Legal music file sharing

Internet service provider Playlouder, expected to launch at the end of September, is the first provider aimed at people who want to share music legally, and has struck a ground-breaking deal with Sony BMG, which with other broadband customers using a variety of peer-to-peer sharing programs such as Kazaa, eDonkey, etc. Playlouder, who will pay a portion of the broadband subscription fee to the music right holders, is expected to use the legal file-sharing to help drive adoption of its of broadband service.

The BBC says that the deal is seen as a groundbreaking move to use file-sharing legally. "Ensuring record companies are adequately and reliably recompensed for the use of their copyrights on the internet is the number one issue for our business," said British Phonographic Institute (BPI) chairman Peter Jamieson.

The article says that Sony BMG's Clive Rich recognized that the Playlouder service "had tried to keep some of the features that have continued to attract file-sharers since the early illegitimate days of Napster."

"It retains the sense of community and spontaneity which makes P2P and super distribution so attractive to consumers, whilst ensuring that this activity takes place within a framework in which the music can be tracked and rights owners get paid."

by MacNN Staff