The Pirate Bay Developing New P2P Protocol to Replace BitTorrent

The Pirate Bay’s pretty busy these days, reviving dead sites and whatnot, but their latest scheme is even bigger: They’re working on an entirely new P2P protocol designed to replace BitTorrent, since BitTorrent Inc. is no longer making additions to the source code entirely open, which TPB believes grants them too much influence. The new extension, .p2p, will be backward-compatible with .torrent, and designed from the start to limit the effectiveness of spammers and anti-piracy organizations (no word on how, exactly). On the flip side of the coin, The Pirate Bay’s clout isn’t exactly insignificant anymore, and spearheading development of a new protocol it intends to rule the P2P roost is only going to grant it more sway if it takes off. [TorrentFreak]