Here's a twist - sort of like iTunes and Kazaa in a single package. "While the music industry attempts to shutter peer-to-peer services in court and in Congress, one company is using P2P networks to promote and pay artists," Wired News reports. It's called Weed and it allows file-sharers to download a song and play it three times for free. The fourth time, they pay a dollar (iTunes-style pricing). … [Read more...] about Blending free and fee in P2P
Search Results for: napster
P2P-ers gone underground
Have all the record industry's lawsuits really helped reduce file-sharing? A little bit, but they've also sent lots of tune-swappers underground, PC World reports. By "underground," the article means to smaller, lesser-known services than Kazaa, whose numbers have gone from a peak of 30 million to about 18 million (e.g., BitTorrent nearly doubled in users between 11/03 and 5/04 and eMule almost … [Read more...] about P2P-ers gone underground
eDonkey on top
File-sharing fans at your house are more likely to be using eDonkey than Kazaa now, at least according to the latest calculations by California-based BayTSP, which monitors P2P activity for the media industry. BitTorrent's right up there too, ZDNet UK reports, while Kazaa's lead has been slipping for over a year. BitTorrent and eDonkey are file-sharing's third generation, after Napster and then … [Read more...] about eDonkey on top
Tunes the IM way
File-sharing isn't the only way the music fans at your house will be swapping tunes. If Yahoo and MSN have their way, instant-messaging will soon be kids' favorite way to share music. "While the popular IM software already lets people listen to online radio, new versions will let people share and interact with one another's digital playlists," CNET reports. Yahoo's plans are still sketchy (though … [Read more...] about Tunes the IM way
Possible P2P policies
Here are two ways to go for musically minded families (customize away!): 1) Allow use of a service like Kazaa or BitTorrent to find and download legal music (decide whether to allow or disable file-sharing. Possible rules: Keep it legal; try to download only music; have an anti-spyware app installed and scan and delete spyware at least weekly; tell us if you happen to download anything strange. … [Read more...] about Possible P2P policies