German media giant
Bertelsmann is to
launch a peer-to-peer network service to offer legal downloads of music and
movies.
The service, dubbed Gnab, or 'bang' in reverse, is to go live in Germany by
the end of this year, with an eventual rollout to other countries through 2006
and beyond, the company said.
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Bertelsmann has prior experience with P2P networking, having invested in
Napster, a move which
foundered on lawsuits over copyright.
"The problem is that the big labels don't like them because they can't offer
digital rights management. The whole business model of the music industry is to
get as many downloads as possible from a single track. Without rights management
that cannot occur.
"The fact that Bertelsmann owns 50 per cent of
Sony BMG does not
necessarily mean it will be able to put its catalogue on this service."
Gnab uses a decentralised P2P network to offer downloads whose original
content is hosted on centralised servers.
The service will be licensed to partners which can use it to sell their own
downloads, meaning that consumers only will get to use it if they go through a
particular partner or company.
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