Kazaa backs plan that could spell an end to the days of free music

[Lion7718]

Source: SMH (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/09/1065676097116.html)

The world's most popular song-swapping network, Kazaa, has thrown its weight behind a plan to start billing song swappers for their music downloads.

The proposal, which could finally end the days of the free lunch for millions of music fans, has been put to big US record labels at the same time as a new legitimate version of the former file-swapping giant Napster is launched in the US.

The idea is to phase in a billing mechanism for peer to peer networks, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, that allow users to copy music directly from each other's hard drives.

Initially payments would be by credit card, but in the future downloads would be automatically detected and a charge added to the monthly internet service provider bill.

With the success of Apple's iTunes and the launch of the new legal Napster in the US this week, the five big record labels are finally getting behind online music distribution. But they are still turning their backs on the peer to peers seen to support widespread music piracy.

Kazaa now hopes the music industry will forget past grievances and tap into the cleaned up versions of the networks that already have millions of users, rather than build their own networks from scratch.


Full Story (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/09/1065676097116.html)

[tMoD]

I'm betting gnutella will go back to being the most popular network again if this goes through although it's just as vulnerable to legal action as Fast Track. Only a network with just noncopyrightable encodings, or a s-l-o-w anonymous one, will solve that problem. I don't think private DC or Waste hubs will work for most people-- they require personal connections to get in the door and are pretty limited in content.

[Wolfie]

A paid kazaa will go the same way as a paid napster wold have gone. The only reason why some ppl still put up with the massive amount of fakes and viri on kazaa is because its free and has huge user base (for now anyway).

They go paid most ppl will go elsewhere if they haven't already (due to the RIAA offensive in kazaa users).

I guess all the revenue coming from the spyware and ads in regular kazaa isn't enough to satisfy Sharmen's greed.

[Cassavus]

This isn't the end of free music, this is just the next generation in progress...! Meaning, kazaa and the like will finally go out of the picture, showing the millions of users that use kazaa that there are other programs out there that are better, more secure, and will one day provide anonymity. Things which kazaa never had in it's future.

[my2cents]

Billing is fine, if the quality is good and the price is low. I don't mind low quality or even the wrong song - while it is free - if i have to pay for it, it better be the right song and good quality.