BitTorrent filing lawsuits? It's true. Not directed at those who have been hurling their wrath for some time such as the MPAA, BitTorrent will be going after those who use the BitTorrent name to distribute spyware or adware. Though retrieve spyware from a torrent is pretty unlikely, there are numerous bogus websites on the web that lure people with the promise of torrents and often drop the names of bigger websites, in an attempt to trick people.
Company president Ashwin Navin told ZDNet yesterday: "We're sensitive to people calling their software BitTorrent to achieve a certain level of popularity in order to distribute spyware and adware."
Interesting stuff. There will be an examination period followed up by a small licensing fee to use the BitTorrent name along with other software. Opera, for one, will be providing a search window inside version 9 of their browser and as such is one of the first to use this new license. Both websites and programs have used the BitTorrent name in the past, mostly for bad reasons, and it's good that an OSS company is able to fight back.