KaZaA goes legit with boring subscription music service - Ars Technica

Description

KaZaA is back... but only in name. The former illegal music P2P paradise has relaunched as a legit subscription music service that offers unlimited streams and downloads for a flat monthly fee. For $19.98 per month, music listeners in the US can grab as many tracks as they want from major and independent artists. But as usual, the new KaZaA offers nothing unique over the plethora of other music services online, and its limitations will keep it from ever becoming popular.

KaZaA as a P2P service has been dead for a number of years now after the music and movie industries tried to sue KaZaA's parent company into oblivion. Sharman Networks ended up settling the lawsuits with a number of music publishers, MPAA, RIAA, and IFPI , but not before shelling out something in the neighborhood of $150 million and closing operations.

Now, KaZaA is back as a monthly subscription service. It only functions in the US for the time being and only works under Windows, as the files are Windows Media DRMed. The music is playable on up to three authorized PCs and apparently zero ...

Original URL

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/kazaa-goes-legit-with-boring-subscription-music-service.ars

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/kazaa-goes-legit-with-boring-subscription-music-service.ars