Kadokawa plunges into BitTorrent

Offerings expected to expand to 200 titles

By MARK SCHILLING

TOKYO -- Media conglom Kadokawa Holdings will sell its pics in the U.S. on BitTorrent starting this month.

Kadokawa is the only Japanese company thus far to take the U.S. BitTorrent plunge.

Subsid Kadokawa Pictures U.S. will manage the biz Stateside, while Kadokawa Herald Pictures, a pic production/distribution arm, will supply the digitized content, beginning with about 30 pics, including J Horror hit "The Ring."

Offerings are expected to expand to about 200 titles.

Japanese studios have yet to sell their pics on the Web in Japan, although Internet pirating of pics via peer-to-peer file-sharing is a growing problem in the territory.