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Piracy on the Digital SeasJosh Levin takes your questions about online movie downloading and the BitTorrent kingpin aXXo.

Posted Friday, Nov. 14, 2008, at 1:59 PM ET

Slate associate editor Josh Levin was online on Washingtonpost.com to chat with readers about online movie piracy and the No. 1 uploader of movies on BitTorrent, a user who goes by the computer name aXXo.

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Josh Levin: Hey everyone, I'm ready to answer your questions about aXXo, BitTorrent, and movie piracy. Fire away.

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Calgary, Canada: Josh, I am a documentary producer currently working on a project called "Searching for Axxo," exploring the state of entertainment and the position of Axxo as a modern day Robin Hood, so I am acutely aware of all the issues. My question is how does Axxo feel knowing he never can take credit for his work? And my comment is that the studios created this monster by paying actors more than $20 million per picture. They let the genie out of the bottle.

Josh Levin: Hello Calgary! I can't wait for your documentary, and I hope you're able to contact aXXo ... I wasn't able to get him to respond to my queries. Since I didn't talk to him, I'm not sure how aXXo's motivations and feeling are about what he does. It's not quite right to say that he doesn't get credit for his work, though. On all of the torrent sites and message boards, he's treated like a god. The fact that he stays in the shadows and doesn't reveal himself probably contributes to the notion that he's otherworldly. (It also allows him to stay out of jail.)

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Austin, Texas: Do you use Bittorrent, or do you think it's morally wrong?

Josh Levin: It's important to distinguish between BitTorrent as a content delivery system and BitTorrent as a tool used for piracy. You can download any manner of file using BitTorrent—it's a fast, efficient way to get large files of all kinds, not just movies and music. But to answer your question: I used BitTorrent to download some aXXo movies as research for this article, but I haven't used it to get movies otherwise. I think it is wrong to download copyrighted movies without paying for them. Besides, pretty much everything that I'd ever want to see is available on Netflix, which I subscribe to.

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Fort Worth, Texas: Hi Josh—big fan of your writing. In your research on illegal downloads, did you find that downloaders favored a certain kind of movie? Were they more likely to watch something like The Hidden Fortress or Spaced Invaders? Thanks in advance.

Josh Levin: Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex holla! Downloaders tend to favor popcorn movies and mainstream hits—the sort of stuff that everybody prefers. The blog TorrentFreak (which I highly recommend if you're at all interested in the torrent scene) compiles a weekly and yearly list of the most pirated movies.

Haven't seen Spaced Invaders on any list so far.

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Anonymous: Please do not equate copyright infringement and theft. Copyright infringement is not the same as stealing—neither in the legal, economical nor moral sense. So just stop saying it is, okay?

Josh Levin: Your opinion is noted. Anyone else have thoughts on the subject?

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Washington: Any prospect of the studios learning from and adopting the BitTorrent delivery scheme? The distribution costs would be paid by the downloaders, the studio would profit from ads run on their own site, and incidental profits made would include merchandising, DVD purchases prompted by downloaders who like a film enough to want a "real" copy (it happens occasionally, as it does when a film is shown on TV), and the bad press and legal costs of the current approach put to rest.

Josh Levin: This is a great question. BitTorrent (the company that created the software) actually made a deal with Warner Bros. in 2006 to distribute some TV shows and movies. Michael Moore also distributed his latest documentary using BitTorrent, though there were some problems associated with that arrangement.

In general, though, the studios and the MPAA still see the software as the enemy, and I'm not sure that's an opinion that they're going to be willing or able to overcome. But until the studios develop a delivery system that's better or at least nearly as good, a substantial percentage of the population is going to use BitTorrent to grab movies.

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newdayco_op: aXXo is a god! Slate is also godlike for reporting on aXXo, although it is a bit disconcerting to read about aXXo anywhere outside the torrent scene, as this could lead to some nefarious profiteers shutting down a great thing. aXXo releases generally pop up a few weeks before the DVD release date.

This leads one to believe that aXXo has employee access at any of a number of retailers, including Blockbuster, Netflix, Best Buy, etc. Theses retailers usually get DVDs at least a week before the street release date to prep them for the particular type of packaging that said retailer uses. For bigger releases—those most commonly released under the aXXo name—the retailer will receive them in store two to four weeks before the street date. I've got money on aXXo being somehow affiliated with a Customer Service Representative at a Blockbuster Video store somewhere near you! P.S. Tropic Thunder is up, and video and audio are both 10s as always!

Josh Levin: Glad I can grab some of aXXo's reflected glory. I've heard from several readers who are similarly worried that aXXo is going to get shut down. One blogger even wrote that publishing a piece about him is "kind of like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx: once it happens, it's only a matter of time before something goes terribly wrong."

It certainly seems as if aXXo has access to movies before they come out on DVD. I doubt that he works at a Blockbuster Video near you, though. Well, it depends on where "near you" happens to be. I don't think he is American.

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scissorpaws: The day is rapidly approaching when we'll have to collectively cave and realize—admit—that we're only undermining the very creative juices we depend upon for entertainment/enlightenment. If you don't pay the piper, that piper takes up plumbing or law. At the very least the product will be diminished, as is probably the case right now. The book industry stands as perfect example and source of the solution: your public library. Pay for everything borrowed from a library. With talking books and music and movies all available through the library, with no fear of corruption or malware, there's no reason all creative product couldn't be made available. To date every book available has been deemed too valuable to deny from anyone, without regard to how it affects the person who slaved to write it, and those hobbyists who edit and publish and attempt to get fools somewhere to actually buy them.

Every upload and borrowing can be recorded, and every artist, publisher and producer can be paid per use, the money coming out of general revenue, i.e. taxes. Call it an Honor Among Thieves Tax. It only rewards the artists we like most. More art gets produced, including much that isn't available currently—esoteric stuff that would be highly interesting. When even the fringe stuff gets a hearing, this could usher in a golden age for music and films. For your tax dollars you get unlimited movies, music and books gratis, and—not that it seems to matter much—a clear conscience. Might be no more expensive than figuring out anti-piracy software and litigation lawyers.