BitTorrent, the internet file-sharing platform that was once the preferred tool of online movie pirates, has signed a deal with Warner Brothers to distribute the studio’s films and television programmes over the net.

The move comes as Hollywood seeks to tap into the massive market for online video content, still currently dominated by bootleggers.

In the first agreement of its kind, Warner Brothers will use BitTorrent's technology to allow American users to download content ranging from blockbusters such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to older television titles such as the original Dukes of Hazzard series for a fee.

The service will be much quicker for consumers than conventional downloads and should offer Warner cost savings.

Pricing details have yet to be confirmed, but it is understood that downloaded films will cost about as much as DVDs. Television programmes could cost as little as $1.

The move follows a US Supreme Court ruling last year that said peer-to-peer technology was being used illegally by online bootleggers, a judgment that forced many file-sharing sites to clean up their acts.

Last year, BitTorrent agreed to remove links to pirated versions of movies from its site and remove online links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studio members of the Motion Picture Association of America.

However, today's agreement also represents an admission from Hollywood that online piracy continues to cost the film industry billions of dollars in lost revenues.

"If we can convert 5, 10, 15 per cent of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics," Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, said.

Ashwin Navin, the president and co-founder of BitTorrent, said: "Those are the kinds of baby steps to offer users a good trade off, a good alternative to doing things the wrong way."

BitTorrent uses a technique called "file swarming" to distribute large files such as films. Rather than download a single large file from one central computer, it assembles files from separate bits of data downloaded from several computer users across the internet.

The speed of downloading a film depends on how many individual computers in the network have the file. The more computers, the faster the process. Once a particular movie has been "seeded" on the system, Warner Brothers estimates a download could take as little as 10 minutes.

That is much quicker - and cheaper - than on the systems the film studios have so far adopted.

Earlier this year, Hollywood finally entrusted its blockbusters to the web with six major studios joining forces for the first time to make new films available to download over the internet on the same day they are released on DVD.

More than 200 titles went on sale through Movielink, a film site set up in 2002 as a joint venture between Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Universal, MGM and Paramount. Movielink's backers have argued that film downloads have so far failed to catch on because must-watch titles have only been available to buy online as long as two months after they hit supermarket shelves as DVDs.

However, question marks have been raised over whether the new film services offer good value for money. In America, some films which are being offered on CinemaNow and Movielink are cheaper to buy as DVDs in stores such as WalMart, which sell them as loss-leaders.

Moreover, some critics have pointed out that the downloadable versions do not come with features such as extra scenes that DVD buyers have come to expect and that some users could find the internet formats unwieldy.

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