About 20 million users of Kazaa, a popular Internet network that lets people freely exchange music files online, have unknowingly received software that could make them participants in a second network -- one that plans to charge them fees for access to songs, movies and other media.
The pay software's creator, Brilliant Digital Entertainment, said that it intended to send an update to the users' computers to activate the for-pay network, called Altnet, within the next six weeks.
Kevin Bermeister, chief executive of Brilliant Digital, which is based in Los Angeles, said that users of Kazaa would be given the option of activating Altnet.
Any user who decided to do that would then have two simultaneous networks running: the one the person initially chose, which allows the free exchange of songs, and another that would charge the person for songs.
Bermeister said Altnet would provide a platform through which record labels and other media companies could charge for their copyrighted material.
The online music experience will "be back in the content owners' control," he said.
Although that might be thought to please record companies, a spokesman for the Record Industry Association of America, Matthew Oppenheim, said the industry was still trying to understand the deal.
The industry has sued Kazaa, saying its service abets rampant music piracy, which costs the record companies tens of millions of dollars.
There was also no clear explanation of why consumers would want to pay for songs on Altnet that they could already get at no charge through Kazaa.
Bermeister said users might be persuaded to purchase songs because they would find the quality of those songs -- which would be monitored for quality -- higher than the quality of the music copies they had downloaded from strangers.
The Kazaa network is operated by Sharman Networks, based in Sydney, Australia, and Brilliant Digital is a Sharman partner.
To a typical consumer who downloaded Kazaa from the Web, Brilliant Digital was largely invisible. It was the provider of software used to display advertising to users of Kazaa, which was supposed to be supported by advertising.
The inclusion of software to create a second network -- embedded within the Brilliant Digital software -- was first disclosed on Tuesday on CNet's News.com.
The Brilliant Digital plan also envisioned compensating some users who would permit their computers to be used as special hubs for the distribution of content like advertising and music files. That disclosure quickly brought hundreds of online comments, many of them critical, from Kazaa users who objected to what some described as "sneakware."
Bermeister said the inclusion of the Altnet component had been done with the full knowledge of Sharman Networks and its chief executive, Nikki Hemming.
Bermeister said that he and Hemming were close friends and that he had encouraged her to make Sharman's investment in the Kazaa technology. A spokesman for Sharman Networks declined to comment on the issue.
Brilliant Digital filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to explain its intention to deploy Altnet. It said the company was doing so with cooperation from Sharman Networks.
But the move raises the question of whether the Altnet network could supersede Kazaa; Bermeister was apparently retained to build an advertising base for Kazaa. Bermeister said it was possible that "to some extent" Altnet would make Kazaa irrelevant.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from
RSS