Sony BMG reaches licensing deal with P2P software iMesh

July 12, 2005

Just a few
weeks following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Grokster, Sony BMG has
reached now reached a licensing agreement with the fairly popular file sharing
application iMesh. iMesh started off in 1999 and has been one of the most
popular file sharing applications for a while. Currently, iMesh is the
most downloaded file sharing software from Download.com. Back in July
2003, iMesh was sued by the record labels for copyright infringement, but they decided to settle for $4.1 million.

Then again,
iMesh did plan on launching a music shop earlier this year ever since they were sued and even planned on using Audible Magic's technology to filter out unauthorised music on their network. The company has recently hired the former Sony Music President Rober for its chief executive position to handle negotiations with the music industry, so it is clear that their unrestricted file sharing service is coming to an end.

Music giant Sony BMG has reached a licensing agreement with file-swapping service iMesh, one of the first such tie-ups since a U.S. Supreme Court decision clamping down on online copyright infringement.

The deal, confirmed on Friday by an iMesh representative, followed a high court ruling that unauthorized networks such as Grokster could be held liable for the copyright infringement of their users. Analysts said that decision added momentum to the move toward networks sanctioned by media companies.

Once one of the most popular of post-Napster song-swapping networks, iMesh, formed in 1999, was sued by the record labels in 2003 for copyright infringement and settled for $4.1 million.

The New York-based service said just after the June 27 Supreme Court ruling in favor of entertainment companies and against rival file-swapping network Grokster that it would roll out a music industry-"sanctioned" song-swapping service.

The full article can be read here.

Once iMesh gets converted over to a pay service, they will be at least the 4th file service to give up on unrestricted file sharing, following Napster, AudioGalaxy and recently Grokster. Like with the change over of Napster and AudioGalaxy, there is a very good chance that almost all of iMesh's users will simply pop off to another file sharing network since the 'image' is not the same when money is involved. It is like comparing the popularity of the original Napster days to what Napster is like now.

Feel free to discuss about iMesh, other file sharing servies and legal alternatives on our Music Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues forum.

Source: c|net News - Music