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Sony BMG inks deal with Mashboxx

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 June 2005, 19:12 CDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Music giant Sony BMG has finalized itsdeal with the legal file-sharing network Mashboxx, two daysafter a U.S. court dealt a blow to Mashboxx's unauthorizedrivals such as Grokster.

Mashboxx, headed by former Grokster president Wayne Rosso,is a peer-to-peer file-sharing network that requires users topay for copyrighted songs.

The companies said on Wednesday that Sony BMG songs willcost $0.99 each, in line with the price charged by Apple'smarket-leading iTunes online music store. Unlike iTunes, userswill be able to preview entire tracks for a limited number ofplays for free.

Mashboxx is designed to work closely with the technologycompany Snocap, headed by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, whichidentifies songs by their digital "fingerprint" and determinesif they are copyrighted.

The efforts of Snocap and Mashboxx got a boost from theU.S. Supreme Court this week. The court ruled that Grokstercould be held liable for copyright infringement, in partbecause it had taken no steps to prevent users from sharingcopyrighted music and movie files.

Sony BMG Chief Executive Andy Lack told Reuters after theGrokster ruling that he had hopes that unauthorizedpeer-to-peer services would change their tune by utilizingtechnology like Snocap's.

"There's an opportunity to employ lots of differenttechnologies that legitimize these file-sharing services," hesaid. "A lot of them didn't want to come to the table untilthis ruling."

Snocap has deals in place with all four major music labels-- Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music.Rosso said on Wednesday that negotiations are under way withthe other music majors as well as a number of independents.

Sony BMG is a 50-50 joint venture between Sony Corp andBertelsmann.

(Additional reporting by Derek Caney in New York)

Source: REUTERS

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