KaZaA Founder, Former RIAA Anti-Piracy Head Join Forces to Fight Piracy

Create software for ISP networks that enables the "instantaneous conversion of infringing activity into legitimate content transactions".

Kevin Bermeister who, along with Nikki Hemming, created the KaZaA file-sharing software and was sued for millions by the RIAA from 2004 to 2006, has now partnered with Michael Speck who ran the RIAA's case as the head of its anti-piracy arm, Music Industry Piracy Investigations, have teamed up at Brilliant Digital Entertainment to fight online piracy.

The company has developed software which will run on an ISPs network and enable the "instantaneous conversion of infringing activity into legitimate content transactions." In other words, instead of seeing search results for illegally free copyrighted material users will instead see legal copies available for instant purchase.

The incentive for the ISPs to run the software is that they are promised a share of the revenue. The legal download is delivered by the ISP which then simply adds a charge for it to the customer's monthly Internet bill.

"When the architecture of the internet that has our technology recognises one of those proven illicit files, it blocks it, disconnects the link to it and adds to the search results the opportunity to purchase the legitimate material," said Mr. Speck.

"At that point there is no other information collected - the entire action revolves around the identification of the content and action taken against illicit content; there's an absolute protection of privacy."

They will apparently be launching live technical trials within a month with an as-yet-unnamed Australian ISP.

I'm all for copyright holders creating avenues of digital distribution, but I'm not sure that hijacking file-sharing programs for their own ends is the best solution. Also, considering that most file-sharers are using BitTorrent to share file these days targeting old school Fast Track and Gnutella Network clients seems a bit late.