's inventor, Bram Cohen, and the latest beta versions of the program, there is no need to host anymore tracker addresses in a centralized system, available on Internet pages. The services associated with these sites coordinate the BitTorrent download service and it's these services that have been targeted by record companies and movie studios.

Once this new system will operational, anti-piracy companies might face serious problems, announce the representatives of the organization in charge of fighting software piracy, Business Software Alliance.

Currently, if a site with trackers is closed, a large number of downloads are interrupted, said for ZDNet Australia Tarun Sawney, director of BSA ASIA anti-piracy. When the system that relied on these trackers is no longer employed, all our tracking and stopping strategies have to be redesigned.

However, BitTorrent files will still be identifiable. "BSA could orient towards those servers that host certain pirated BitTorrent resources. Even without the trackers' intervention, someone has to have the information stored on a physical support.

Taking out the trackers is just one of the first measures applied by BitTorrent's maker to ease the free posting of files and their smooth download.