Interesting tech behind this. Two points that stuck me ... (though I shouldn't be surprised) ~ http://tv.seas.harvard.edu/research.php

- Ubuntu download

- all or most of the code is crisp python ~ http://svn.tribler.org/abc/branches/mainbranch/

Of course the feature that publicity will pick up on is the recommendations. I though, am more concerned about how resistant this is to various attacks.

Youtube and bittorrent already have popular, legal stuff covered pretty well. What does that leave? Adult video?

That's all they'll have left unless they protect the users very well.

It dumped core on me in around 8 minutes. I did get to see a nice "The Knife" video though.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZatCZ1YWQeI

Miro (formerly the democracy player) has lots of these features, but this looks wonderful.

"Intelligent taste recognition" sounds good, but I wish I had more confidence in such services.

This seems really out of sorts for higher education, Harvard in particular. Do their lawyers-in-training need more cases? I must admit, I would by tickets to MPAA v. Harvard. Or maybe by then I'll just watch it on "Harvard TV".

Looking through tech glasses, their give-to-get algorithm and "bartercast" algorithms could be fun to write, but they don't feel new or novel.

Is facilitating the download of copyrighted content illegal?

The law is a transient thing. Simply asking the courts whether something is illegal can change its legality.

So the law is just like Shroedinger's cat?

Probably no more so than selling 'incense'

:) Fortunately, there are no powerful lobbyists that have a problem with incense.

I hope the MPAA sues Harvard, it'd make for a great fight. We could use a precedent setting case.