To Zhang Jie, a programmer at a Beijing-based information technology company, the greatest invention of the 21st century is the P2P download system provided by BitTorrent (BT). P2P refers to peer-to-peer, an Internet file sharing application.

Zhang's computer desk is piled high with clusters of CDs that he has burned over the past five years. One of Zhang's friends introduced BitTorrent to him and he loved it the moment he successfully downloaded a 600-megabyte movie in two hours.

"It is really exciting to find such a great Internet file sharing system: fast, convenient and rich in all kinds of content," said Zhang. The first movie he downloaded via BT is a collection of New York underground short films. "You can never get this alternative and rare movie from a regular audio and video store, but BT has brought the resources on the Internet across the world to your doorway; what's better, they are all for free!"

Over the past five years, Zhang has downloaded numerous movies, music, e-books, software, digital games, cartoons, TV shows, documentaries and other material. "BT can download almost everything that can be transformed into digital form," he noted. Because of the limited storage capacity of his computer, he has to store what he has downloaded on CDs.

"We borrow quite a lot of stuff from Zhang Jie, as the movies he collected from the Internet can make a small movie database," Zhang's friend said. This enthusiasm on the part of Zhang and many others clashes with the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the owners of copyrights to movies, music and other artistic content to receive royalties and recognition for their work. The Chinese Government, however, recently launched a new campaign to protect IPR.

"The government again has begun to crack down on Internet piracy recently, but I don't think the three-month storm will have any big success," said Zhang.

The "storm" he mentioned refers to the 100-day anti-piracy campaign that was jointly launched by 10 ministries and national departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Press and Publication, National Copyright Administration (NCA) and Ministry of Culture, at the end of September.

The crackdown is aimed at the illegal downloading of films, music, software and textbooks, which has been described as "rampant."

"IPR infringements on the Internet not only violate the interests of copyright holders but also stain the country's reputation globally," said Long Xinmin, head of the National Copyright Administration.

The intellectual property rights watchdog has vowed to clamp down on major websites that offer unauthorized downloads. While it has no authority to deal with foreign websites offering illegal material, it is targeting local sites that offer links outside the country or unauthorized downloads.

The administration collaborated with major IPR protection associations in the country to collect evidence for 302 Internet IPR infringement cases during a one-month investigation, according to Wang Ziqiang, head of the NCA's copyright management department.

"The number is double that of last year, which means that Internet copyright infringement is still rampant," Wang said.

Officials have tracked down the website operators and their details will be passed on to local copyright bureaus for action, said Wang.

Of the 302 cases, 123 are about software IPR infringement, followed by films and music. Most are in developed areas such as Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang Province.

"This year's campaign involves authorized file uploaders but leave out the downloaders. But sooner or later, the big free meal on the Internet will be gone with the rising concern over IPR protection and enhancement of anti-piracy law enforcement," said Zhang.

Troublesome technology

Bram Cohen, the American creator of the revolutionary piece of software called BitTorrent, is considered a hero in Zhang's eyes, but to the IPR holders, the inventor is just like a nightmare.

"I think we Internet file downloaders all owe thanks to Bram Cohen. This guy has broadened our eyes and provided everyone with much easier access to share human knowledge and civilization," said Zhang.

Since the release of this technology in the summer of 2001, BitTorrent has quickly grown into one of the most preeminent file distribution methods. It lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3.

Three years after the birth of BitTorrent, analysts at CacheLogic, an Internet-traffic analysis firm in Cambridge, England, reported that BitTorrent traffic accounts for more than one third of all data sent over the Internet. In China, BitTorrent has become the fourth most popular Internet application after Internet Explorer, e-mail and instant messenger.

The power and potential of BitTorrent has the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) quite worried. In 2004, the MPAA launched a campaign against BitTorrent sites in the United States and Britain. An MPAA spokesman said Cohen is under scrutiny for continuing to develop the software "and making it easy to steal copyrighted material."

Since then, BitTorrent has caused controversy worldwide. In October 2005, 38-year-old Hong Kong resident Chan Naiming was sentenced to a three-year prison term after he had uploaded illegal copies of the films Daredevil, Miss Undercover and Red Planet onto the Internet and spread them via BitTorrent. In October this year, 23-year-old American Grant Stanley was sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of house arrest, and a $3,000 fine for his role as a leading participant in the BitTorrent tracker site Elitetorrents. This ruling is the first BitTorrent-related conviction in the United States.

In China so far there have been no prosecutions of BitTorrent downloading but the country's IPR watchdogs said they would purge the Internet illegal content-sharing area, including BT websites, during the three-month campaign.

Officials from the IPR law enforcement bureau in Beijing declined to provide further information on the crackdown, saying they were too busy to do so and that no additional information was available currently.

Resolving the controversy

It is a puzzling paradox. The Internet is supposed to reflect a "sharing spirit" but IPR holders definitely don't want their rights to be infringed. Technologically, BitTorrent is a great invention of the Internet world, but at the legal level it is deemed to be an accomplice of IPR violators.

Rumors have circulated from time to time that China's communications operators will ban BitTorrent downloading but it is still in force since it receives strong support from the mass of Internet users. According to a survey by China's Web portal sina.com, 93.25 percent of the 20,826 respondents opposed the prohibition of BitTorrent use.

"Any invention has good and bad points and we don't snuff it out just because of its shortcomings. Why can't we treat BitTorrent just like we treat nuclear power?" said one netizen using the Internet ID Isbaal.

His view is echoed by Ye Lante, an IT commentator, "On the deeper level of thinking, the BitTorrent controversy is all about how we look at the new technology. If we kill the new technology just because it has some negative effects, that would be a tragedy."

Ye also believes the traditional IPR system needs to be changed to fit the Internet era. "By that time, IPR will not be quite an issue for the development of BitTorrent. At present, we'd better show more tolerance towards the creative technology," he added.

Not long ago, the Internet Society of China set up an organization to promote the use of P2P technology while conforming to IPR laws and regulations.

"P2P applications will play a leading role in the era of Web 2.0, which is featured in wider audio and video data trading and deeper interaction," said Lei Zidong, General Secretary of the union, adding that P2P technology developers should make profits by collaborating with legal content providers.

Regarding the IPR issue, Lei thinks the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system is an operative approach. The DRM system controls every link of the distribution of digital products, making the products available only to authorized users.