Washington Internet Daily 12/16/2004
EDonkey to Studios: Let’s Work Together
The movie industry should embrace eDonkey as a legitimate distribution medium for online movies, said company Pres. Sam Yagan. On Tues., the MPAA announced a new strategy to sue individuals operating tracking servers for eDonkey and 2 other popular P2P platforms. Yagan told us he hasn’t been named in any MPAA suit.
“EDonkey ought to be the gateway to video rental on the Web, it’s a no-brainer,” said Yagan. So far, movie studios aren’t interested, but Yagan has had slightly better luck with some independent music labels. “We are very slowly trying to build a new distribution business,” he said. MPAA Senior Vp John Malcolm said it’s not up to his organization to negotiate distribution deals, but said he isn’t surprised Yagan isn’t getting a warm reception from the studios: “I can understand the reluctance to deal with someone who has repeatedly robbed you and now wants to design your security system.”
Yagan shrugged off the thief label as misplaced: “This is a neutral technology.” Aside from illegal file sharing, the system is also used by independent film distributors, non-profits, Radio and TV stations and individuals trading public-domain materials he said.
File-sharing advocates said the MPAA and RIAA have done an effective job vilifying the technology and those who create it. “The industries are clearly within their rights to bring suits but they’re wrong to do it” said P2P United Exec. Dir. Adam Eisgrau: “They want to create the impression that there is some type of wheel with a software developer sitting at the hub.” New P2P systems are almost entirely automated, he added.
Attempts to eliminate the eDonkey servers won’t affect the popular file sharing system because it’s so widespread, Yagan said. “Even if our company did [disappear], there are 30 to 40 million people who use our software. It’s not going to go away.” The only way to shut it down would be to confiscate every computer on earth with eDonkey software on it, Yagan said.
The overwhelming prevalence of the software is central to eDonkey’s business plan. The 6-employee company makes money by selling ads on the eDonkey control bar and charging $19.95 for premium versions of the program. — Randy Barrett
Related Posts
- The End of eDonkey
- eDonkey Second P2P To Toss In File-Sharing Towel
- Studios mine P2P logs to sue swappers
- Austrian police hits eDonkey portals
- MPAA Sues BitTorrent
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