BitTorrent to Crackdown on Trademark Use

In an effort to clean up its image, BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen is now looking into a plan that would begin to clamp down on the hundreds of sites and software programs using the trademark without permission.

Cohen is pushing for legal uses of the technology these days, and the open source license to use BitTorrent's work needs to change, the Inquirer reported Wednesday. Because of this policy, a large number of software titles have emerged who claim compatibility with the technology, which BitTorrent has little control over.

The company signed a deal last November with the MPAA that added technology to the search engine used by bittorrent.com that effectively removed content owned by the studios that make up the organization.

On Monday, the network strengthened its ties with Opera, announcing that the technology would be included in Opera 9. Also, the browser would be the first to qualify for a program that would allow the company to use the BitTorrent trademark.

BitTorrent President Ashwin Navin told the Inquirer in an interview that it is only considering the crackdown in the best interest of its users. He noted that several titles bundled with malware are apparently using the network's popularity as a method to gain more popularity and spread the malicious software around.

Under the new policy, a nominal fee would be paid to BitTorrent and the software would be subjected to a round of tests to ensure its compliance with security policies for software wishing to use the trademark.