BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. It is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources. The protocol was designed in April 2001, implemented and first released 2 July 2001 by programmer Bram Cohen, and is now maintained by BitTorrent, Inc. It identifies content by URL and is designed to integrate seamlessly with the Web.