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The odd, controversial signs that have been popping up all around the Bay Area lately with messages like “all your data should belong to the NSA” and “the internet should be regulated” now have a source: BitTorrent. BitTorrent posted today on its blog. BitTorrent’s goal, of course, is freedom and privacy. Freedom from surveillance, whether by the shadowy arms of the executive branch or the silent tracking of the modern advertising ecosystem. And freedom to send and store data and files as you wish. In other words, BitTorrent says, freedom like the internet used to have. This is not just an expression of who and what BitTorrent is, of course — although it is that too. It’s also a marketing campaign — that has had the entire Bay Area technorati talking — for BitTorrent’s new store-in-the-file product for artists, a file format called BitTorrent Bundles where the art is the cash register and sharing is a form of currency, not a form of theft. The new format embeds a pay gate inside content, and the payment can be a share, a like, a sign-up, a donation, an actual cash payment, or just about anything the artist wishes, which is a really interesting way for BitTorrent to remain true to its core values of privacy and freedom while offering an option to artists both indie and corporate to benefit from the fruits of their labor. BitTorrent BundlesIn fact, BitTorrent goes so far as to call itself not just a decentralized file-sharing network or protocol but an “artist-owned publishing platform.” It’s one that Tim Ferriss of 4-Hour fame has used, as have Madonna, the Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, and Linkin Park, among other groups, artists, and publishers. BitTorrent’s protocol has always been about freedom — freedom for Internet users to do what they want without surveillance or without thought for law or regulation. The organization’s new file format retains that freedom while also adding a very welcome way for artists’ and publishers’ real contributions to our culture be recognized, where and how they see fit.