Is this the first time that a product has been launched with the primary motivation of showing that a particular protocol is good for things other illegal filesharing?

Up until now BitTorrent aficionados have tended to be forced back to the "I use it for Linux distros" when defending the protocol against ISPs and businesses looking to shape or block BT traffic.

If this takes off, then the "its only used for nefarious purposes" argument will be much harder to make.

I suspect that this is the real reason it's being launched - not that that's a bad thing.