KaZaA, the peer-to-peer network that has long been a thorn in the side of record companies and movie studios, will turn itself into a legal downloading service as part of a legal settlement with the entertainment industry.
And Sharman Networks, the company that owns KaZaA, will pay $100-million to the world’s four major music companies, according to Reuters.
The settlement will end the longstanding legal dispute between the entertainment industry and the once-popular file-sharing network. But like many of the industry’s recent legal victories, it won’t have much of an effect on the extent of online piracy: KaZaA has long since been surpassed by peer-to-peer networks that are more technologically and legally savvy. —Brock Read
