July 23, 2005 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM) - The Supreme Court’s latest ruling against Grokster and other P2P file sharing companies making them liable for explicit illegal use of their software opens the door for enterprising technology companies to step into this market space. One new company is applying their P2P network in what they hope will be a both legal and profitable way by working with the recording industry.
Wurld Media today announced its peer-to-peer (P2P) network, Peer Impact, will now offer MP3s from leading independent music labels in addition to DRM protected content. Peer Impact, which offers protected content from all four major music labels, now becomes the first legal P2P and the first music service to offer digital content in a format that is codec agnostic.
With this announcement, Peer Impact adds to its growing content catalogue as well as its growing diversity of supported file formats. These MP3s, approximately 100,000 to start, will be available for sale and redistribution on the network. Like music offered from the four majors, all MP3s for sale over Peer Impact are pristine content, not filtered or commingled with viruses or pornography as is commonly found on the existing peer-to-peer networks.
"Wurld Media has made a commitment to our users -- the Peer Impact community -- to provide them with as much legal digital content as possible so they can easily and conveniently purchase music when they want it and the way they want it," said Gregory Kerber, chairman and CEO of Wurld Media. "The addition of MP3s to the catalogue allows more freedom for both consumers and copyright holders and moves us towards the goal of the most diverse catalogue of legal, digital content available online."
Peer Impact features unique technology that allows users to earn cash back for acting as "paid redistributors" of content purchased over the network. Users simply leave their computers on, and if they are selected as a source of fulfillment for purchases over the network, they receive credit towards future purchases though Peer Impact. By adding MP3s and offering an economic incentive to the consumer to keep those files within the secure Peer Impact environment, content creators feel that they have found a secure venue to distribute their works. Peer Impact also allows its members to actively promote their favorite content to further maximize their potential earnings.
Peer Impact's beta is currently available to the public. The service will conduct a broader commercial launch later this summer.
