BitTorrent (the company) has announced a big deal in the world of BitTorrent (the technology) – something called BitTorrent Torque. Released in alpha on Friday, it opens the filesharing technology up to all web developers. “Simply put, it allows anyone to utilize our powerful technology to create completely fresh and new experiences for users with just a couple lines of code,” explains the company. “This alpha allows BitTorrent to move beyond desktop clients. We believe web developers are pioneers when it comes to creating beautiful, intuitive user experiences. Torque will empower them to create powerful applications that will appeal to broad audiences.” That might sound like the worst nightmare for entertainment industry execs who still see BitTorrent purely as a piracy enabler. Their nights won’t be improved by a look at the initial demonstrations of Torque – a OneClick plugin for Google’s Chrome browser that “turns all torrents links into regular downloads”, and a PaddleOver tool to “drag files from person to person to share from anyone, to anyone”. Others within the industry will be more excited about the potential of BitTorrent Torque for uses including their own content distribution plans. Even so, if the industry needed another wake-up call to keep [...]

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