Web distribution

I was looking to see if there was a new Azureus client out, and instead they’ve released vuze.

It seems to be some kind of web TV application. Much like Democracy, but built around Azureus and less TV centric.
Looking over their site I noted that you can download Tomb Raider within it. That’s not really that amazing since there’s been torrents for it since before it’s official release, but I was surprised to see it advertised on the main site.

As it turns out it was an official torrent by Eidos. Weird or what? Actually a trial version, it’s lets you play the first 60 minutes. I wonder if you download the whole game and then unlock the rest, or is it just a demo. It’s a unique approach to combating piracy though.

Eidos has also released Tomb Raider on Steam, along with other titles. It seems they’ve decided the best way to prevent piracy is to give an official paying alternative which is more convenient. The music industry could learn from that.

When EMI announced they’d offer their catalogue to online music stores DRM free, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were influenced by Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations DRM free approach (which worked really well for them).

In contrast, Ubisoft was releasing all their games with Starforce at the time. Apparently King Kong was a great game, but didn’t sell so well. The absurd copy protection put a lot of people off.

I think the companies that experiment with new options will be rewarded.

I wanted to give Vuze a spin, but clicking on the download link directed me to 2.5.0.4 of Azureus. I guess there’s no linux version yet. It must depend on more then just Java, being a video app.