Many P2P users are still reeling from what happened to The Pirate Bay earlier this month. While I am sure that there are still a lot of sites from which you can download free content, albeit illegally, the shutdown of Pirate Bay is a major, world-rocking event. In any case, here is something that might just jar you our of your stupor.
Kazaa is back! Remember that old file sharing system that was so popular in the 90s? It made your computer slow down to a crawl at times. You got tons of viruses from the files you downloaded. But hey, you were enjoying free and unlimited content. That is, until they were shut down for copyright violations. You’re lucky to have escaped the law – unlike that woman who was fined millions for downloading off Kazaa.
So now the service is back, and guess what? Kazaa has gone legit as well! While once Kazaa was number 1 in the black book of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, it is now labeled as a legitimate music service.
The service, which is subscription based, offers more than 1 million songs from various recording labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI. Set to launch this week, the new Kazaa requires $20 for a month’s worth of unlimited downloads. The songs will be in Windows Media format, with DRM for up to five computers or devices.
The business model looks sound enough. The question is whether or not Kazaa will be able to compete with the other existing services.