James Delahunty
23 Jan 2006 7:35
iMesh, a well known P2P software company, has signed a deal with MusicNet to provide it with songs as it attempts to create a legal download service. MusicNet is also behind many of the catalogues offered by other legal services including AOL and Yahoo. iMesh will offer tracks as one-off downloads and will also offer a subscription service. Customers will be allowed to share their music but when you try to download a protected track, you are prompted with an opportunity to purchase it.
Anyone using the subscription service can download as much music as they like just like before, only now the music will be more limited and record labels will get paid for it. iMesh will also connect users to the Gnutella P2P network so they can download what the company calls "unclaimed" works and promotional content. The P2P client will most likely come with some sort of scanner to ensure that the content being downloaded is not represented in MusicNet's catalogue.
MusicNet claims to have "the largest available music library in the industry today". iMesh hopes to merge this long list of tracks with more content that the Gnutella and iMesh networks can provide. "In addition to the licensed tracks from MusicNet... the P2P community has access to over 15 million tracks at any given time culled from the Gnutella and iMesh networks," the company said.
Source:
The Register