Navin wasted years and millions of dollars trying to turn BitTorrent Inc. into a competitor to Apple's iTunes store. He struck splashy deals with Hollywood studios by paying them large upfront guarantees, which depleted BitTorrent's bank account but got Navin into the right parties. Meanwhile, BitTorrent's other line of business, which used file-sharing technologies to deliver content more efficiently for corporate customers, suffered from lack of focus, and more established competitors like Akamai moved in. Sometimes losing a founder is bad for a company. In this case, it's nothing but good.

Reporters tend to focus on Bram's potential Asperger's more that he does. He has never used it as an excuse, but used insight about it to understand himself and improve his communication skills. I've known Bram for 12 years and have worked on an off with Autistic spectrum children for 19 years. It was *me* who suggested to him that he might have it after knowing him for about 5 years. It is not a suggestion that I have made often or carelessly even though I have 100's of friend who are Bay Area tech geeks. Bram focuses on his individual strengths and challenges and works tirelessly to improve his communications and relationships with others. Having insight into Aspergers helped him immensely with this effort! He's honest about it because he's willing to be *humble* about not being good at somethings! Not as an excuse. I know very few people of *any* type who are as honest with themselves and others about their own shortcomings or who work as diligently to improve themselves as Bram. Over the last decade I have seen his interpersonal skills grow by leaps and bounds. We haven't sought a formal diagnosis, because we have nothing to prove and he has the support of his friends and family to continue working on perfecting some of the social and communication skills that don't come naturally to him. Despite his sometimes blunt comments and an inability to sugar coat his opinions... he is kind, caring, and down-to-earth. He's a loving playful dad, kind husband, friendly with neighbors, quick to admit his own faults (though not artificially humble about his few great strengths) I wish you would stop harping on those dumb stories... he just wrote them as a yung 'un to attract former goth girls like me ;) They were fiction.. duh! Let's see what we could deduce about *YOU* from *YOUR* porn collection! -Jenna Cohen

We would have asked what, precisely, Cohen does at the company, and why its investors still allow him to visit the office and waste employees' time. If the answer is that they feel sorry for a guy who claims to have a mental condition, but has never even tried to have it diagnosed, then you'll have a sense for their abilities to perform due diligence.

BitTorrent recently went through a round of layoffs. Its attempt to sell movies online has failed; its attempt to use file-sharing technologies to serve as a content-distribution network, which speeds up downloads for paying customers, is likewise faltering, as BitTorrent find itself overmatched by much larger, more professional competitors like Akamai Technologies. Cohen may well have Asperger's. He created an interesting technology in BitTorrent. But neither fact entitles him to keep drawing a paycheck from the company he founded.

That's the second time I've heard that phrase from BitTorrent tipsters, so I'm guessing it's already widely used, if poorly understood, within the company. Anyone care to explain what an "Internet peace corps" is — and how this plan will pay back BitTorrent's investors, who have invested at least $24 million in the company? Our tipster also says Walker's trying to raise a third round of financing amidst this uproar. Here's his detailed recounting of BitTorrent's woes:

Owen-

I read your posts on BitTorrent and here is my take (you can guess as to whether I'm an insider or not).

I feel it boils down to two young and inexperienced founders, one a wanna-be Internet celebrity in Ashwin Navin, the other a reluctant Internet celebrity in Bram Cohen, wielding too much power over the company. They executed a coup that doesn't bode well for the new CEO staying much longer. Sound familiar?

Torrent Entertainment Network

Ashwin's grand idea that new CEO Doug Walker put the kibosh on may very well end up being sold to Best Buy, but nowhere near $15M (unless BitTorrent is incredibly lucky or Best Buy foolish). Best Buy's idea is to OEM a white box set-top TV box, put the Best Buy logo on it and bundle it with BitTorrent to download the content. This is what Ashwin dreamed of...sort of to do for movies what iTunes did for music; a seamless end to end solution for renting and buying movies online. Its just been poorly executed and with Apple TV nearing perfection, TEN will be an albatross with whoever ends up with it. BitTorrent is on the hook for licensing deals (that Ashwin's brother Alvir put together) that were not favorable to the company at all, especially since the store has not done well with consumers. Apple has more leverage here too. You've probably already heard the nightmares TEN has had with Windows DRM so I won't rehash it here.

SDK

Their SDK business was attractive to device manufacturers in part because of the ability to leverage the TEN. With TEN going away or at least changing dramatically, device manufacturers are not as excited to partner with BitTorrent. The FCC ruling that will likely force ISPs to cap bandwidth and charge for overage makes it that much worse. Why would Buffalo, D-Link, Netgear, etc want to bundle and pay royalties for the BitTorrent client on their device when their own consumers may end up having to pay more to their ISP for the behavior of that client passively sharing files? Talk about a tech support nightmare.

DNA

Probably the brightest part of their business, they had the model wrong. They were charging per GB to match CDN pricing schemes. What they should have done is given DNA away for free from the start and charge for the help and support people will end up needing (like what Red Hat did for Linux). Of course, BitTorrent had absolutely no post-sales support put together so even when the now laid-off sales and marketing team started to get traction in the market, supporting those customers became a headache. Not to mention that Eric Klinker and the engineering team had no desire to support what product marketing said customers were asking for. Mac client? Good luck...the engineer working on that left in May and they have no plans to pursue that project. Live streaming? Bram tried to figure this one out but gave up after becoming increasingly frustrated over not figuring out a way to make it work easily. Bundle the DNA client into the next release of uTorrent in order to propagate it? Too much of a sacred cow. They feel the uTorrent users would leave in droves if they were to do such a horrible thing as attempt to commercialize uTorrent. Seems like the solution here was to just let everyone in sales and marketing go to make the people causing these issues go away. At least they got to keep their laptops as a consolation gift.

So now Doug Walker is left trying to cobble together a C round of funding as they desperately cut expenses. They are not renewing the lease on Floor 9 of 201 Mission St in December (rumor is Google is interested in the space, as well as several other floors in 201 Mission). 40 people in an office with room for 150 never does well for morale. Word is they are going to go back into stealth mode, turning into an "internet Peace Corps"...whatever that means. To me it sounds like they are turning into a non-profit which can't be attractive to for-profit minded investors. I'd hate to be one of their VCs right now.

Last night, almost as if to out-LA LA, SF company BitTorrent had a small party at fluid to celebrate the launch of their CDN network (brilliant business move!). They apparently arranged in conjuction with a local radio station for Ashanti and Sean Kingston to perform to the tiny crowd. I took a picture of BitTorrent's founders Bram and Ashwin to memorialize the moment, sensing that it denoted SOMETHING.. whether it's a sign that the bubble is getting bigger, or the more likely conclusion that techie work is now getting more main stream and therefore a lot cooler remains to be seen! :)

One wonders if Kingston is familiar with Cohen's written work. Violent misogyny — it's not just for rap lyrics anymore!

(Photo by Pierre Joubert)

Comcast is apparently using technology from Sandvine to prevent uploading of "torrents," the special file format used by BitTorrent. Comcast sends faked packets of data to interfere with the transfer. While not illegal, it is a bit sleazy — and in this case, makes Comcast look like it's against the spreading of the Gospel.

Said BitTorrent COO Ashwin Navin to the AP, "They're using sophisticated technology to degrade service, which probably costs them a lot of money. It would be better to see them use that money to improve service." Navin should consider himself lucky, though. The AP could have run the test by trying to share the violent fiction of former BitTorrent CEO Bram Cohen. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

Cohen seems to have fancied himself a writer for a time. His "parody" of a pirate's manifesto created some controversy for his company in 2005. But other fiction, not widely known, was available on his personal website at the same time. And had it been publicized then, it would have been far more controversial. Here are excerpts from the two pieces of violently misogynistic fiction depicting rape and murder:

"A Torturer's Account":

It says here that you are to be subdued and violated. I don't like fucking bitches like you so don't count on not getting seriously hurt. I do what it says right here, and it doesn't matter if I like it.

"It Happened":

She is a whore. The only thing she has is her body. Just because she flirts and doesn't give it away doesn't mean she isn't a whore. And just because she lets some guy fuck her because it will be a good source of melodrama doesn't mean she's in love. I hate that bitch.

Now that BitTorrent is trying to transition from its file-sharing roots into a legitimate online-media business, his Sand Hill Road investors and Hollywood partners may want to take another look at the company's chief scientist.

Cohen is now married with kids, and one hopes he's grown past the ravings of his youth. But the fact that he kept the stories up on his site as late as 2005 is curious. A person is entitled to his fantasies. Sharing them in public, though, is another matter. One wonders if, had his writings become public sooner, Cohen would have been able to strike deals with Hollywood moguls and raise money from venture capitalists — let alone remain BitTorrent's CEO for so long. At the very least, if Cohen is to remain at BitTorrent in any capacity, one would think he'd offer an explanation of what he wrote, and why he published it for all to see.

Last night, Digg founder Kevin Rose and pals celebrated the relaunch of his Revision 3 online TV network with a party at Mighty, a San Fran venue currently sporting sculptures of flying underwear (really. Don't know why). Scott Beale provides the photos below.

Photog Thomas Hawk shows off his full head of hair to Digg coder Owen Byrne. Owen is only smiling to lure Thomas closer; in the next unphotographed moment he whips out a switchblade and forcibly scalps Thomas.

Can you spot the ass pat?

Say hi to Valleywag's new party correspondent, Megan McCarthy! (Really! If you see her at a party, be nice, cause she's got the gossip power!)

"Stupid (mumble) geeks, (mumble) "The System is Down" (mumble) fifty-five times (mumble) burn this place down."

"Does anyone want Kevin Rose to sign their breasts? Anyone? Please don't make us pick Om Malik, we did him last time."

"Color me unimpressed; this is so not as fun as the last 'Project Runway.'"

If you ask video star Dr. Tiki to "write you a prescription" one more time, he will kick you in half.

Heeeeere's Johnny!

Vloggers Kent Nichols and Irina Slutsky left early to form a death metal punk band.

Revision3 Launch Party [Laughing Squid]

So you know Dixon Doll? He invested in Bram [Cohen]'s BitTorrent business. Anyway, a Texas law firm is putting together a huge patent infringement case that will likely screw up the company's plans. Two - three months is the timeframe.

Nothing else about this story has come together yet, so don't go picking sides just yet. But if you know more of the story, tell tips@valleywag.com.

Craig (you know, Craigslist Craig) just posted the first known photo of Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen together. As Craig says on his blog, the Napster founder and BitTorrent founder had never met until last night's Wired Rave Awards. Craig captured the historic meeting on his Treo.

"It's funny," said BitTorrent spokeswoman Lily Lin, "because papers would always call and say, 'We're doing a story on Shawn Fanning. What does Bram think of Shawn?' And I told them, 'Well, he's never met Shawn.'"

For the record, Shawn's slimmed down and toned up since we last reported his weight. You should see this guy in a tee — the boy's got BFGs.

Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen at Wired Rave party [Craig Newmark's blog]

BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen reportedly helped nudge his brother Ross out of his CTO spot. Om connects Bram's move to the p2p tool's recent VC round, which might call for some legitimization of BitTorrent.

Is BitTorrent quietly Napsterizing itself by purging the old staff? That would explain why Bram got so touchy with GETV correspondent Irina Slutsky at his convention, CodeCon. Said Bram to Irina: "Can you ask me about something other than BitTorrent? I actually do other stuff other than BitTorrent."

Cohen vs. Cohen at BitTorrent [Om Malik]
Don't ask Bram Cohen about BitTorrent [GETV]