AfterDawn: News

iMesh licenses Sony BMG music

In an effort to reform itself as a legal P2P service, iMesh has licensed music from Sony BMG. The efforts of the company behind iMesh, Bridgemar Services, are due to a settlement with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last year. Originally the company said it would offer a new legitimate commercial service to users by the end of 2004, but missed its date and now aims to make it available by the end of 2005.

After being sued for copyright infringement in 2003 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) the company ended up paying out $4.1 million but was allowed to continue operating its service until it made its new service. The service it will offer will be flat rate subscription service that will allow users to make unlimited downloads. The new service will also have access to content from the Gnutella network and others.



Source:
PC World

Written by: James Delahunty @ 11 Jul 2005 18:35

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• 2 comments

• benjers

  But That Doesn't Make It Legal, Does It? Im Confused because I thought you had to pay for every download you make for it to be legal, and the internet sites that offer '12 billion' songs unlimited for a subscription fee were known as 'scam sites'.So If The Subscription Fee Was say, 8 pounds or dollars whatever, could i make 4000 downloads in that month and it would still be legal? how are the artists gona get paid????
  
  lol, peace
  
  -Benjers
  

  12.7.2005 04:58 #1

• vudoo

  Answer: DRMed files that when you stop paying the monthly fee they stop working. You'll need an Mp3 player such as the iRiver H320 or H340 or any player with the Janus technology inside to access this service. What will be interesting is whether or not you will be able to Download full albums from this service or if they will do a bait and switch routine like Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo are doing. The only service that lets the on demand subscriber hear all the content that they have on their server as far as I know is MusicNow. You can find out more about it and sometimes test drive it at Circuit City. As long as these services that offer an all you can Download service continue to cheat the masses people will use the alternative p2p service. I guess the RIAA is playing an eye for an eye tactic. Cheat the citizens cuz they'll cheat on us as well.

  20.7.2005 18:21 #2