We reported earlier today that “The Interview” will be available for rental on Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video, and Sony’s dedicated website www.seetheinterview.com, starting at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET on Dec. 24. On Sony’s site, The Interview currently goes for $5.99 to rent and $14.99 for HD purchase.

“It has always been Sony’s intention to have a national platform on which to release this film,” Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment.

Just an hour after the torrent was released on the popular torrent sharing website known as KickAssTorrents, it had over 50,000 leechers. Sony only released this movie in the US so it’s understandable that there is a hype outside the US to watch this movie. The question is why did Sony release the movie only in the US?

Below is a screenshot of the torrent page:

BitTorrent, as may already know, is a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing protocol ideal for transferring large files. In a nutshell, the way it works is when you’re downloading a massive file — like a Linux distribution, for example –bits and pieces of the file will be uploaded at the same time. Typically BitTorrent allows for a more efficient and faster transfer method than traditional, Direct Connect P2P software.

Torrent: Lazy linguists sometimes substitute Torrent in place of BitTorrent, but it actually has a definition all its own. A torrent is a small metadata file usually just a few kilobytes in size. It contains information about the file(s) you’re trying to download, such as file names, file sizes, where to download, and so forth. The torrent file (.torrent) is not the actual data you’re trying to retrieve.

Leech(er): There are two meanings for this one. The most common definition of a leech is someone who disconnects and stops sharing a file as soon as they’ve obtained a complete copy. The fewer people there are sharing a file, the longer it takes to download, and for this reason, leeching is highly discouraged.

Peers who haven’t finished downloading a file are also referred to as leechers, but not necessarily in a derogatory way.

Seed(er): It’s good etiquette to continue sharing a file even after you’ve finished downloading the entire torrent, if only for a short while. This practice is known as seeding.

Reseed: When no more seeds exist for a particular file, then anyone who was actively trying to download it will be unable to finish. A reseeder is someone who has the completed torrent, reconnects to the swarm, and saves the day.

Swarm: Any group of users connected to each other for downloading and/or sharing a particular file.This includes peers, seeds, and leeches.

Tracker: A central server which stores the torrents, coordinates the action of all the seeders, peers, and leechers, and manages the connections. The Pirate Bay (TPB) is the largest tracker on the Internet and often the center of media attention due to ongoing legal issues. Not all trackers are public; there are several private trackers which require a membership.

Share Rating / Ratio: This refers to the ratio of uploaded data divided by downloaded data and is applicable only for the current session. A share rating of 1.0 means you’ve uploaded the same amount of data as you’ve downloaded.