Last second Friday geekdom: Encrypted BitTorrent + Firefox = AllPeers. Teh sw33t

i found this on David Erickson's blog (Erickson's one of my co-conspirators at Politics in Minnesota and works with Blois Olson at New School Communications).

AllPeers, currently in Beta testing, is some kind of software extension that plugs into FireFox and allows you to share your files in an encrypted way with other AllPeers users - and you can set up a friend network a la Myspace or Facebook - but the catch is that it's a BitTorrent network for moving goodies in a decentralized way. And it's apparently easy enough to use.

I think the basic idea is that your own media will be copied to your friends' computers, so that when someone tries to access a big thing like a movie file, it can be downloaded directly from everyone at once - because it's based on BitTorrent. At least I think that's the idea.

PeerPressure is the official AllPeers developer blog. It will be released for Windows, OS X and Linux. Main features will be free but there will also be some pay services. The info:

AllPeers is a free extension which combines the strength of Firefox and the efficiency of BitTorrent to transform your favorite browser into a media sharing powerhouse. Regain control! You decide which media files you want to share with whom and to maximise your privacy, communications are encrypted.

Forget about complicated setup or obscure user interfaces. If you know how to use Firefox you know how to use AllPeers.

The FAQ says:

Isn't email fine for sharing digital files?
Email has the advantage of being simple and ubiquitous, but it also has many disadvantages. When you share files via email, you don't know exactly when they will arrive. A lot of people use web mail, so they may not be able to receive large attachments. Since email is designed for text, it's tedious to view pictures or watch videos, especially if you receive a whole set of files at one time. And if you want to go back and find a specific file later, you'll find yourself laboriously opening and closing emails and attachments.

AllPeers MediaCenter is designed specifically for … you guessed it, sharing your media! Files are received instantly and are displayed in beautifully laid out albums of convenient thumbnail images. Browsing through new files, or finding old ones, is a breeze. We guarantee you'll never want to go back to email.

With AllPeers, you just drag-and-drop your files right into the program. They're available for sharing instantly! Then decide exactly who you want to share which files with. No uploading, no waiting. Want to browse your existing library? Click on an album and you see the thumbnails immediately. And since your files are stored directly on your computer, it's all completely free.

How can it be free? There must be a catch.
Nope. Because we’re using P2P technology, we don’t need to maintain a large server farm for managing huge files collections as our network grows. On top of that, we don’t think people should have to pay to share with friends. Of course, we are still a company and we need to make money to pay for the luxurious lifestyle of our development team. That’s why we will be deploying new services on AllPeers, some of which will require payment.

You can sign up for beta testing and I damn well have, although the beta programs are being handed out in a random restricted selection kinda way.

Well that is some quality geek stuff at 9 PM. However, it is also worth noting that a program like this, if it included encryption and many small autonomous networks of people, would be almost an almost unbeatable way to get around the copyright enforcement that wants to rain on your party.