Cinedigm Strikes a "Devil's Deal" with BitTorrent

Hollywood bigwigs are up in arms about one indie studio's deal with BitTorrent (aka, movie piracy's poster boy). Cinedigm recently partnered with the P2P network to promote their upcoming feature Arthur Newman, starring Emily Blunt and Colin Firth.

"It's a deal with the devil," one anonymous studio executive told The Wrap. "Cinedigm is being used as [BitTorrent's] pawn."

Cinedigm announced this weekend that it would offer the first seven minutes of the film exclusively to BitTorrent users. This news has since become the subject of some concern for Hollywood studios, which have spent millions to protect their properties from the likes of BitTorrent and other pirate bays.

"It's great for BitTorrent and disingenuous of Cinedigm," the exec continued. "The fact of the matter is BitTorrent is in it for themselves, they're not in it for the health of the industry and Cinedigm is being used as their pawn." Several other executives, including ones at Sony and Warner Bros., echoed this sentiment.

An image from Cinedigm's Arthur Newman.

As always, BitTorrent maintains that it's not the bogeyman studios make it out to be. In response to the upset, BitTorrent's VP of marketing Matt Mason said that "the company is in the business of providing technology that enables users to move large files" and that "it has little role in deciding what kinds of content its peer-to-peer file sharing system is used for."

"We have never endorsed piracy," he added.

Jill Calcaterra, Cinedigm's chief marketing officer, shared a similar stance with Mason. "Blaming BitTorrent for piracy is like blaming a freeway for drunk drivers," she said. "How people use it can be positive for the industry or it can hurt the industry. We want it help us make this indie film successful."

Mason noted that they'll be meeting with studios soon to see if they can change the industry's negative views of BitTorrent. "We'll be working with all of [the studios] one day," he said. "It's really up to them how quickly they come to the table and realize we're not the villain, we're the heroes."

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com