Microsoft working on P2P

Redmond is finally taking serious notice of P2P. A rag-tag band has been beavering away at it's lonely research outpost in Cambridge, Englishshire, busily concocting their own P2P technology - one that is allegedly more robust and reliable than its competitors:

Microsoft researchers in Cambridge, UK, are developing their own peer-to-peer file-sharing software.

Codenamed Avalanche, the program makes it easy to share content by dividing files such as software, audio or video, into chunks, much like BitTorrent.

Using "network coding", it can re-create missing blocks of data that can be used in place of missing chunks.

The reputation of file-sharing has been damaged by legal action after it was adopted to share copyrighted files.

More from the BBC here

Another step to making P2P respectable? With the weight of Microsoft behind it, many more organisations may be inclined to try P2P to distribute their wares to the masses. But how long will it take to hack the digital signature system, and the Avalanche system gets buried in a mass of illegal content?

Discuss Avalanche and P2P in general in our news forum here.