BitTorrent said it has secured $20m in venture capital and scotched rumours that founder and CEO Bram Cohen is leaving the firm.

The second round funding is aimed at turning the open source peer to peer technology developed by Cohen into a legal and viable content delivery platform. BitTorrent said Tuesday it had signed a clutch of deals to distribute big name movies and TV shows.

The blog-powered murmur mill went into overdrive this week, with widespread claims that Cohen was being ousted. One tattled: "[Cohen] is definitely on his way out".

In a statement, Cohen said: "I look forward to spearheading the continued development of BitTorrent." Which you may read as: "The blogosphere can blow it out of their collective ass."

The biggest chunk of the $20m came from Accel Partners, which also has cash in Macromedia, Facebook, and RealNetworks. ®