Microsoft backs torrent blocker

software could protect intellectual property such as movies and music on the Internet, International Business Times reports.

Microsoft's Seed Financing Fund has invested $100 000, while the Russian Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology - better known as the Bortnik Fund - has added approximately $34 000.

Dmitry Shuvaev and brothers Andrei and Alexei Klimenko, who make up the team of Russian programmers behind the project, originally set out to create software that handled traffic management for file-sharing.

The tool poses as real BitTorrent users but then "confuses" peer-to-peer networks, causing disconnections, BBC writes.

Critics argue, however, that the method will be ineffective in the long term.

TechNewsWorld writes that the idea started three years ago when the developers were building a traffic management solution for Internet providers. The technology worked well. It was able to stop BitTorrent traffic if needed, which made the developers realise they might have built the holy anti-piracy grail.

"After creating the prototype, we realised we could more generally prevent files from being downloaded, which meant the program had great promise in combating the spread of pirated content," Pirate Pay CEO Andrei Klimenko says.